Rick Joyner - A Prophetic Vision for the 21st Century: A Spiritual Map to Help You Navigate Into the Future

A PROPHETIC VISION FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

A P ROPHETIC V ISION
FOR THE ST C ENTURY

A SPIRITUAL MAP TO HELP YOU
NAVIGATE INTO THE FUTURE

RICK JOYNER

Copyright 1999 by Rick Joyner

All rights reserved. Written permission must be secured from the publisher to use or reproduce any part of this book, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations noted AMPLIFIED are from THE AMPLIFIED BIBLE: Old Testament. 1962, 1964 by Zondervan Publishing House (used by permission); and THE AMPLIFIED NEW TESTAMENT. Copyright 1958 by The Lockman Foundation (used by permission).

Scripture quotations noted KJV are from the KING JAMES VERSION.

Scripture quotations noted NKJV are from THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.

Scripture quotations noted RSV are from the REVISED STANDARD VERSION of the Bible. Copyright 1946, 1952, 1971, 1973 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Joyner, Rick, 1949
A prophetic vision for the 21st century : a spiritual map to help you navigate into the future / Rick Joyner.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 0-7852-6936-3 (pbk.)

1. Christian lifeMiscellanea. 2. ChristianityForecastingMiscellanea. 3. Private revelations. I. Title. II. Title: Prophetic vision for the twenty-first century.

BV4501.2.J6885 1999
270.830112dc21

9936562
CIP

Printed in the United States of America

1 2 3 4 5 6 QPV 04 03 02 01 00 99

D EDICATION

I would like to dedicate this book to the generation of my parents, my generation, and the generation of my children. The sacrifice and vision of my parents spiritual generation laid the foundation for the ultimate and glorious triumph of truth. My generation has continued the good fight and helped prepare the map for the future. It will be the generation of my children that will probably fight the last battle for truth. God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacobthe God of every generation. In each of these generations His ways are wonderfully revealed.

C ONTENTS

This book is mostly the result of Janet Thomas vision and hard work. She pieced together my messages in order to present my prophetic perspective for the future. I think she did a better job than I could have done.

P ART
H OW S HALL
W E T HEN L IVE ?

T HE C ALL

An important prophecy is given in Acts 2:1718:

And it shall be in the last days, God says,
That I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all mankind;
And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
And your young men shall see visions,
And your old men shall dream dreams;
Even upon My bondslaves, both men and women,
I will in those days pour forth of My Spirit
And they shall prophesy.

In the last days, the Lord will pour forth of His Spirit on all mankind, and the result will be that prophecy will flow through all of His servants. This will include both men and women, old and young. However, this pouring out of the Spirit and prophecy will be not just for our entertainment but also because we will need it to accomplish the last-day mandate of the church.

I have experienced a considerable amount of prophecy in my own life. After my conversion in 1971, I have had, at times, an ability to foresee certain future events accurately, but usually in a very general sense. I could also occasionally look at people and know details about them, such as problems they were having or spiritual callings on their life. I understood this ability to be the biblical gifts of a word of knowledge and prophecy. Though I understood the usefulness of these gifts in ministry to people, I did not have much interest in the biblical prophecies of end-time events. For the next eighteen years, I did not seek visions, revelations, or the knowledge to understand these end times and remained mostly ignorant of many of the popular end-time scenarios taught within the church. I have actually been much more oriented toward church history than seeking to know impending events.

After several years in the full-time ministry, I was convicted that I was shallow in my personal relationship with the Lord, and, therefore, in my ministry as well. I felt like a real Martha, busy doing so many things for Him that I never really got to know Him. My lack of intimacy with the Lord caused me to lean more on formulas and procedures than the anointing that is essential to giving life to truth.

In 1980, I determined to leave the ministry until I had recovered the simplicity of devotion to Christ. I was a pilot by profession, so I took a job flying corporate aircraft. This gave me a lot of free time for study and prayer. I found a church where I could sit on the back row and just enjoy the fellowship of the people. I was not involved in ministry for the next seven years. Nor did I receive any prophetic revelation or operate in the gifts of the Spirit during that time.

In 1982, I received a specific call to return to the ministry. At the same time, a business opportunity opened. I still felt inadequate and shallow about my ministry. I also had just received the worse personal attack I had ever experienced from the enemy. That attack made me feel even more unprepared for ministry, so I took the business opportunity. Though I did not fall into carnality or what might be considered overt sins, I certainly drifted from the Lord for the next five years as I became consumed with building my business.

In 1987, the Lord again called me back into ministry with the word that my commission would be given to another if I did not return at that time. I did not really know what my commission was, but I knew I did not want to lose it, so I responded immediately to this call.

I was quite sure I was not supposed to pastor again, but I really did not know what I was going to do. I had not read a single Christian magazine or watched Christian television for more than seven years. I had little knowledge of what was even going on in the church at However, I had written There Were Two Trees in the Garden a few years before, and its popularity had brought me some invitations to speak. I called a few pastors I knew and others who had contacted me because of the book and let them know I was available for ministry.

A month or so later, I returned home after my first ministry trip in more than seven years, feeling as empty and inadequate as everand quite out of step with the churches I had visited. Yet, I was feeling much closer to the Lord; my desire to serve Him in ministry had returned.

The next morning I went into my office to catch up on some paperwork and to pray for insight on what I was to do in the ministry. I felt an overwhelming presence of the Lord. Then, after seven years with no prophetic revelation, I had a three-day prophetic experience in which I felt the Lord tried to catch me up on all I had missed. At this time I wrote The Harvest, which was about the present state of the church and impending events.

Since then, I have had other visions and revelations that were published in books like The Final Quest and The Call . Some of the revelations came in open visions. These were visible, external visions that were like watching a cinema screen. Others were gentle, internal visions that were like having the eyes of your heart opened. I usually relate the word vision to the prophetic event of seeing pictures, either internally or externally. I consider revelation to be the receiving of knowledge or understanding beyond our natural ability to attain.