4. A Compelling Spirit

If God’s two witnesses of Revelation 11 began their prophetic ministry, of truth and for real, this very afternoon, what would be your response?

I can say this about that second witness of Christ. The Spirit coming upon you through their ministry will be a compelling Spirit. And you will find yourself seized in the grip of the All Carrying, All Sustaining One.

Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled” (Luke 14:23). Contrary to Roman Catholicism, this “compelling” is the energeoing of the Spirit and not outward human force or persuasion.

When I was 21, through the course of that year of my life, God gave me a slight taste of what He means by a Compelling Spirit, a Spirit that seizes hold of you and drives you trembling into the very House of God. Of truth, I came in at the tail end of that powerful moving of the Spirit that came upon many through the ministry of Sam Fife, and out from the outpouring known as the Latter Rain.

And I will give to My two witnesses, and they will prophesy (Revelation 11:3).

There are several Greek words that give us the full meaning of the Word of God which we speak, parrhesia, homologia, logos, rhema, eucharist, propheteria, and so on. Propheteria, the word spoken by the Second Witness of Christ, is that Spirit Word that COMPELS.

God used the prophetic part of the word Sam Fife preached to seize hold of my heart. And the compulsion of that Spirit Word drives me forward now, 47 years later.

I do not know exactly when Sam Fife began to preach Christian Community, whether in 1970 or 1971. I know that by the early months of 1972, and in the same summer the Lord Jesus planted His rough seed of “give thanks” into my heart, thousands of people were selling all that they possessed, moving to far wilderness places, and joining together with others as Christian Communities, the House of God. I also know that the majority of these did so only because they themselves heard a personal word from God by that same Compelling Spirit. I know that because I walked with them through years, and I experienced lives devoted to the knowledge of God.

This experience was similar to that experienced by thousands in the first chapters of Acts. As that Compelling Spirit came upon the brand-new Church, no one told anyone what to do. Rather, they all moved together inside an intensity of desire so great that nothing else in this world mattered to them apart from being inside of what God was doing among His people.

I want to talk about this Compelling Spirit that is coming and is about to come upon millions of people all over the world over the next couple of years. Just as the Word is One, yet we must speak of many things to understand what it is and how it works, so also is the Spirit.

In the last lesson, God gave us a first “definition” of the Spirit. The Spirit is that essence of God that touches creation. There is a quality of the Spirit that is one spirit with our human spirits, and thus part of the fabric of our humanity. There is a quality of the Spirit that is the Love of God outpoured inside our hearts. There is a quality of the Spirit that “comes upon”; we call that quality “the anointing.” There is a quality of the Spirit that flows out from our bellies as rivers, bringing life and healing to all. And there is a quality of the Spirit that comes upon multitudes with the power to convict.

This letter is about two of those aspects of the Devoted Spirit of God, that which comes upon as the anointing, and that which comes upon to convict.

Now, several of the qualities of the Spirit are integral to our union with the Lord Jesus, one Spirit with Him, rivers flowing out, and so on. We live and walk in the reality of these things through faith, knowing that they are true regardless of what we see or feel.

This letter is about an entirely different operation of the Spirit.

In fact, there is another set of Spirit qualities that are related to the gathering of the Church, qualities of worship, qualities of encouraging one another in the Lord.

Yet here we want to know that quality of God’s essence touching creation that brings forth the revelation of Jesus Christ in power over the next few years. Of truth, the term “visitation” could apply to this specific set of Spirit qualities, that is, God coming upon many for a very specific purpose.

This present day contains the greatest measure and extent of God’s specific purposes coming upon humans on this earth.

There are two different parts of that flow of power coming now to accomplish many specific purposes at once. The first part is those through whom that Spirit power comes, and the second part is those upon whom it comes. We also want to consider what that Spirit power, that essence of God touching creation, does in this mighty visitation, and how it will impact you and me.

This entire series is primarily about those through whom this Power of the Spirit comes, that we might recognize them, that we might be part of them, that we might move with God in all, that we might be found faithful.

The anointing is that quality of Spirit enablement coming upon a man or a woman that amplifies their intentions and follows their desire. God pours out His Spirit upon human flesh, yet, according to Paul, that Spirit is always subject to the one upon whom it comes.

The Spirit cannot do more than the intentions and purposes of those humans through whom it comes. This is the first law of the anointing. This is why God says ask, and don’t stop asking.

Let’s make our purpose clear. It is not our job to “receive” this power that is God coming upon many to fulfill great purposes. It is our job to be that Highway through which this power comes. That’s something entirely different. The anointing flowing through us is not “for us,” but for the firstfruits of Christ, those who will guide multitudes into all the fulness of Christ.

And we must place our foreheads upon the ground in the presence of all that is Devoted that we might know what God means. This is not a game, and we are not children. We are about our Father’s business.

We must have a clear picture of the relationship between the second witness of Christ and the firstfruits of Christ, between “two” and “one-hundred-and-forty-four thousand.” I thought to reduce this next passage, but we must have the whole picture.

And so it was, on the next day, that Moses sat to judge the people; and the people stood before Moses from morning until evening. So when Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he did for the people, he said, “What is this thing that you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit, and all the people stand before you from morning until evening?” And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God. When they have a difficulty, they come to me, and I judge between one and another; and I make known the statutes of God and His laws.”

So Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “The thing that you do is not good. Both you and these people who are with you will surely wear yourselves out. For this thing is too much for you; you are not able to perform it by yourself. Listen now to my voice; I will give you counsel, and God will be with you: Stand before God for the people, so that you may bring the difficulties to God. And you shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and show them the way in which they must walk and the work they must do. Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. And let them judge the people at all times. Then it will be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they themselves shall judge. So it will be easier for you, for they will bear the burden with you. If you do this thing, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all this people will also go to their place in peace” (Exodus 18:13-23).

This picture depicts the flow of Golden Oil, out from God, through the second witness of Christ, and then imparted to the many thousands of the firstfruits of Christ. God is very practical; “you will wear yourself out.”

Now, discussing the full meaning of this pattern given to us by God will be for later chapters.

The Golden Oil flowing is pure Gospel Word carried by a Compelling Spirit. It is the normal Christian life; it is God’s intentions for all who believe into Jesus. This picture in Exodus 18 does not teach us of a “hierarchy of control,” but of the flow of Life, that it be True and Complete.

God WANTS you to be just like the Lord Jesus Christ inside of Himself, and He does not want you caught into any lesser sidetrack. And this is the drive and thinking of the second witness of Christ.

I watched a YouTube video recently on the development of character in a story. The speaker was talking about a passage by Tolkien in which the true qualities of a leader were on display. The speaker pointed out that the primary quality that makes a leader is conviction. That conviction seeks out the right way to go, and then sets himself upon that way with certainty. Those who follow, follow that conviction out from love.

In September-October of 1978, I had the opportunity to see for myself the conviction that ruled inside of Sam Fife, in private and unguarded moments. I saw his face set upon one thing, the revelation of Jesus Christ through His Church. And I saw a life devoted to that one thing at whatever the cost.

This was that same  year, in March, when the COMPELLING Spirit had come upon me in the Prince George bus terminal as the terror of the All-Sustaining One, and the second time I heard the demand, “Will you surrender all that you are to Me right now?” How could we possibly give an answer? All we can do is know that we are seized inside of Conviction.

Then, in October, as Sam Fife prophesied concerning the woman clothed with the sun, a Church enclothed with the Lord Jesus Christ, that same COMPELLING Spirit came out from the heavens, out from God, my Father, seizing my heart in that same Conviction. Indeed, that same vision had already begun inside of me when I was but fifteen years of age. In  that October, God made it the fire of my own heart.

Then, it was just six months later, in April of 1979, when God required all of it back from me, inside of tears and utter loss. And I covenanted with God, “I will know You, and I will walk with a people who know You."

I look at my heart today and realize with tears that the vision that seized hold of me then, by that Compelling Spirit out from God, has not altered or diminished. I can assure you, that is not my doing.

Now, I must say this about the two witnesses. THEY are about God. Ultimately, THEY are about nothing else. If THEY speak of anything else, it’s only because of God.

Consider the necessity of the advice Jethro gave to his son-in-law. When we knew only the mind of Nicene Christianity, we would have heard this line, “THEY are about God. Ultimately, THEY are about nothing else,” in an unGodly way. A picture of harsh control, of an aloof condemnation upon human failure, would have been how we would have understood such a thing.

Indeed, we have known plenty of examples of people who seized hold of such a definition of “God” and presented that very awfulness as “the way we must go.”

When we say, “THEY are about God,” we mean only One, the God who shows Himself as a man stumbling under a cross he cannot carry, carrying us, carried by Father, all the way through death and into Life. This is the God the two witnesses are about.

It is out from such a God, then, that their overwhelming concern is a Pure Gospel Word carried by a Compelling Spirit, enclothing millions with the Lord Jesus Christ, the revelation of Jesus Christ through His Church.

This is the Conviction that must pass from a few to many to a number beyond count.

Conviction (from etymonline.com): mid-15c., "the proving or finding of guilt of an offense charged," from Late Latin convictionem (nominative convictio) "proof, refutation," noun of action from past-participle stem of convincere "to overcome decisively," from com-, here perhaps an intensive prefix (see com-), + vincere "to conquer" (see vincible).

The meaning "mental state of being convinced or fully persuaded" is from 1690s; that of "firm belief, a belief held as proven" is from 1841.

The Latin word was a negative, but over time, in English, it carried the same connotations into a powerful positive, with conquering, with victory, with certain glory. Nonetheless, we are also speaking of the power of the Devoted Spirit to CONVICT. And that form of conviction is to abandon all claims of self inside the presence of God.

“I AM WRONG” is the beginning; “I AM PERSUADED” is the completion.

Let’s now take this same issue into the coming of the Compelling Spirit upon the Church in Acts. And with many other words [Peter] testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need (Acts 2:40-45 – NKJV).

Continuing in the NKJV, Acts 4. So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: “Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them, who by the mouth of Your servant David have said: ‘Why did the nations rage, and the people plot vain things? The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ.’

“For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done. Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.”

And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.

We must have the whole picture in order to comprehend what happened next.

In Chapter 5, the first DEMON of Revelation 6 to show its face inside the Church of Christ, preened itself in the very face of the apostles and offered its alternative view of “Christianity.” That demon was the demon of pretending. Pretending is not the first demon, but the last, the face of falseness. And the source of that way for all these demons to enter is the accusation against God, that He is false, that He is up to no good. And that if we want to survive this whole experience of human existence, we must spin our own story of nonsense, for no reason whatsoever.

After the pretenders were carried out dead, Luke continues. So great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things. And through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people. And they were all with one accord…

That was 2000 years ago. Today, all the demons of Revelation 6 rule triumphantly throughout the entire Church, ruling the minds of all who are called into the Revelation of Jesus Christ. NOT ONE of those demons can enter.

Yet against the prophesying of Christ spoken by the two witnesses, every one of these demons will be crying and sniveling, muttering and wailing, through the mouths of many Christian leaders, all the words we have known our entire Christian lives, words that oppose the Lamb and His gospel, words we have explored in our studies of Revelation 6.

The Church, our Beloved, will be caught between two.

Now, the Devoted Spirit of God, the One who Compels, does NOT have the authority to act inside of creation. God gave that authority to humans, first to Adam, then transferred to Jesus, and now residing inside of Jesus inside of us.

The Calvinists insisted that the Spirit of God acts only out from God’s “predestination.” Charles Finney dared to prove them wrong. Finney was convinced that the Spirit of God moved through his own CONVICTION, through the authority of Jesus residing inside of him. Thus he directed the Compelling Spirit to move, even upon those deemed “predestined to lostness” by the Calvinist theologians.

Conviction came upon them, conviction of wrong and conviction of God. And the vast majority of those so compelled remained True to God for the rest of their lives.

The Compelling Spirit moves through the Conviction of those who speak as the authority of God, His throne inside creation, the Mercy Seat. And that Spirit moves in power to silence every muttering contradiction in the Church.

The premise of this entire study, then, is that the dealings of God in the lives of those through whom the Golden Oil comes is the very pattern of the same dealings of God in the lives of those called to Firstfruits. There is one difference, however, as Jesus said. “For the sake of those chosen of God, the time will be made short.”

By their very lives set forth as examples for all, that which took decades in the lives of the two witnesses will take only months in the lives of the firstfruits. Yet we also know that the Lord Jesus has been shaping the lives of each from the moment they were conceived in the womb.

Yet how can that be? This is the power of a Compelling Spirit.

I saw in the face of Sam Fife an utter devotion to Christian Community and to the revelation of Jesus Christ in His Church. The Compelling Spirit seized my heart quickly into that same conviction, yet the Lord Jesus had already been preparing me for that very thing.

This is the meaning of “the sea of glass,” the crystalline nature of Christ, “nucleation.” When God has fully prepared those hearts that are the Jasper and Sardius stones together, the heart of Jesus revealed inside our human hearts of flesh, then the Compelling Spirit, moving through our Conviction, moves in power and eager swiftness, to bring the same thing forth inside of many.

You will receive power, the Devoted Spirit having come upon you, and you will be My witnesses… (Acts 1:8). I will give [Myself] to My two witnesses and they will prophesy (Revelation 11:3).

Here is where you and I want to be found inside this whole picture. Forget the power, forget the prophesying, forget who and what these “two witnesses” might be. One thing alone matters inside this entire equation. That one thing is the Lord Jesus imparting Himself to you and to me.

The two witnesses cannot be greater than Jesus, and He is your only life. He is your very heart.

Jesus is actively imparting Himself to you in every moment; Jesus is making you to be just like Himself with all determination. And yet Jesus does not live for Himself, but for the Father. The impartation of Jesus to you is your All-Connection with the Father.

That I might know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, having already been symmorphosed, sharing the same form with His death (Philippians 3:10). We have never known what these things mean. Paul means being just like the Lord Jesus, primarily in our relationship with the Father, sharing the very nature and being of God, the One who sustains and carries all.

The CONVICTION of the witnesses of Christ comes out from the impartation of Jesus to them, with victory, “to overcome.” This is not our doing except to believe INTO Jesus.

The role of the Compelling Spirit, then, the Spirit of Devotion and power come upon us, is to take this very same CONVICTION, that Jesus makes us to be just like Himself, that Jesus makes God our Father to be an integral part of our lives, and to spread forth that Conviction to thousands and thousands, for the sake of the Church, for the sake of our Father.

As we go through the next few years, power will come upon us in the midst of all calamity. But such a thing never becomes what is most important to us. What is most important is a life shared with God, our Father, in every moment, inside of great peace, inside of contentment. This is Jesus given to us.