“The Lion Roars” – Now Think On This by Steve Martin

“The Lion Roars” – Now Think On This by Steve Martin

Dec. 10, 2019

“…Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.” Revelation 5:5, NKJV

Several times it has occurred, during the height of the praise and worship of gathered people when it reaches a crescendo, I have seen with my spiritual eyes the Lion of Judah roaring. The King, the Lord Jesus, Yeshua HaMashiach, seated high and lifted up on His heavenly throne, roars. When His glory and the honor due His Name is acknowledged in our praise, He moves in power and might on our behalf.

During a room-packed conference several years ago, with almost 1900 people, when the height of the evening meeting worship reached a tremendous level, I first saw Him there in our gathering, as I too was joining in as part of the worship team, singing as loud and strong as I could from the front platform. When I looked up at the very large brown wooden wall in the rear of The Barn, which was built a decade earlier on the Heritage USA property in Fort Mill, South Carolina by Jim Bakker, I saw Him, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. He was roaring. His mouth, open wide, baring His teeth in fierceness and power, roared across the earth from His heavenly throne.

The Barn in 2019 at Antioch International Church in Fort Mill, SC

Our Lord is not laying in a manger anymore. That was centuries ago when He first came to redeem us as a sinful people, and restore us to fellowship with His Father, God Almighty.

He no longer is a tiny baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes, “cute as a button” as some would say, peacefully lying asleep on the hay.

No, our Lord, the Risen One, the Glorious One, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, is a Mighty Warrior. And the Lion is roaring.

Though the nations in all the earth themselves are in an uproar, with chaos increasing, unrest never-ending, darkness continuing to cover all the people…the Lion of the Tribe of Judah is roaring. He is fully aware of the situation, and He is doing something about it.

His prophet Isaiah spoke loudly and clear as recorded in chapter 8:9-10,

“You may make an uproar, peoples; but you will be shattered.  Listen, all of you from distant lands: arm yourselves, but you will be shattered; yes, arm yourselves, but you will be shattered; devise a plan, but it will come to nothing; say anything you like, but it won’t happen; because God is with us [Hebrew: ‘immanu El].” Complete Jewish Bible

Though the seasonal song Immanuel continues to be sung during the time Christians have long celebrated His birth, which in many eyes still keeps Him quiet and still in the sweet nativity scene, harmless and in need as a tiny baby, our Lord is indeed with us, Immau-El (Hebrew – God (EL) with us). But now He is a Mighty Warrior and prepared for war.

5D Diamond Painting Nativity – Amazello.com

“God is serious business. He won’t be trifled with. He avenges his foes. He stands up against his enemies, fierce and raging. But God doesn’t lose his temper. He’s powerful, but it’s a patient power. Still, no one gets by with anything.

Sooner or later, everyone pays. Tornadoes and hurricanes are the wake of his passage, storm clouds are the dust he shakes off his feet. He yells at the sea: It dries up. All the rivers run dry.

The Bashan and Carmel mountains shrivel, the Lebanon orchards shrivel. Mountains quake in their roots, hills dissolve into mud flats. Earth shakes in fear of God. The whole world’s in a panic.

Who can face such towering anger? Who can stand up to this fierce rage? His anger spills out like a river of lava, his fury shatters boulders.” Nahum 1:2-6, THE MESSAGE

There is an appointed time when the nations of the world will face their Judge, when God Almighty says enough is enough, for the time will have come for His perfect justice to prevail. His all-encompassing righteousness will sweep across the earth. His plan and purpose for the ages to be fulfilled completely as spoken of through His prophets in ages gone by will have arrived.

When the Lion roars, the peoples will turn from their wicked ways, and acknowledge the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Either that, or they will perish because of their sinful ways done apart from Him, and be banished to hell forever.

No longer will they just see Him as a sweet baby lying in a harmless manger, keeping Him in a lowly place so their lives need not walk in obedience to His commands.

They will then see Him come riding on His white horse, mighty in glory, power and honor.

“And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses.

From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, ” KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” Revelation 19:11-16, NASU

The time is short, and we must prepare our hearts for the second coming of the King. We don’t have time to do our own thing, walk in our own ways, or be the god of our own life that far too many seek to be.

The Lion is roaring from His throne. It is time we hear Him loud and clear, and be about His work of redemption and salvation, for all who will come to Him.

Now think on this.

Ahava and shalom,

Steve Martin

Founder/President

Love For His People, Inc.

SPECIAL NOTE: Our ministry’s new mobile app is available for iPhones

Click here: https://apps.apple.com/app/id1487691637

Android smartphones

(click here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.itsapp2you.lfhp.

These are free app downloads!

Please sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter: Now Think On This. The sign-up form is on our new ministry website: https://loveforhispeople.com

You are welcome to help support the families in Israel that we do. Give now. Givelify.

Love For His People ministry

P.O. Box 414

Pineville, NC 28134

E-mail: loveforhispeople@gmail.com

Please share Now Think On This with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and LinkedIn.  Others will be thankful you did.

Now Think On This #470 – in the year of our Lord 12.10.19 – “The Lions Roars” Tuesday, 5:00 am

Strength For Israel gathering - NEXT: July 5 at 7 pm in THE BARN! Antioch International Church in Fort Mill, SC. Full worship team & Israeli dance.

Strength For Israel 

1st Friday of the month gathering

July 5, 2019, in The BARN!
Antioch International Church
453 Glynwood Forest Drive
Fort Mill, SC 29715
(street renamed from previous 8400 Regent Pkwy. Fort Mill, SC 29715)

NEXT: July 5 at 7 pm in THE BARN!
(main sanctuary)

(off) 803-396-0595    (cell) 704-806-6934

David Peterman - July 5 announcement
Antioch International Church
Fort Mill, SC

David Peterman
Shabbat candle lighting and teaching

Steve Martin, David & Luana Peterman

June 7, 2019

Steve Martin - worship leader

Tommy Lopez and David Peterman

April 2019 1st Friday photo

Messianic songs are sung. July 5 we will have a full worship team!

Our previous meeting on June 7, 2019: Watch here: Kadosh, Kadosh L'Cha

Look What the Lord Has Done! 24 years ago on April 4, 1995 - Now Think On This by Steve Martin

Tom Fahey (guitar) and Steve Martin (tambourine) - 1993

Look What the Lord Has Done!

- 24 years ago on April 4, 1995

Steve Martin

"Take for yourselves twelve men from the people, one man from each tribe, and command them, saying, 'Take up for yourselves twelve stones from here out of the middle of the Jordan, from the place where the priests' feet are standing firm, and carry them over with you and lay them down in the lodging place where you will lodge tonight.'"

So Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the sons of Israel, one man from each tribe; and Joshua said to them, "Cross again to the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel. "Let this be a sign among you, so that when your children ask later, saying, 'What do these stones mean to you?' then you shall say to them, 'Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off.' 

So these stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever." (Joshua 4:2-7, NASU)

Many of you know that the Lord encourages us to always look forward, to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and where He is going. Paul says that in Philippians 3:13-14,  "Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."(NASU)

And yet he later says in the next chapter, "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you." (Philippians 4:8-9, NASU)

So do we look back, as Joshua encouraged, or do we look forward, from what Paul instructed?

Can we say, "Look what the Lord has done!" in our lives, and believe Him for the future yet to come?

Imagine my surprise when I looked on my personal Facebook page on April 4, 2019 and saw that they had uploaded a photo from April 4, 1995, as part of their "See Your Memories" feature. It was a capture in time of my good friend Tom Fahey and I leading worship at a conference for Mahesh Chavda Ministries (All Nations Church) in the Charlotte, North Carolina area. From 24 years ago this month. 

In 2013 I had posted it on Facebook, noting that Tom and I were once again leading others into the worship of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Yeshua HaMashiach, as members of our Ahava Love Band. At that time, it had been quite a while, 18 years, since we had played and sang together on a worship team. We also were members of Antioch International Church in Fort Mill, South Carolina, on the same Heritage USA former property, during that time, where we were united in worship leading, in that same time frame.

What really caught my attention in regard to this “See Your Memories” post was the message I wrote along with the photo in 2013, noting that it possibly could have been from the time we also led worship at a conference on the former Heritage USA/PTL property 1995. And then to see that it may have been in The Barn on that property, the large venue which Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker had built in the early 1980s, using it as a spiritual well for 1500 people, gathered to sing and give praise to our Lord every Friday night.

I know it well. Laurie and I were there a few times for those large gatherings, along with my Mom and Dad. We were living in Michigan back then and they in Iowa, between 1985-1987. We each had contributed for Lifetime Memberships and were making use of them.

So what is the big deal? And what is The Barn?

I have been writing in the last few months as to how the Lord is restoring His people - both for the Jews making Aliyah (returning) to Israel after centuries, and the Body of Christ coming back together, to be a mighty force in these last days. Both re-groupings are the fulfillment of prophecy, and the outworking of His plans and purposes for us and the nations. 

Open eyes can see much of this happening now. Open hearts can experience it even more.

Back to the future - my good wife Laurie and I returned to The Barn in May 2018, as we rejoined our friends, our spiritual family, once again at Antioch International Church, who are the main occupants of the large facility, since their move there five years ago in April of 2014. Then in February 2019 Laurie and I once again were singing on that very same platform as part of the worship team. The very same place from where we had helped lead worship 24 years ago, along with Tom and several others. Sometimes I find it hard to believe.

In my heart, that moment was, and is, very special.

Does the Lord want us to look back? In many cases, I would certainly answer, "No." No to those things which have caused hurt, shame, loss of hope, loss of life (natural and spiritual), and more. He wants us to forgive, forget, and move on.

On the other hand, (recall Tevye in "Fiddler on the Roof", when he was contemplating the situation, speaking, "On the one hand...on the other hand...") I know the Lord wants us to recall some of the former things, for it brings us renewed hope, vision, and ability to see His promises fulfilled, showing His ongoing, never-stopping faithfulness.

He commanded Joshua to take stones from the river bed (see verses above) and build an altar on the other side, after crossing over. This was to be done in remembrance of His miraculous acts. It was to be able later to tell their children, "Look what the Lord has done!"

The Lord Jesus Christ, seated on the throne next to His Father God, along with the Holy Spirit, are moving in our land, and in the nation of Israel. They together are restoring the old wells of life, returning people to the places of their inheritance, and bringing hope and renewal into the hearts of their people, Jews, and Gentiles, the One New Man.

Even today I was watching the Jim Bakker Show online, as I often do, speaking about our Jewish roots. Jim was showing these photos from Heritage USA, which I share here.

There are more than seven ministries on the former Heritage USA property now. Each of the following has come and restored much of that which was lost, dead and buried. And now resurrected.

We need to give thanks to these, among others unnamed:

1. Rick Joyner at Morningstar - the Grand Hotel, Tower, and Administration building (approx. 2003)

2. Mahesh and Bonnie Chavda at All Nations Church - Fort Hope (26 acres across the railroad tracks, purchased and restored since 2000)
3. Vision for Israel (Barry & Batya Segal) - located on Main Street in the Grand Hotel (2009)

4. Dr. Peter Wyns, Jesse Enn, Matt Wyns at Christians For Messiah Ministries and Antioch International Church (The River Place complex) - The Barn, the Studio (since 2014)

5. Russell James - the Upper Room (2015)

6. Lathan Wood at The Movement - the Heritage warehouse and admin building (2016)

7. Todd Bentley with the Secret Place Church - Heritage storage (2016)

8. Jorge Parrott - CMM worldwide missions ministry - located in The Barn office building (2018)

These and all those on their staffs and volunteer teams have been used by the Lord to bring restoration in both the natural and the spiritual.

Antioch International Church 

in the former Heritage USA Barn & Studio

(new complex called The River Place)

Back then, in the 1980s and 1990s, we were singing the song, "Look What the Lord Has Done!" (made popular by Karen Wheaton and Lindell Cooley.) We are singing it again!

After all, the Lord never changes. He is always giving us reason to sing and shout His praises!

I can give high praise today to the Lord and say to others, "Look what the Lord has done!" as I look back on these past 24 years. I see what the Almighty God of Israel has done in our lives. I see what He has done, and continues to do, in the lives of believers, here on the former Heritage USA property, in Israel, and in all the nations.

I trust you can say that too, once you consider His love and actions He has done for yourself.

Shalom and ahava (peace and love in Hebrew).

Now think on this,

Steve Martin

Founder/President

Love For His People, Inc.

If these messages have ministered to you, please consider sending a charitable gift of $10-$120 today, and maybe each month, to help us bless families in Israel whom we consistently help monthly through our humanitarian work. Your tax-deductible contributions receive a receipt for each donation. Fed. ID #27-1633858.

  

Please donate online safely through our website. Click here: DONATE  

(or use the DONATE  buttons on the blog.)

Contribution checks can be sent to: 

Love For His People, Inc. 

P.O. Box 414   

Pineville, NC 28134

Todah rabah! (Hebrew – Thank you very much.) 

Please share Now Think On This with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, and LinkedIn.  Others will be thankful you did.

Now Think On This #406 - in the year of our Lord 04.04.19 – “Look What the Lord Has Done” – Friday 5:35 am.

Hi Ho Silvers! - The Silvers Are Back! Now Think On This by Steve Martin

Hi Ho Silvers!
The Silvers Are Back!

Steve Martin

“Now as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, "Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead." And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?" Jesus answered and said to them, "Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things.” (Matthew 17:9-12, NKJV)

After more than 21 years...it is time to be back. 

The silver-hairs are BACK AT IT!

Laurie Martin - climbing the stairs to the worship team stage.

I just want to share this testimony, for it has become a fulfilled hope and promised day for us. I strongly believe it will also be an encouragement for many others who think the time has come and gone.

On Feb. 3, 2019, Laurie and I were once again on a Sunday morning church worship team. It had been almost six years since the last time that had happened.

By then it had gotten to the point where we thought our time was done. The days were over. The years had come and moved on. We didn't sing in public since August 2013 - the last time with our group Ahava Love Band at a One New Man Saturday night meeting with Warren Marcus.

In fact, at times we considered, if not aloud but to ourselves, "Let the others do it now. I've done my part. I am tired, old, and time has passed." I can speak for myself, that this thought was just to cover up the longing I still had from the Lord to lead others into worship. And now that it seemed to have finished, I wanted the inner longing to stop. It almost was as if I didn't want to think about it, for it didn't seem that it would happen again.

The Bible speaks of that happening to others. They have a call from the Lord, they do it for a time, and then they are set aside; distracted into other areas, or just quit out of discouragement and "lack of use".

But the Lord has His plans, His purposes, and His faith, which is bigger than ours. If the time is not over with Him, then it is not over with us. That which He has put in each of us may have been buried for a while, and even considered as dead. But it is only taking more process time to pressure the soft coal into a hard diamond, more so to enable the finest to come forth, beyond what would have done if completed earlier ahead of its time.

Character building.

The gifts may be there, but the fruit takes longer to develop.

We give thanks for the Lord God Almighty, bringing us back into the place of leading worship, as we had been gifted to do for so many years before.

We also give thanks to the leadership of Antioch International Church, with Dr. Peter and Joy Wyns, Pastors Jesse and Elizabeth (Liz) Enns, who have given us this opportunity once again.

Our hearts are that we, being 64 (Steve) and 59 (Laurie) respectively, will be an encouragement to others who are "silver-haired"- that the Lord has much yet to do in and through you too.

He is not finished with us yet! There is much to do, increasingly coming forth as we step out in faith and keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the Author and the FINISHER of our faith.

If you have been out of the game for a while, seek the Lord to get back in. You are needed on the team once more, to finish the race! With you in the Lord’s service!

And the rest of the story…

Another very important part of this restoration concerns the building that we sang in – the former Heritage USA/PTL Barn (Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker ministry). In November of 1997, I was the Administrator of All Nations Church/Mahesh Chavda Ministries (Mahesh and Bonnie Chavda), which had relocated from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to Charlotte, NC on July 3, 1994. (Full details of this have been written in my book Prophetic Stories – Signs Along the Way, published in April 2014 through Martin Lighthouse Publishing. Available below.)

Having administrated many conferences since the beginning of my time with that ministry, in August 1987, (a grand total of exactly 40 in the 14 years I served with them) we had scheduled a national conference with the then current owners of the former Heritage USA property, to be held in mid-November 1997. The New Heritage USA (as it had been renamed) Barn venue was the specific location.

As was our joy, Laurie and I were also on the Mahesh Chavda Ministries conference worship team, along with Doug Goff, bass player. (Doug now plays bass every other week on the Antioch International Church five worship teams.) The three-day conference went very well. Though I cannot recall the name of the worship leader or conference speakers we had, it was an awesome time being in the Barn and on the worship team, leading the people into the presence of the Lord.

At one point during one of the worship times, the Lord gave me a prophetic word, which I spoke out from the stage at my singer’s position.  In my mind’s eye, I could see an image of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, on the very back wall of the auditorium, high up, almost filling the entire space. As I remember in part, I declared that the Lord Himself, the Lion of Israel, was in this place, and His purposes were being accomplished. He was ruling and reigning in the earth. I will never forget that image!

After the completion of the conference, two weeks later the entire New Heritage USA shut down. The entire 2000 plus acre main grounds, consisting of the Grand Hotel, Pyramid administration building, the Barn and attached Studio where the PTL Club program had run, the King’s Castle, Kevin’s House, the Bunk Houses, Heritage Island, and the incomplete Tower were all left desolate. Over the period of the next 7 years, nothing was operational for public use. Only the former Fort Hope, located across the railroad tracks, which was a reformation, restoration ministry of the Bakkers, to give the homeless a place to live and earn a trade, was sold by the four Malaysian businessmen who had bought the entire property in those years (buying out Morris Cerullo, who half-owned with them at the time, but specifically wanted the PTL TV Network for his ministry.)

During this time, Hurricane Hugo came through the Carolinas, severely damaging the Grand Hotel and other facilities. A few years later, the north side of the Barn’s roof lost a good third of its roof, caving in down into the building itself. Water damage from frozen pipes destroyed all the carpet and interior lower walls in the former Heritage School rooms below, leaving that area quite unusable. Rick Joyner had prophesied in 1988 that the entire Heritage USA would die.

But he also prophesied that it would be resurrected. And as was in the Lord’s heart from the beginning, so it was!

The full history of the years from that time in November 1997 through this February 2019 are well documented in other volumes and websites, involving Rick Joyner and Morningstar, Mahesh Chavda and All Nations Church, Peter Wyns and Christians For Messiah Ministries/Antioch International Church (read my book, The Promise, One Man’s Journey To See God's Word Revealed (published by Martin Lighthouse Publishing, Sept. 2013. Available below.) but I just want to share this following portion with you, to keep this short.

In the book I also document the time I met with the Malaysian’s Administrator of the property (which is now the current Morningstar’s Comenius School building) negotiating the sale/purchase of the Fort Hope 26 acres property, as Administrator for All Nations Church. We were able to purchase that for the church home in the late fall of 1999, for $900,000.

Now back to the future. When Laurie and I walked onto that restored Barn’s stage, Feb. 4, 2019, to once again be a part of a worship team leading the Lord’s people into His presence, it wasn’t just another time to sing. 

After more than 21 years since the last time we had sung on that very stage, the Lord was returning us to a place that He still has deep in His heart of love. The place where we had given $3,000 in 1985 for three Lifetime Partner memberships; the place where multitudes, in the millions, came every year to witness, experience, and walk in the presence of the Lord with all the other believers who brought family and friends there annually.

This place is not just another big building. It is a place that is revealing the Lord’s tremendous heart of worship, intercession, restoration, and reformation for His people, and all those who are coming back to Him, to fulfill His purposes and plans for this area and the nations that will be affected from it!

We rejoice in this! We proclaimed the Living God Yeshua HaMashiach, the Mighty One of Israel, is on the move! He rules! He reigns! Nothing can stop Him from carrying out His will in all the earth! (That was part of the prophetic word He also gave me that morning from the platform.)

And one last word I want to share with you. I received this in an email from a long-time friend, Lisa Antonson, just a week before on Jan. 27, 2019:

“I told Ray I had a dream on Friday night & you were in it, it was on the PTL grounds and I remembered in the dream you said you were helping to restore PTL back to the great Christian place to come to as it was intended many years go…….and everyone was so happy in the dream.”

Bring it on Lord! Let Your Holy Spirit come and rule over this place, and in the hearts of all those Who You are bring back, for re-storation and re-commission!

  Steve & Laurie Martin

Antioch International Church worship team
(Photo by Ed Brigham, Prayer Pastor)

Shalom and ahava (peace and love in Hebrew).

Now think on this,

Steve Martin

Founder/President

Love For His People, Inc.

  

                                            

Here are the two books I mentioned above, written in 2013 and 2014, documenting more of what I have shared in this edition of Now Think On This. I hope you get them and see what the Lord has done! We rejoice in His miraculous works, and all that He is restoring in the earth for His people!

                                              

Prophetic Stories – Signs Along the Way, 

published in April 2014 through Martin Lighthouse Publishing

You can buy now on Amazon in paperback and Kindle: Buy here: $7.95 & $1.99

  

Buy now on Amazon: The Promise - Buy on Amazon Paperback $5.95 and Kindle $1.99

If these messages have ministered to you, please consider sending a charitable gift of $10-$120 today, and maybe each month, to help us bless families in Israel whom we consistently help monthly through our humanitarian work. Your tax-deductible contributions receive a receipt for each donation. Fed. ID #27-1633858.

  

Please donate online safely through our website. Click here: DONATE  

(or use the DONATE  buttons on the blog.)

Contribution checks can be sent to: 

Love For His People, Inc. 

P.O. Box 414   

Pineville, NC 28134

Todah rabah! (Hebrew – Thank you very much.) 

Please share Now Think On This with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, and LinkedIn.  We appreciate your help.

Now Think On This #387 - in the year of our Lord 02.05.19 – “Hi Ho Silvers! -The Silvers Are Back” – Monday, 5:22 am