I met Howard Pittman over 20 years ago when he was speaking in a little church I attended, and from then on I knew I was in the Lord's Army, the Lord revealed so much during that time period..His testimony is powerful, I will send it on!
Love sis shanna
THE HIGH COST
Howard Pittman
God is now in the process of recruiting an army with which He will shake this old world one more time.
By working through His soldiers, God will produce great miracles that will shake the established hierarchy of the so called organized religion that is in this world today.
These soldiers that God is now recruiting will demonstrate the power of God to a greater extent than did the disciples in the Pentecostal age.
Some will be even greater demonstrations than that of Elijah.
God's recruitment for this army has been going on for some time.
Some of these soldiers have been brought up to a certain level of faith and placed in a "holding" position where they shall remain until He has brought all the new ones up to that level.
Remember, the Bible says that He is the author and finisher of our faith.
It is going to be through the faith of the soldiers that God will demonstrate His great power.
As was stated earlier, for a long time He has been recruiting a few.
Now the recruitment has begun in earnest because God is about to perform the great miracles through His army that He promised us He would do in the Bible.
John the Baptist brought the spirit of Elijah into this world and he did not even know he had it.
He denied it, but Jesus confessed that it was so.
The purpose of that spirit was to make straight the paths of the coming of the Lord.
"I declare unto you that you the soldiers who are being recruited now to join with those who have been recruited in the past, will bring to this world the spirit of Elijah.
Again the purpose is to make straight the paths of the coming of the Lord for He is about to come again!
You that sleep, now is the time to awaken!
You that have been in that "holding" pattern for years, look up!
You're about to be put to work!
To the new recruit, I would say study the Bible diligently and seek the Lord's will in every aspect of your life.
Time is short for your spiritual training, but you will be used in ways you never thought possible if you seek the Lord FIRST in your life.
"You who are to be chosen will be the soldiers of the latter rain as referred to in Scripture.
This recruitment is for the end of the great revival spoken of by the prophet Joel and begun on the day of Pentecost.
The end time of that great revival is the beginning of the latter rain, so you must prepare for the battle with the discipline of a professional soldier.
"Know this also. There shall be a time or process of "culling" those who are not qualified to be a member of this "Gideon's" army.
Just as in Gideon's army in the bible, only a select few will be fit for service in the army of Christian soldiers the Lord will use in the battle of the latter rain."
Another thing that will happen is that the MANTLES OF GREAT MEN AND PROPHETS WILL FALL ON INDIVIDUALS WHO CAN HANDLE THE RESPONSIBILITY.
Expect people to start to operate in and under the power of God like a Jeremiah or an Isaiah.
In the midst of this fresh move Ray, the church is going to have to discern which leaders to follow.
For there will be at least three kinds of leaders, the David's, the Jonathan's and the Saul's.
THE SAUL's leadership which is marred by envy and jealousy, seeking prestige and power and continually FEELING threatened by those along side or under them.
Frequently they'll use all kinds of religious gibberish to pull down the anointed.
Saul had all kinds of ideas on how David should go and fight Goliath, none were God's intended methods.
One thing which has had a negative effect/grieving the Holy Spirit recently has been the dusting off of old wine skins/old methods which never worked in the past and wouldn't work in the present.
Yet many have attempted to resurrect old concepts of church growth methods and have declared them to be fresh.
The army of God needs to smell out that which is truly fresh and that which is truly rotten.
There has been a genuine lacking of creativity in evangelism, relationship building and leadership.
These don't allow others to get close to them, they avoid any real accountability. They are a hidden danger to renewal.
THE JONATHAN'S leadership, a friend of renewal but at the same time attempting to keep one foot in with the Saul's.
Jonathan was killed with King Saul the same day, fighting a battle.
This style of leadership is to keep every one happy, the old guard and still dancing occasional in and around renewal.
While it appears to be safe, don't expect any mighty anointing, nor any great leadership.
One is going to have to check out who's related to whom. Birds of a feather flock together.
While many are attempting to develop strategic partnerships, very often it is just to create image, it's usually an indication of a lack of genuine vision and anointing to impact the enemies kingdom.
A soft or compromising leader is deadly in times of revival, identify them and avoid them.
DAVID'S leadership, examine his life carefully, He was a man not approved of by his brethren.
They even tried to saddle (burden) him with mundane responsibilities, looking after the sheep (1 Sam 18:28). "David your heart is filled with pride".
Don't expect any favours from the old religious guard who will have it's fair share of PROVE YOURSELF to me/us. [When you see it, you'll understand your callings].
As I shared in the past, This move is going to be a storm of the Spirit. The Glory clouds will roll in.
The lightning's of God are going to hit.
"The former and latter rain will be falling at the same time, and the winds and thunders of God will be heard."
We live in the era of the end times, and God has said through many prophets around the world "I am going to change the understanding and expression of Christianity in the earth in this one generation.
History has born record to those men mightily used in the past.
All were men who had "paid the Price", who had spent much time alone in secret with God, and often spent years in the "wilderness" before being anointed with power from on high and sent forth to loose God's people from their chains of bondage and sin.
Suddenly they arrived, as if from nowhere, utterly fearless and with a searing message that pierced straight to the hearts of their hearers.
As A.W. Tozer wrote "God has always had his specialists...who appear at critical moments in history to reprove, rebuke and exhort in the name of God and righteousness....such a man is likely to be drastic, radical, possibly at times violent.
His ministry is geared to the emergencies, and that fact marks them as being different, a man set apart for such a time as this.
The training ground for such men hasn't come because they have hung unto the leadership of others.
Their training ground has been deep in the "Wilderness of brokenness", nothingness and a death to self.
As the historian D'Aubigne wrote, "A great work of God is never accomplished by the natural strength of man.
It is from those dry bones {skeleton's Ray !!}, the darkness and the dust of death, that God is pleased to select as the instruments by means of which he designs to scatter over the earth his light, regeneration and life.
These David's will come forth manifesting a holy recklessness not confusion, They desire to display the Glory to a dying world.
These are men and women motivated by tenderness towards God and mankind.
Their prayers are filled with the heart-piercing pathos of the dying Jesus.
These folk have the burning flame, that interior furnace of throbbing love, one that sighs and weeps and break down under the shivering heat of all-consuming love.
These men and women understand the words of the Holy Ghost "Be ye tender hearted, forgiving one another."
Tenderness must be in the very nature, and forgiveness is but the behaviour of that nature.
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Extract from the book "Placebo" by Howard Pittman. Mr. Pittman was a Baptist preacher who, on August the third, went into a near death coma and recovered.
It was at that time Howard Pittman felt God was speaking to him about coming ministries.
