THE ASSIGNMENT

 It was February 2002, and I was coming to the end of a 40 Day Fast. I had just left the traditional institutional Church System in June the previous year.  My mind and soul were in a state of anguish seeking for answers.  I had been raised in a Conservative Bible-Believing Evangelical Church.  I was called into ministry at the age of  21.  And after 30 years in Pastoral Ministry, Church Planting, and Denominational Leadership, I had come to a conundrum.  The Church taught me, and I believed, that the Bible was God's Word AND it was our book, or manual, for both Faith and Practice.  The problem was, I saw many things in the Book of Acts that we were not doing in the Church and at the same time there were many things that I was doing as a Pastor that could not be found in the Bible! This conundrum created an irreconcilable difference in my soul. On the one hand...the Bible, and on the other hand...the Church system. My decision was to step outside the Church System and seek the Lord and His Word with prayer and fasting.

The Fast begun on January 1, 2002.   For the first thirty-four days it was water only.  Then for the final six days the Lord led me to cut off all outside influences and voices.  I shut myself in seclusion: no internet, no TV, no radio, no cell phone, no books, no magazines, and no human communications, other than my wife.  For the first three days I jacked my brain with a small Walkman Cassette player with a headset and the New Testament on cassettes for three days and three nights, sleeping on a mattress on the living-room floor so as to not disturb my wife's sleep.  Then the final three days I took the headset off and grabbed a notebook and pen and began to write what the Holy Spirit was saying to me.

He spoke to me about many things: my family, the church, the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and a lot of details about the things to come in the future.  I wrote it all in a journal as He spoke.  At the end of the six days of seclusion, He said to me, "Would you like to sit with me on the couch and hold my hand?"  I said to myself, "Oh boy! Russ, you're a mess!"  I had been fasting for forty days the last six days I had not shaved, taken a bath, brushed my teeth, combed my hair or even put on deodorant!  And Jesus wants me to sit beside Him and hold His hand?  I rushed to the bathroom, washed my face, combed my hair, brushed my teeth, put on deodorant and some cologne and hurried to the couch.

As I sat down on the couch, in my spirit I saw Him sitting there to my left.  I held His hand and He held mine.  The experience was incredible and indescribable with words.  The best analogy I could come up with is, it was like taking a hot tub soaking in warm body oil.  He didn't say anything, which surprised me.  I thought He was going to tell me lot of stuff.  But that didn't happen.  We just sat there in silence for about an hour.  Then all of a sudden a vision of a map appeared right in front of my face.  It was a map of the United States of America.  And all around the perimeter of the map were small black dots.  I asked Him, "What is this Lord, and what does it mean?"  He said,  "I want you to pray for these cities, they are the gates of America."  I began to pray in tongues for each city.  As I prayed for a city it caught on fire on the map.  When I finished praying for the ten cities the whole map was on fire.  It reminded me of the opening scene of an old western show, "Bonanza" when the map of  The Ponderosa caught on fire.

As the map blazed in front of my eyes, the Lord spoke these words to me: "You are an Apostle of the New Paradigm, sent with Plans, Strategy, Commission, and Anointing. Now GO and DO as you have been instructed, and I whose Name is Emmanuel, will be with you.  In every city you go there are people there already prepared for the message and the anointing you will bring to them.  I have called them and prepared them for this New Paradigm.  You will have a brother, who is a prophet of the New Paradigm, he will go with you.  Together you will dig a new foundation for MY CHURCH to be built upon."   (2/09/02)


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