Lynn Green

Category: Communications

  • Prayer Letter: January

    Prayer Letter: January

    Photo by Suzy Hazelwood from Pexels

    The following post is a typical prayer and report letter that I send out every month.  If you would like to receive it, please send an email to lgo@oval.com.

     

    It’s early morning and I have just finished a two-hour meeting.  My, how life has changed!

    This meeting, one in a series of three this week by Zoom, started at 4 a.m.; there were 22 participants and about as many time zones and I was one who “drew the short straw” this time.  It was a meeting with the Founders’ Circle of YWAM and we were welcoming and praying over five new couples, from Central America, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and South Africa.  Yes, life has changed and YWAM has adapted!

    These new members of the group that have been drawn together around Loren and Darlene Cunningham are generally about 20 years younger than Marti and me,  but already have around 30 years of YWAM experience on average.  I also noticed that most of them spoke of their children and that several of that third generation is already pioneering and leading in missions, via YWAM.

    As they each had about 20 minutes to tell their story, we heard of many developments in the spread of the gospel!  These are things that few Christians in Europe or North America ever hear about:

    YWAM teams have planted 1500 churches amongst the Yao people in Southeast Africa.  10, 000 more churches over the past 25 years in Madagascar.

    Leadership multiplication on a massive scale.  Young Asians pioneering in difficult situations.  Africans reaching into the areas where radical Muslims are killing and kidnapping huge numbers.

    Darlene had given each of them a few questions so we could get to know them more deeply.  I could go on with even more stories and facts we heard this morning…those above are just a few.

    About two weeks from now, I will have another series of global meetings, also starting at 4 a.m. GMT, but this time it will be several thousand people convened by a group of our younger leaders mostly in their 20s and 30s, the Malachi Network, so named because of those two verses at the very end of the Old Testament:

    Malachi 4:  5 “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”

    Marti and I draw great encouragement from seeing these three generations.  Each generation is honoring the others and Darlene Cunningham and I have had the privilege of joining and advising the leaders who have catalysed this younger global network in YWAM.

    These developments are a fulfillment of a prophetic dream I had about 30 years ago.  The dream is recounted on my website at:

    Click on the picture

    I won’t include a schedule with this newsletter because, though I have quite a few commitments to online meetings, my schedule tends to fill up just a week or two in advance.   But my prayer need is that I might keep growing in Christ.  I spend such a lot of my time walking and talking with young missionaries here at Highfield Oval and on many Zoom calls each week.  Some are in great crises; some are just hungry for God and for revival and some are at turning points in their lives.  Our prayer, though, is that all of them would grow in a passionate commitment to follow Christ –wherever, whatever, and forever!

    God has clearly spoken to me to “strengthen the steel” in this massive global mission movement and the task seems overwhelming at times.  I am so concerned about the power of modern culture to warp and damage young people before they emerge from their teens.  We need a deep move of God so that young people are not only redeemed but experience a rapid and thorough change of thinking—the “renewing of their minds” by the Holy Spirit.

    Thank you again for your ongoing interest and prayers,

    Lynn

  • Are you ready to catch the Wave? This is still the year of breakthrough!

    Are you ready to catch the Wave? This is still the year of breakthrough!

    Photo by Álvaro Serrano on Unsplash

    **This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**

    Vikki, a leader in one of our training bases in north western Uganda, sent the following article.  I think it is really important.  She and her husband, John, have clung on to the word of the Lord as they understand it and have not given up, though they have experienced one hardship after another.  I believe they have pioneered something that will be an example to many.

    I felt this letter was so important that I read it out on my weekly Facebook Live-stream.  You can find it there and it will be posted here soon.

    In my summary statements, I recommended  a book. It is Reinventing Organizations, by Frederic Laloux.  I recommend the illustrated version.

    Here is Vikki’s letter:

    A letter to my brothers and sisters in YWAM

    April 2020

    Warm greetings from YWAM Arua, Uganda, East Africa. In the middle of this global pandemic, I would love to share with you what God has been putting on my heart in terms of what He is doing, and what we are still waiting to see. First, allow me to give you some background information for context.

    Six years ago, we first started hearing about a Word of the Lord to the Body of Christ worldwide foretelling a Wave of Revival, a global move of the Holy Spirit that would usher in a Billion Soul Harvest. The timeline predicted this Wave would start in 2020 and continue. For YWAM as a global movement, that Word included a promise of multiplication times ten. God spoke to our founder, Loren Cunningham, about flattening our YWAM leadership structures even more into circles of leadership and relationship, rather than top down hierarchical leadership, in order to prepare for this growth and multiplication.

    In YWAM Uganda, our National Director responded to that Word by removing his title of Director, and taking steps towards expanding the national leadership team into an Eldership Circle with more representation from the various YWAM bases.

    Our response in YWAM Arua to that Word and the promise of multiplication was to look at our current leadership structure and ask God how to position ourselves for this Wave and the subsequent growth. At the time, the encouragement to move into circles of leadership was meant for the regional and national levels, but was not expected to be done at the YWAM base level. There was a sense that YWAM bases functioning at a local, operational level, needed a more top down leadership approach in order to keep things moving smoothly.

    As we prayed in Arua base, however, we felt that in order for this Word to our global YWAM family to come to pass, it needed to reach the base level where the majority of YWAM ministry takes place. We felt strongly that for us to ride the Wave, we needed to move into a base leadership circle that would position us for growth and multiplication.

    Through a significant process of seeking wisdom from other international YWAM leaders, prayer, revisiting the Words of the Lord to YWAM globally and YWAM Arua specifically, as well as reviewing our personal Words of the Lord as individuals … a process that spanned three years… we finally made the move into a leadership circle. John removed his title of base leader and took up the role of elder. Others of us joined John in eldership, and still others came together as ministry leaders for their various teams.

    As I speak, our base of 40 staff has 4 elders and 11 ministry circle leaders working together to run this base and prepare for the Wave… that’s more than a third of the staff in leadership. And no, none of us holds the title Base Leader. It is also important to note that our team includes 3 bases that were operating in South Sudan until the civil war broke out in 2016 when they fled to Arua for refuge. This is one of the reasons we have a plethora of leaders in Arua base.

    It sounds crazy, a recipe for disaster, too many cooks in the kitchen.

    But what if it’s true? What if the Wave is about to hit, revival breaks out, and many new believers come into the Kingdom? What if doors of opportunity that have been locked down for weeks, sometimes months or years, suddenly fling open?

    My hope is that we’ll be ready to jump up on our ministry surfboards and ride that Wave. My prayer is that we’ll be able to multiply quickly as God leads us; grow rapidly with few hierarchical bottlenecks.

    For years we’ve been laboring and sweating and praying and scratching our heads wondering how in the world to lead in a circle, how to trust God to have the final say, not anyone with a title or a stamp. We’ve wrestled with God’s Words and promises, wondering if we really heard Him right, or have we gotten off track somehow. In moments of insecurity I’ve reached out to international leaders, fathers and mothers of YWAM, asking them if we took the whole circle leadership thing too far. Some encouraged us to keep at, don’t go back, hold the line. Others weren’t sure; they wondered if bases need a more directive style of leadership to give vision and focus.

    Ultimately it was God again who encouraged me, who told me to trust Him, to wait and see. As 2020 neared, I felt a growing sense of expectation…would the Wave start to move across the globe? I kept talking about it to anyone who would listen. By then I think a few people had grown a little tired of all the Wave talk. I didn’t blame them… six years is a long time to work and wait and wonder.

    But I continued to pray. I asked God for eyes to see. I lifted up every member on this base and their kids and prayed that none of us would miss the Wave. I staked everything on the Promise of the Lord, and I didn’t want anyone swept under who should be riding on top.

    So I watched for the Wave that would sweep the earth.

    Then COVID-19 rocked the world.

    Wait a minute. Just one cotton-pickin’ minute.

    This isn’t how it’s supposed to be. People aren’t meant to be going into isolation…we’re meant to be gathering in greater number than ever before.

    People aren’t meant to be full of fear and anxiety…they’re meant to be set free and filled with hope and peace.

    People aren’t meant to be dying… they’re meant to be receiving eternal life!

    Everything that is happening is nothing like I expected. Nothing. In fact, the exact opposite.

    On the 18th of March, God spoke:

    You have been faithful to steward my promises, to carry my words both for you and for the base, to believe in the face of doubt and conflict…the time is coming when you will begin to see the fulfillment of these words. The world is in turmoil but I am about to unleash a move of my Spirit more powerful than coronavirus. You are seeing the enemy’s attempt to bring confusion and fear globally. Soon you will see me bring clarity, hope and salvation globally, and what a difference it will make! The enemy can only imitate, distort, mutate, but the Truth is about to be revealed, and everyone will see.

    Once again, I find myself in the place of trusting God’s word no matter what the circumstances. That is what God’s children do… we listen, we trust, we obey.

    Now it is our job to walk in that victory and power, to move in the opposite spirit to the works of the enemy:

    • Instead of division and isolation, let us reach out to the hurting and scared and draw them into a family.
    • Instead of fear and anxiety, let us minister peace and hope.
    • Instead of focusing on physical death, let us lead people to the Source of eternal life.
    • Instead of lifting up the name of coronavirus, let us lift up the Name of Jesus!
    • Instead of helplessness, let us prayerfully move in the power of the Spirit to see healing, salvation, life.
    • Instead of darkness and despair, let us shine our light on the hilltop, that all may see the salvation of our Lord. Let the whole world be filled with the knowledge of the Glory of the Lord as the waters cover the seas.

     

    Let us not give up at the last minute right before the Wave hits, but let us cling tighter than ever to God’s promises. He is YAHWEH… Promise-Maker AND Promise-Keeper.

    Yes, it will be challenging. Yes, we will face difficult decisions and loss in various forms. But if we can stand our ground, hold firm our faith, I believe we will ride this wave with the Holy Spirit in one of the greatest global revivals the world has ever seen.

    Father, help us not to miss this. We’ve prepared for years; we’re ready to ride. Make us sensitive to Your Spirit so we can join You in bringing Your Kingdom of light, love, hope, healing and everlasting life to a world desperately in need of You. Thank You for the privilege of partnering with You at such a time as this. May Your name be glorified. Amen.

     

  • Message to YWAM During the Covid-19 Crisis

    Message to YWAM During the Covid-19 Crisis

    Photo by T Steele on Unsplash

    **This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**

    (I read this teaching message from Martha during my last Facebook live-stream and several people wanted the written version, so here it is!)

     – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

    What strange times we are living in. As the corona-virus crisis started, our YWAM community was confused on how to pray. The crisis brought up a lot of questions: Is this a judgment from God on the earth? Is this the devil’s schemes to destroy all of our “God Plans” this year? Do we repent for God’s wrath to be averted? Do we rebuke the Enemy and the virus in Jesus Name? More importantly, where is God in the midst of this, what is He doing and how do we respond?

    As we prayed for clarity, we realized that this virus started as a result of man’s rebellion to authority and ultimately to God’s laws. It most likely started in what they call a “wet market” in the city of Wuhan where there was illegal buying and selling of live wild animals to be used in traditional Chinese medicine practices. There are two animals in particular who carry forms of this virus; the bat and the pangolin (an almost extinct reptile like animal) – both bought and sold for their supposed “healing powers”. There are strict laws against this behavior in China – but this market was operating illegally. Many of the pandemics that we have experienced over the last half of a century have come out of Asia and from these illegal practices.

    As this virus has been unleashed on the earth – of course the Enemy is loving it! Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy and he is always attacking God’s agenda! But in the midst of this God is still on the throne! Psalm 93:3-4, “The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted their voice; The floods have lifted up their pounding waves. More than the sounds of many waters, Than the mighty breakers of the sea, The Lord on high is mighty!” He is not caught unaware. He is EVER PRESENT and He is using this time for His purposes.

    So, what is GOD doing? And what is our response? I believe there is not just ONE thing, I think there are multiple things He is doing.  But, I wanted to submit to you FOUR THINGS that I believe He is doing and how we can respond in this time.

    1. A CALL TO REPENTANCE. It’s a time to repent as a human race for ignoring the laws of God and bringing destruction upon ourselves. Yes, the virus, but also in other areas where our nations have strayed from God and His Law: In my own country, the USA, since abortion was legalized in 1973, we have killed over 60 million babies. Globally we have experienced the war against the sanctity of marriage. In the West particularly, the homosexual agenda has succeeded in legalizing same sex marriage and pushed for the acceptance of transgender rights and gender fluidity. We have globally walked away from God and his Truths. This time is a wake-up call! And what about our own lives? This is a time to ask God: what is it in my own life that you want to put your finger on in this time? Where are the areas where I have personally strayed from your ways? It’s a time of heart searching and examination. A time of evaluation and pruning. He is cutting away the old ways and the diseased areas of our lives that new growth can come.

    As our YWAM Community began to take our position in repentance, the Lord used several Scriptures to guide us: Numbers 16:41-48 and 2 Chronicles 7:14.

    2. A CALL TO REST. A few years ago, I was reading in Matthew 24:38-39 where Jesus is teaching about the End Times and he says, “For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away.” As I read this, a huge banner appeared in my mind stretching over this verse that said: The Power of Distraction! They were so busy with eating, drinking, getting married – the things of this life, that they missed the Kairos Moment of God!

    We get so busy, our lives are filled with meetings, schools, conferences, traveling… and even though we are doing all of these things for God, we can become so tired and lose the passion for which we started all those things. I think one thing God is doing in this time is saying, come away with me. Come to a time of rest. A time of quiet. A time of solitude.

    Solitude is one of the Spiritual Disciplines. We have been reading the Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. In the chapter on solitude he says, “Don’t you feel a tug, a yearning to sink down into the silence and solitude of God? Don’t you long for something more? Doesn’t every breath crave a deeper, fuller exposure to his Presence? It is the discipline of solitude that will open the door.”

    This time is an invitation to solitude, to rest, to re-calibrate of the rhythms of our lives.

    3. A CALL TO RESTORATION. I’m sure you’ve all read the articles about how this time is giving the earth a chance to heal. I’ve seen pictures of the Himalayan Mountains on Facebook. Apparently, they haven’t been seen this clearly in over 50 years. The canals in Venice are clear. The quality of air over our cities has improved drastically – our environment is healing.

    Restoration is happening in families. I read a testimony of a believing family in Wuhan. Their lives had become so busy, they hardly spent time together. The parents hardly knew their children. Then they were locked down for months together in the home and they got to know one another again. They had time to share deeply. They began to grow in love again – she said it was the best time their family had ever had.

    We are re-connecting with loved ones. FaceTime calls and Zoom have helped us connect with parents, friends and relatives. Marriages are being worked on! Being in quarantine brings up a lot of our weaknesses and deficits. We are face to face with all of our “stuff”! It’s a time to take a raw look at our relationships and to reconcile, to heal. God is using this time to heal relationships all over the world.

    4. A CALL TO READINESS. God spoke so many things over the year 2020 globally. It was to be a year of breakthrough, a year of acceleration for the Kingdom of God. And now, seemingly, this has come to a halt. I believe that God’s word is still true. This will be a year of Acceleration and a year of Breakthrough, but it looks different to what we thought… he is giving us time to get ready for a great harvest! In Darlene Cunningham’s message to us, she relayed the story of when they had to send all of the students home from the Kona Campus. She said as they sent the students home she was thinking, wait, this isn’t what’s supposed to happen, the waves are receding. But then she remembered that often as waves recede, they come back even stronger! A greater wave is coming after this!

    The Scripture that God has given our YWAM community in this time is the parable of the Ten Virgins in Matthew 25:1-10. The essence of the story is that the bridegroom WAS coming. It was a time of expectancy and waiting. It was a pause, a rest, an invitation to wait! Five did not bring enough oil, five did. Then the time of breakthrough happened, the bridegroom came! They got up to trim their lamps but five did not have enough oil – they weren’t ready. This time is an invitation to readiness. Trim your lamps, renew your resource of oil, tend to your inner life, let your roots go deeper, draw into the Lord, rid yourselves of all that keeps you away from Him. Call out those little foxes that are ruining the vineyard – get your lamps ready for the breakthrough that is coming.

    There is an invitation from the Lord in this hour. An invitation to repentance, rest, restoration and readiness. Take time to embrace the invitations. Make room in your schedules to respond. Let’s not miss this moment.

    Martha (working in the Middle East)

  • More Prophetic Insight?

    More Prophetic Insight?

    Photo by Daniel McCullough on Unsplash

    **This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**

    If  you have visited this blog before the last week or so, you will know that I don’t highlight prophecy.  However, I felt it right, having checked it out with elders, to publish Tom Bloomer’s word.  Now, just a few days later, the following prophecy was brought to my attention.

    I think it is right for me to post it for a few reasons:

    1. It is very specific, so will be proven right or wrong quite soon.
    2. If it is right, then it needs more prayer for it to bear the full fruit God intends.
    3. It is already in the public domain at www.propheticdaily.com
    4. It coincides with the Passover and many prophecies about breakthrough at this time.
    5. It also coincides with hundreds of thousands joining online worship and prayer, which can be accessed via  https://watchmen.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0d0e2ee4dc6550f1790f09a1a&id=fb0a97e3f7&e=0c005a6660

    Here is the word from Craig Cooney

    If the Holy Spirit gives you any sense of confirmation, do go to prayer that it might all be fulfilled!

    From Dailyprophetic:

    I trust you are keeping safe and well during this most unique time in recent history.

    I have been very reluctant to send out any words during this time as I wanted to hear clearly from the Lord and also to weigh up what I was sensing.

    First of all I want to share again some of what I sent out on 30th December 2019 and then tell you what I have felt the Lord say in recent days.

    As with any prophetic utterance, weigh it carefully and prayerfully.

    WORD SENT ON 30TH DECEMBER 2019

    The keyword that I keep getting over and over again for 2020 is “PIVOTAL”.

    The next 12 months will be absolutely pivotal and I believe this will be the most significant year of the last 50 years.

    It is a “tipping point” year – a year when everything that has been happening since the year 2000 culminates and climaxes.

    The next 12 months will also shape the next decade. The last 5-10 years have seen the most significant polarisation and division in nations and between nations that I have witnessed in my lifetime. The pressure has been building and this year it is going to be released.

    I saw what looked like huge tectonic plates underneath the Earth’s surface. They have been pushing together forming pressure and friction. This is going to build up to such an extent that it will be like an earthquake or eruption in 2020. In fact, don’t be surprised if the Lord affirms this in the natural. What happens physically often mirrors and even precedes what is happening in the spiritual realm.

    In the early months of 2020 you could see a very significant earthquake or volcanic eruption. The father is showing us prophetically what lies ahead in the rest of the year.

    Nationally, leaders will be at a loss as to how to bring peace and stability in their societies. There will be desperate measures such as curfews and bans, but they will be ineffective and counterproductive….

    ….There will be a major sifting within the church. The Lord is purifying his Bride as His return draws more imminent. Immature, immoral, heretical and ungodly leadership will be removed. The Lord no longer will tolerate a “show“ in His name. Only those who are pursuing His presence from a place of purity, reverence and true worship will flourish and stand. The others will be swept away in the cultural tide of conformity.

    The economy worldwide will take a major sudden dip. But it will not fall into recession like in 2008. It will quickly rally and recover….

    …There will be the greatest separation of believers in the last 200 years between those who appease and surrender to the secular culture and those who stand for righteousness, holiness and the Word of the Lord. The pressure to conform and be liked by the world will be so intense. Stand firm in truth and grace.

    Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His Word.

    Now I want to share what I believe the Lord has shown me in recent weeks. Some of you will have heard me share parts of this on Instagram Live and in my Instagram stories over the past few weeks.

    NEW WORD: SUNDAY 29TH MARCH 2020

    The word the Lord keeps giving me is RESET.

    It’s almost as if, when your cell phone is not working properly, you need to press various buttons at the same time and do a ‘hard reset’. Similarly, right now the nations and every area of society are going through a HARD RESET.

    There is a total REALIGNMENT of PRIORITIES and POWER taking place. The exalted are being brought low and the humble are being exalted. Everything we have taken for granted is receiving proper value. Many of the things we thought were important are now being seen as insignificant.

    The Lord is REFINING and SIFTING His BRIDE, the Church. Personalities and platforms which relied on crowds and human charisma will struggle in this season. Many won’t make it through.

    Authentic Spirit-filled communities will flourish in these days as the committed care for one another as in the early church.

    THINGS WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN.

    While most are longing for everything to return to ‘normal’, I believe the Lord is saying that things will never be the same again. Nor should they be.

    There entire structure of society is currently being RECONFIGURED. As everything changed on September 11th 2001, the changes brought through this current shift will be exponentially greater.

    The Lord is DISMANTLING so many things in this time. He does not want us to rebuild them ever again. We are entering not only a new season, but a completely NEW ERA. There will be an entirely NEW ‘NORMAL’ when this crisis passes.

    WHEN WILL IT PASS?

    On Monday 16th March I was asking the Lord about this. I sensed Him tell me it would turnaround in 24 DAYS. That didn’t make sense to me as my natural inclination would have been to say 28 days or 4 weeks. But it was definitely 24 days. I checked the calendar on my phone and realized that 24 days takes us up until Thursday 9th April.

    In the Hebrew calendar PASSOVER begins at sundown on Wednesday 8th April. I shared this in my Instagram stories when the Lord spoke this to me. Many of you messaged me to say that a prophetic named Chuck Pierce had also prophesied about things changing at Passover. I hadn’t been aware of Chuck’s word.

    Let me be clear. I don’t think everything is suddenly going to get better on this date. However I believe that is the day when things will BEGIN TO TURN. We will START TO SEE THE DECLINE of the coronavirus from that day onwards.

    I also believe it will DISAPPEAR MUCH QUICKER than most ‘experts’ have projected. In fact, I sense the Lord saying, once the turnaround begins, it will leave much faster than it arrived.

    The PRAYERS OF GOD’S PEOPLE have never been more important. Heaven is waiting to release angels on assignment in response to the prayers of the Saints.

    GUARD YOUR HEARTS AND MINDS VERY CAREFULLY. Block out negative voices of fear, dread, doom and gloom. Fill your mind with the Word and let faith arise. SPEAK LIFE and HOPE and HEALING and BLESSING.

    This RESET, REALIGNMENT and REFINING is positioning us for REVIVAL in the Church and an AWAKENING in the world.

    WHAT THE ENEMY HAS INTENDED FOR EVIL, GOD IS GOING TO TURN AROUND FOR GOOD AND GLORY!

    There is more that the Lord is saying, but that’s enough for now.

    Please take care and all necessary precautions – but DO NOT SURRENDER TO A SPIRIT OF FEAR. Such a spirit is so prevalent at this time and is seeking to consume and control God’s people to render us ineffective and powerless.

    As Paul told Timothy:

    “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (2 Tim 1:7)

    Every blessing in Christ,

    Craig
    DailyProphetic.com