Matthew 11:1-6New Living Translation (NLT)
Jesus and John the Baptist
11 When Jesus had finished giving these instructions to his twelve disciples, he went out to teach and preach in towns throughout the region.
2 John the Baptist, who was in prison, heard about all the things the Messiah was doing. So he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, 3 “Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?"
4 Jesus told them, “Go back to John and tell him what you have heard and seen— 5 the blind see, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor.” 6 And he added, “God blesses those who do not fall away because of me.
TOMMY HICKS' END-TIMES VISION.
The following is a stunning vision given to American preacher Tommy Hicks (who was a major figure in the powerful 1954 Argentina Revival).
VISION OF THE BODY OF CHRIST AND THE END-TIME MINISTRIES
My message begins July 25, about 2:30 in the morning at Winnipeg,
Canada. I had hardly fallen asleep when the vision and the reve-
lation that God gave me came before me. The vision came three
times, exactly in detail, the morning of July 25, 1961. I was so
stirred and so moved by the revelation that this has changed my
complete outlook upon the body of Christ, and upon the end-time
ministries.
The greatest thing that the church of Jesus Christ has ever been
given lies straight ahead. It is so hard to help men and women to
realize and understand the thing that God is trying to give his
people in the end times.
I received a letter several weeks ago from one of our native
evangelists down in Africa, down in Nairobi. This man and his
wife were on their way to Tanganyika. They could neither read nor
could they write, but we had been supporting them for over two
years. As they entered into the territory of Tanganyika, they
came across a small village. The entire village was evacuating
because of a plague that had hit the village. He came across na-
tives that were weeping, and he asked them what was wrong.
They told him of their mother and father who had suddenly died,
and they had been dead for three days. They had to leave. They
were afraid to go in; they were leaving them in the cottage. He
turned and asked them where they were. They pointed to the hut
and he asked them to go with him, but they refused. They were
afraid to go.
The native and his wife went to this little cottage and entered
in where the man and woman had been dead for three days. He sim-
ply stretched forth his hand in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and spoke the man's name and the woman's name and said,
"In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I command life to come
back to your bodies." Instantaneously these two heathen people
who had never known Jesus Christ as their Savior sat up and imme-
diately began to praise God. The spirit and the power of God came
into the life of those people.
To us that may seem strange and a phenomenon, but that is the be-
ginning of these end-time ministries. God is going to take the
do-nothings, the nobodies, the unheard-of, the no-accounts. He is
going to take every man and every woman and he is going to give
to them this outpouring of the Spirit of God.
In the book of Acts we read that "In the last days," God said,
"I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh." I wonder if we real-
ized what he meant when God said, "I will pour out my Spirit upon
all flesh." I do not think I fully realized nor could I under-
stand the fullness of it, and then I read from the book of Joel:
"Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your
God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he
will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and
the latter rain -" (Joel 2:23). It is not only going to be the
rain, the former rain and the latter rain, but he is going to
give to his people in these last days a double portion of the
power of God!
As the vision appeared to me after I was asleep, I suddenly
found myself in a great high distance. Where I was, I do not
know. But I was looking down upon the earth. Suddenly the whole
earth came into my view. Every nation, every kindred, every
tongue came before my sight from the east and the west, the north
and the south. I recognized every country and many cities that I
had been in, and I was almost in fear and trembing as I beheld
the great sight before me: and at that moment when the world came
into view, it began to lightning and thunder.
As the lightning flashed over the face of the earth, my eyes
went downward and I was facing the north. Suddenly I beheld what
looked like a great giant, and as I stared and looked at it, I
was almost bewildered by the sight. It was so gigantic and so
great. His feet seemed to reach to the north pole and his head to
the south. Its arms were stretched from sea to sea. I could not
even begin to understand whether this be a mountain or this be a
giant, but as I watched, I suddenly beheld a great giant. I could
see his head was struggling for life. He wanted to live, but his
body was covered with debris from head to foot, and at times this
great giant would move his body and act as though it would even
raise up at times. And when it did, thousands of little creatures
seemed to run away. Hideous creatures would run away from this
giant, and when he would become calm, they would come back.
All of a sudden this great giant lifted his hand towards heaven,
and then it lifted its other hand, and when it did these crea-
tures by the thousands seemed to flee away from this giant and go
into the darkness of the night.
Slowly this great giant began to rise and as he did, his head and
hands went into the clouds. As he rose to his feet he seemed to
have cleansed himself from the debris and filth that was upon
him, and he began to raise his hands into the heavens as though
praising the Lord, and as he raised his hands, they went even un-
to the clouds.
Suddenly, every cloud became silver, the most beautiful silver I
have ever known. As I watched this phenomenon it was so great I
could not even begin to understand what it all meant. I was so
stirred as I watched it, and I cried unto the Lord and I said,
"Oh Lord, what is the meaning of this." and I felt as if I was
actually in the Spirit and I could feel the presence of the Lord
even as I was asleep.
And from those clouds suddenly there came great drops of liquid
light raining down upon this mighty giant, and slowly, slowly,
this giant began to melt, began to sink itself in the very earth
itself, and as he melted, his whole form seemed to have melted
upon the face of the earth, and this great rain began to come
down. Liquid drops of light began to flood the very earth itself
and as I watched this giant that seemed to melt, suddenly it be-
came millions of people over the face of the earth. As I beheld
the sight before me, people stood up all over the world! They
were lifting their hands and they were praising the Lord.
At that very moment there came a great thunder that seemed to
roar from the heavens. I turned my eyes toward the heavens and
suddenly I saw a figure in white, in glistening white - the most
glorious thing that I have ever seen in my entire life. I did not
see the face, but somehow I knew it was the Lord Jesus Christ,
and he stretched forth his hand, and as he did, he would stretch
it forth to one, and to another, and to another. And as he
stretched forth his hand upon the nations and the people of the
world - men and women - as he pointed toward them, this liquid
light seemed to flow from his hands into them, and a mighty an-
ointing of God came upon them, and those people began to go forth
in the name of the Lord.
I do not know how long I watched it. It seemed it went into days
and weeks and months. And I beheld this Christ as he continued to
stretch forth his hand; but there was a tragedy. There were many
people as he stretched forth his hand that refused the anointing
of God and the call of God. I saw men and women that I knew. Peo-
ple that I felt would certainly receive the call of God. But as
he stretched forth his hand toward this one and toward that one,
they simply bowed their head and began to back away. And each of
those that seemed to bow down and back away, seemed to go into
darkness. Blackness seemed to swallow them everywhere.
I was bewildered as I watched it, but these people that he had
anointed, hundreds of thousands of people all over the world, in
Africa, England, Russia, China, America, all over the world, the
anointing of God was upon these people as they went forward in
the name of the Lord. I saw these men and women as they went
forth. They were ditch diggers, they were washerwomen, they were
rich men, they were poor men. I saw people who were bound with
paralysis and sickness and blindness and deafness. As the Lord
stretched forth to give them this anointing, they became well,
they became healed, and they went forth!
And this is the miracle of it - this is the glorious miracle of
it - those people would stretch forth their hands exactly as the
Lord did, and it seemed as if there was this same liquid fire in
their hands. As they stretched forth their hands they said, "Ac-
cording to my word, be thou made whole."
As these people continued in this mighty end-time ministry, I
did not fully realize what it was, and I looked to the Lord and
said, "What is the meaning of this?" And he said, "This is that
which I will do in the last days. I will restore all that the
cankerworm, the palmerworm, the caterpiller - I will restore all
that they have destroyed. This, my people, in the end times will
go forth. As a mighty army shall they sweep over the face of the
earth."
As I was at this great height, I could behold the whole world. I
watched these people as they were going to and fro over the face
of the earth. Suddenly there was a man in Africa and in a moment
he was transported by the Spirit of God, and perhaps he was in
Russia, or China or America or some other place, and vice versa.
All over the world these people went, and they came through fire,
and through pestilence, and through famine. Neither fire nor per-
secution, nothing seemed to stop them.
Angry mobs came to them with swords and with guns. And like Je-
sus, they passed through the multitudes and they could not find
them, but they went forth in the name of the Lord, and everywhere
they stretched forth their hands, the sick were healed, the blind
eyes were opened. There was not a long prayer, and after I had
reviewed the vision many times in my mind, and I thought about it
many times, I realised that I never saw a church, and I never saw
or heard a denomination, but these people were going in the name
of the Lord of Hosts. Hallelujah!
As they marched forth in everything they did as the ministry of
Christ in the end times, these people were ministering to the
multitudes over the face of the earth. Tens of thousands, even
millions seemed to come to the Lord Jesus Christ as these people
stood forth and gave the message of the kingdom, of the coming
kingdom, in this last hour. It was so glorious, but it seems as
though there were those that rebelled, and they would become an-
gry and they tried to attack those workers that were giving
the message.
God is going to give the world a demonstration in this last hour
as the world has never known. These men and women are of all
walks of life, degrees will mean nothing. I saw these workers as
they were going over the face of the earth. When one would stum-
ble and fall, another would come and pick him up. There were no
"big I" and "little you," but every mountain was brought low and
every valley was exalted, and they seemed to have one thing in
common - there was a divine love, a divine love that seemed to
flow forth from these people as they worked together, and as they
lived together. It was the most glorious sight that I have ever
known. Jesus Christ was the theme of their life. They continued
and it seemed the days went by as I stood and beheld this sight.
I could only cry, and sometimes I laughed. It was so wonderful
as these people went throughout the face of the whole earth,
bringing forth in this last end time.
As I watched from the very heaven itself, there were times when
great deluges of this liquid light seemed to fall upon great con-
gregations, and that congregation would lift up their hands and
seemingly praise God for hours and even days as the Spirit of God
came upon them. God said, "I will pour my Spirit upon all flesh,"
and that is exactly this thing. And to every man and every woman
that received this power, and the anointing of God, the miracles
of God, there was no ending to it.
We have talked about miracles. We have talked about signs and
wonders, but I could not help but weep as I read again this morn-
ing, at 4 o'clock this morning the letter from our native work-
ers. This is only the evidence of the beginning for one man, a
"do-nothing, an unheard-of," who would go and stretch forth his
hand and say, "In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I command
life to flow into your body." I dropped to my knees and began to
pray again, and I said, "Lord, I know that this time is coming
soon!"
And then again, as these people were going about the face of the
earth, a great persecution seemed to come from every angle.
Suddenly there was another great clap of thunder, that seemed to
resound around the world, and I heard again the voice, the voice
that seemed to speak, "Now this is my people. This is my beloved
bride." And when the voice spoke, I looked upon the earth and I
could see the lakes and the mountains. The graves were opened and
people from all over the world, the saints of all ages, seemed to
be rising. And as they rose from the grave, suddenly all these
people came from every direction. From the east and the west,
from the north and the south, and they seemed to be forming again
this gigantic body. As the dead in Christ seemed to be rising
first, I could hardly comprehend it. It was so marvellous. It was
so far beyond anything I could ever dream or think of.
But as this body suddenly began to form, and take shape again,
it took shape again in the form of this mighty giant, but this
time it was different. It was arrayed in the most beautiful gor-
geous white. Its garments were without spot or wrinkle as its
body began to form, and the people of all ages seemed to be gath-
ered into this body, and slowly, slowly, as it began to form up
into the very heavens, suddenly from the heavens above, the Lord
Jesus came, and became the head, and I heard another clap of
thunder that said, "This is my beloved bride for whom I have
waited. She will come forth even tried by fire. This is she that
I have loved from the beginning of time."
As I watched, my eyes suddenly turned to the far north, and I
saw seemingly destruction: men and women in anguish and crying
out, and buildings in destruction. Then I heard again, the fourth
voice that said, "Now is My wrath being poured out upon the face
of the earth." From the ends of the whole world, the wrath of God
seemed to be poured out and it seemed that there were great vials
of God's wrath being poured out upon the face of the earth. I can
remember it as though it happened a moment ago. I shook and
trembled as I beheld the awful sight of seeing the cities, and
whole nations going down into destruction.
I could hear the weeping and wailing. I could hear people cry-
ing. They seemed to cry as they went into caves, but the caves in
the mountains opened up.
They leaped into water, but the water would not drown them.
There was nothing that could destroy them. They were wanting to
take their lives, but they could not.
Then again I turned my eyes to this glorious sight, this body
arrayed in beautiful white, shining garments. Slowly, slowly, it
began to lift from the earth, and as it did, I awoke. What a
sight I had beheld! I had seen the end-time ministries - the last
hour. Again on July 27, at 2:30 in the morning, the same revela-
tion, the same vision came again exactly as it did before.
My life has been changed as I realised that we are living in
that end time, for all over the world God is anointing men and
women with this ministry. It will not be doctrine. It will not be
a churchianity. It is going to be Jesus Christ. They will give
forth the word of the Lord, and are going to say, "I heard it so
many times in the vision and according to my word it shall be
done."
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