Jane Hansen Hoyt - Friday Evening Session
Lord, cause Your flame to burn brightly within us that we might truly walk in the fullness of our inheritance and in the fullness of what You have planned for Aglow. In Jesus’ name, amen.
The theme this weekend is Answering the Call in a Jubilee Year. Can you believe Aglow is 50 years old? Really it is amazing. This year’s Conference brochure is out. I do not know if you have received it yet. Our theme is Spirit Born, Spirit Led for 50 Years. That makes me want to cry and shout at the same time.
Recently, Tony and I were in Charlotte, NC, for a Roundtable that Rick Joyner holds every year. Dutch Sheets was there and we had a chance to talk. I mentioned that it is Aglow’s 50th year. He will be one of our speakers and he had not connected the fact that he is speaking for our 50 year celebration. He said, “You know, it is amazing to me - you see other ministries that came forth within that timeframe, and you do not hear of them now. I think what has made the difference for Aglow has been the leadership.” He was not only referring to me as the leadership that has made the difference, he was referring to all who have been leaders down through the years as well as those who are leading today. Through the years each one has led this ministry by the Spirit of the Lord.
We have felt His hand upon us and we have seen Him open the way before us. Dave McDaniel mentioned we are in 85 percent of the nations of the world. That is incredible. That is the move of the Spirit. It is because of His brilliance and our obedience.
A Voice, Not an Echo
Rick Joyner said, “Aglow is a trumpet. Your impact – not mine – but Aglow’s impact – is all over the world. And to me, this is a fulfillment of the scripture that says, ‘Great is the company of women and men who published the Gospel.’ All of your leaders are unbelievable gifts to the Body of Christ, and I want you to know how much we appreciate you and Aglow all over the world. You are doing things that we hardly hear about, and that needs to change. I hope this anniversary – your Jubilee year – is one that causes you to step into the fullness of your inheritance, into your callings and purposes, some that may have been lost along the way. I think this is the year they are going to be recovered. You are going to have to steward the inheritance. God is going to remove all the debt, all the encumbrances, and really set you free. This is a new beginning for Aglow International. Your destiny is much higher than you have obtained.”
Are you getting this? You, faithful servants of the Lord, who have walked with Aglow all these years. There is more. Your destiny is higher than what you have yet attained. You have to keep reaching to the ultimate call that is upon you. You know the strongholds that God has given you to unravel.
Do you remember that it was Rick Joyner in 1995 at our International Conference who stood and said, “God will give you Islam if you will take it.” He felt like the Lord spoke that to him, and as he stepped to the podium, I will never forget, he just seemed hesitant. He told me later that he was wondering how to deliver that message so that it did not strike fear in the women’s hearts. Instead, we jumped to our feet – all those in the auditorium - and started cheering because it was already planted in our heart.
Diane Fink had spoken about the thread in 1991. Steve Penny from Sidney, Australia, spoke to us about that same word in 1993, and Rick came in 1995, and said that God had spoken to him to tell us – “I will give you Islam if you will take it.”
There is a call upon you. There is a stronghold that God has given you to unravel, to go after, and to tear down. Some of the biggest strongholds we are facing in the world today is that spirit of Islam, that spirit of anti-Christ. He said that God specifically has given to Aglow to go after that spirit, not that we are doing it alone, but He has specifically spoken that to us. This is an assignment He has given you. You have the authority to do it.
Rick went on to say in his recent note, “You have accomplished great things, but watch what happens from now on. This is your time. You have a much greater altitude to get to that will accomplish your full purpose. Thank you for the great blessing you have been to the Body of Christ.”
Dutch Sheets feels the same. We received words of encouragement so frequently from leaders around the world that acknowledge what God has birthed in Aglow and how He has continued the movement down through these many years. In fact, at the Roundtable, there were probably 50 leaders, pastors and leaders of other ministries. I think Cindy Jacobs and I were the only two women there, but there – is, I am saying this to encourage you – there is such an acknowledgement of the ministry and what God has done.
Know Who We Are
Do you receive that? Sometimes you can get kind of lost in your own world. I do not know that Carolyn would ever let you do that… We cannot become myopic. We cannot become discouraged in our thinking, there ought to be more of this, or some of that. Trust that what God has birthed, He is continuing to unfold for His mighty purposes. Not one purpose of His will be thwarted.
Boldness and Courage
One of the other things that Rick said was, “I feel like Aglow is going to receive a boldness upgrade.” As I was thinking about a few comments that I might make tonight, two words came to me. One was boldness and the other was courage.
We are living in a time that is very different than times we have known in the past. When you think about our three mandates, they are all current-day issues. The male/female reconciliation, or the coming into the awareness of what real maleness is and what it means to be female in the purest, most wholesome sense, and what God purposed for Himself. It is the structure that He chose in the beginning to reveal Himself and make Himself known in the earth.
You can see why the enemy would come against that structure and say that it is really okay if two guys or two women can marry. No. We are after the plan of God in its fullness and we are going to stand for it in boldness and in courage.
Again, thinking of the uniqueness of the times in which we live, on February 24th, witches mobilized to curse the President, and they plan another event on March 26. Are you aware of that? We have had International prayer calls. The last one, there were between 800 and 1,000 around the world on our call, where we focused primarily on this issue. We are planning another one – I think it is March 23rd. Join us where we unite around the world for the purposes of God to be fulfilled in this hour.
Dr. Sebastian Gorka - again we are talking about the uniqueness of the times in which we live - is a counter-terrorism expert and he said, “Everywhere we look the world is on fire. The real war is about a war for the crowning of the Caliphate. Terror groups are explicitly calling for strikes on soft targets of large gatherings of unarmed civilians.” We are all on the front line of this war. It is not something happening “over there” 8,000 miles away. You do not have to be wearing a uniform or carrying a gun.
You need to be aware of what is going on around you. San Bernardino – we are close – where the incident happened with the shooting a year or so ago. Dr. Gorka’s comment was, “Do not be walking through life staring at your iPhone and texting. It is a time to be aware.”
As the Body of Christ, and as Aglow members, it is a time to not only be aware of our personal safety, but to be aware that God is raising up a corporate instrument that is very powerfully coming against what the enemy purposes and plans for this hour.
There has been a five-fold increase in terror related deaths since the year 2000. I have a list here, I will not go through it, but I just mentioned San Bernardino. Think of Nice, Paris, Orlando, and Northern Nigeria where several hundred women and children were captured by Boko Haram and held as sex slaves. Some of them have never been heard of again.
Those are some of our current-day realities. We read them, we hear of them, but the purpose of being aware is to begin to counter what the enemy is endeavoring to do in this hour. Whether we like it or not, whether we want to admit it to ourselves or not, we are at war. And we are at war with an enemy who has set himself against the will of God.
I often say that as time goes on there will be a ripening of evil. And we are seeing it – a ripening of evil. When Jesus comes, He is going to step into the midst of all of that and every eye will see Him.
Aglow's Assignment
You know, you think of the call on Aglow to evangelize and to pray. Those are the two legs that we stand on. You think of our three mandates, male/female reconciliation, the call to Islam, and the call to Israel. Each one is an end time issue. Each one came forth prophetically 10 years apart. Partner that with the ways God has matured us and caused us to be a people who know who He is. He has raised up Davids in the earth to take out that Goliath spirit. Amen?
Rick Joyner said that there is going to be an upgrade in Aglow’s boldness. Are you ready?
Graham Cooke has said that Aglow is due for a new alignment with God. It is an upgrade. What we have known in the past – as wonderful as it has been – there is something new that is upon us, and opening up before us. It is a new alignment with Heaven, a new alignment with God, new revelations to know what to do, how to pray, what we are to be in the days before us. New ways of seeing, new ways of thinking, new alignment personally and as an organization.
Aglow carries a calling and an anointing and it is apostolic in nature. I am not saying everyone is an apostle, I am saying there is a corporate anointing over the ministry that is both apostolic and prophetic.
The apostolic anointing calls for a seeing that pierces into the darkness and sees what others cannot see. That anointing calls for a constant awakening and reawakening. We are not the same ministry we were in the 70s, 80s, 90s, even a year ago. There is a newness and a freshness upon us that is increasing and unfolding before us. Be ready to quicken your step. Be ready to be quickened within so that your outward step will be quickened.
A Wave is Coming
There is a wave of courage coming. So as I speak about boldness and courage, I am not saying pull yourself up by the bootstraps, or take another vitamin pill, or get an extra hour of sleep. I believe there is a wave of courage and boldness coming upon us. Reach out and grab it because in order for us to step into this new alignment and into our future, there is a boldness and a courage coming from Heaven that will rise up within us and will cause us to speak, to run, to pray, to be what we have never been before. We are not who we were before. There is a freshness upon us. If there is anything old or tired in you, shake it off!
Courage and boldness – God wants us to believe for more. Instead of being overwhelmed by things against us, He wants us to be astonished at who He is for us. That is a Graham-ism. Do you not love it? Instead of being overwhelmed by things against us, take this personally and take it as a ministry, be astonished at who He is for us.
I am going to read from a familiar portion of scripture and then I am going to turn it back to Carolyn. This is what I have for tonight. Boldness and Courage. Shaking off the old, putting on the new.
In Ephesians 6, and, of course, this is familiar, it is about taking up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day - in this current day - and having done all, to stand. It talks about the various pieces of armor that you can put on. It says, above all take the shield of faith with which you are able to quench all – all – the darts of the wicked one.
Then he goes on towards the end of the chapter saying, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the Gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains that in it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.
I want to speak to any chains over your life personally. Any chains that need to be broken in your life tonight by the power of the name of Jesus, I speak a breaking of chains. Whether it be health or finance or family or kids or parents or grandparents or grandchildren. I call forth a breaking off of every chain, every hindrance that we may step into the future - into boldness and joy - courage that is Heaven sent. This is who we are, the people of God.
Just before I came downstairs tonight I received a text from Graham Cooke telling that he had just finished his next book. “It has been one of the best writing experiences I have ever had in the Holy Spirit. It is a follow-on book from the Nature of Freedom called The Newness Advantage.” He said, “I am super excited. It has so much revelation about how God wants to upgrade His people.”
Tonight we are receiving an upgrade. We are receiving the boldness and the courage that has come from Heaven to fill up His people that we might fulfill His end-time purposes. We receive it and we step into it.
Jane Hansen Hoyt
President/CEO
Aglow International
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