“And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.” And after the silence, there were Trumpets of Fire!

We can remember when the Word of God was like a burning fire shut up in our bones Jeremiah 20:9. We were stirred with Life, we were warmed by the flame of love, and we moved with unwavering confidence, for that holy fire was a guiding light that lit our path and was a lamp unto our feet Psalm 119:105. But what has happened? Where is it? All the great fires of yesteryear have flickered to almost nothing, and if anything, dying embers are just about all that is left in the camps of the saints. The warm fires of the Lord have all but gone out, and a cold winter's night has set in with an icy grip. There are certainly exceptions to this, but as a whole, this is what we are seeing in the body today. Of course, there are also those who may be oblivious to what is happening, for there are plenty of pseudo revelations taught that keep the religious mind energized. However, we are not concerned so much today with these things, but want to notice what is happening to those of the high calling; for we are truly in a time of silence, of soberness, yet in  preparation to sound a word that has never entered into the heart of man, it has never been heard, not even by the elect of God. It is a mystery yet to be released, a sacred secret, and we are awed yet humbled in knowing that we are a part of it.

It was not long ago when we could see the word coming alive in homes and fellowships everywhere, and all over the world they had a major impact on people's lives. No doubt, most of the readers of these articles were warmed by those holy fires of God. But what has happened to them? Where have they gone? Where are they? Although they gave light in the dark nights and warmth from the cold for a season, there are not many seen today. It is a clear fact that there are many more ash heaps scattering the countryside than roaring camp fires. However, there is hope in our immediate presence. So do not despair. It will not last. There will be victory!

I am reminded of a vision that Thomas Wyatt had some years ago that he wrote about in his book, THUNDER BEFORE DAWN. Let me share it as it applies to us today:

We can see that the whole world is wrapped in darkness. There were times when great, revelation fires of God would ignite people’s lives. They would provide understanding and warmth in the cold world; but those fires never continued for very long. The movements may have continued but not the living revelations. For men habitually took control with attempts of improving upon and finishing what God had started, and they finished it alright by putting a stop to it by covering the flames with religious dirt; that is, their laws, their binding legalisms, their doctrinal prevarications, countless dogmas, and dead works. Soon after the flames arose throughout the world, they were snuffed out, leaving dying embers beneath heaps of ashes with the world growing ever darker and colder. This has been evident to anyone whose eyes have been opened to the truth. The leaders of these religious marvels have also been able to see that their efforts are failing as their congregations dwindle, and some with much concern and have done everything they can imagine with hopes of rekindling the dying fires. The insanity of it has been that they continued doing the same things that doused them in the first place with hopes of getting different results, and all the while, God’s dear saints have suffered in the midst of this icy, senseless bondage. In the spirit we can hear them sorely weeping as they pray for light and warmth, crying out to hear once again the word of God. Not the dead letter or doctrines of Babylon, and our hearts are deeply stirred. Moreover, we too have been praying with fervency that can only be born in the darkness of the world's Gethsemanes.

It is in the midst of such prayer that we become a part of all the saints’ agony who are kneeling in the ashes of yesteryears glory. No longer are we just interceding witnesses to the cold and darkness, we are touched very much by it as well. Together with them we stand and lift our hearts toward heaven’s calling. The agony of our souls cry in desperation, until all the cries merge into one resounding cry.

As we stand with hearts lifted upon high, and in deep pain calling unto the Deep of the Lord, a light is seen high in the midst of our heavens, probably just a speck of light at first; but coming ever closer until it suddenly bursts forth as a man of flaming fire standing before us and round about us everywhere. Only one, but He is everywhere. He touches our lips with His finger of fire, setting them ablaze, as He hands each of us a trumpet of gold and commands us to blow the living, burning, word of God! With the first breath the trumpets, like our lips, burst into blazes of fire!

We are transfixed and overcome with awe, while each breath of the word of God is amplified and fills the earth and stirs the smoldering embers unto enormous flames. Those rising out of the ashes are given the same trumpets and they join us. All the sounds resonate together to form an unstoppable, unquenchable tidal wave of fire that sweeps the entire earth, transforming man, first destruction of everything that can burn (wood, hay, and stubble), and then reconciliation unto a new creation.

After the fire consumes everything in its wake, there will be the trumpet blasts of victory heard throughout the land, even to the ends of the earth. The Kingdom of God will be forever established, and peace will reign with no more tears, no more sorrow, no more pain, no more suffering, and no more death. The long night will be over, as the Day Star arises in every heart.

We can remember various times when there was a living Word to be had that set our souls aflame. On occasion it was when we were alone in the spirit with our Lord, in the midst of only two or three, or it was with a dozen, two dozen, or more. Regardless of how many or how few there were, those were times of warmth, life, and blazing light. We were not unique in this, for others in various places and times around the world experienced the same. The fires of revelation would also ignite without effort and rise in their hearts and lives. There was no one laboring with outward antics to get things started.

When we look back, we should also be able to see that almost without fail, the life of those meetings eventually waned and died. Unbeknown to the ones gathered, they were often very instrumental themselves in causing this; for as mentioned above, the anointing flames were smothered by men taking over that which God had started.

    They went back to the revivals and revelations of the past or ritualistically repeated the first principles of their movements. This did not revive the dead but only served to heap more suffocating religious dirt upon their coffins. Those glorious days are gone for the most part, they are dead, their flames have been extinguished, with no evidence that they will rise again. No wonder the people of the world are reluctant to draw close to the saints and their meeting places. Why would anyone on a cold, dark winter’s night want to draw up to a cold ash heap that has no warmth or light to give? What was once a lighted world, with the fires of the Lord everywhere, has grown very dim and cold. This has caused more than a few to be scattered by the imaginations of their own minds. Many have even fallen into greater errors than just extinguishing their fires and have joined themselves to deadly deception with those who ignite their own fires that shoot sparks round about them in the night’s darkness. That is, “Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled.” Isaiah 50:11.

However, there are still those who have tasted the goodness of the Lord and will not wane regardless of the circumstances or temptations. They press on, never giving themselves to the delusions of the infamous Traducer. They cry out as one voice, "My heart is fixed, O God; my heart is steadfast...Awake, my glory, awake...I will awake right early [I will awake the dawn]! Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let Your glory be over all the earth." Psalms 57:7,8,11 Amplified. Although the dogmas and doctrines of by-gone days may have been heaped upon the fires of the elect, they are not running off on tangents or gathering around men’s sparkling fires; but rather, in unison and with lifted hearts, they are entering into great travail and agony of the soul, and praying with such fervency that it stirs the very heavens.

Only a few may have been in travail for quite some time and feeling very alone. Nevertheless, I know that others, countless others, are beginning to realize the seriousness of the hour and are hearing those distressing cries. They are growing intense, and our own voices are starting to lift with them in this great time of despair. This will surely continue until all the cries are merged into one TRUMPETING shout of despair unto VICTORY!

This is when we too, with lifted eyes will see the great light, perhaps at first a tiny speck of light high in the heavens of God, descending until it stands alive in us as a glorious celestial Being of fire, not literally, of course, but just as real or more so. In this darkness that has shrouded the earth like the shadow of death, we will certainly not despise those seemingly insignificant, distant specks of light coming from above. By no means! We will not ignore our Lord's presence within, nor will we dismiss the anointed word of those in obscurity, nor scoff at small revelations. For these things are Christ Himself descending as a refining fire. Yes, it is He who will be touching our lips and placing in our hands His flaming trumpets to sound over the face of the cold, dark earth.

If we think we have had a word before, just wait until the fiery trumpets of the Lord are placed to the lips of those in travail. Transfixed and overcome with awe at the glory of their Lord, they will sound, and His word will be heard reverberating from their once travailing lips. It will not be as it was before, where the flames of God could be doused; but the unknown, forgotten-about saints will sound from every direction and stir the smoldering embers once again into blazes of fire and light. They will not be standing idly around revival fires while keeping the light and warmth to themselves; for they will have the flaming word of reconciliation to the world burning like firebrands in their hearts. They will march as an invincible army into the night. They shall triumphantly sound judgment over the face of the earth like a rolling tidal wave of death; yet unto life, bringing to naught the works and pomp of every man, and establishing the glorious Kingdom of God throughout the land.

Yes indeed, the sound of the ministry of reconciliation born in travail and great despair will not only draw the elect of God from the seclusion of this present dark night, but much more. They will not stop and consume the heat to themselves but will take the message to the world that all may hear, be judged, and come to the fruitful knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. As this mighty army of God marches forward, sounding their trumpets louder and louder, the blazing flames will advance upward and onward, even beyond the horizons of our own expectations, until the purging fires of God cover the earth as the waters cover the seas. Praise God -- Glory to His Name! What a tremendous wave of Holy justice!

Dear anointed firstfruits, let me admonish you to look earnestly to the heavens of Christ for that small glimmer of light, and then keep your eyes on it until Jesus stands before you with His fiery trumpet in hand that you may sound the message to change the world. Else, listen for the pealing resonance of the thundering trumpets in concert, sounding as one, a voice born out of great sorrow and anguish of the soul. For when it is heard, you will be able to come out of darkness and into the glorious light of deliverance. You will echo that message out across the face of the earth. You will never again be content to merely stand near the warm firesides of us four and no more fellowships while keeping your revelations to yourselves. You will go forth declaring and walking it out with all your strength, bringing first death and destruction to the uttermost parts of the earth, but then life! The very tones, the characteristics of these trumpets will be lightning and thunder igniting and sending a great wall of fire traversing the earth and consuming everything in its path, burning everything that is akin to the family of wood, hay and stubble. To the natural eye, one would lament and say, "My God! My God! Everything that we have known is gone! Nothing is left!" But fear not, my friends, this is not the end, for it will then begin to rain, a slow, gentle rain unto Life.

That is, “Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.” Isaiah 45:8.

 After a time of silence in heaven, a half hour, His word will first come as lightnings, thunderings, and fire to judge, consume, and destroy, but then as the cool rain, the cool, gentle, soothing, word and Spirit of God. From this will come forth an abundance of living things springing up in resurrection Life and bearing all manner of fruit. Everything will be fruitful. There won't be one thing twisted, warped or barren. The whole world will be beautiful, fruitful and serene. The warfare will be over and victory won. The Kingdom of God will be established in the earth and peace will forever reign. The long, cold, dark night will be over, for the morning will then have come, and we can join in symphony with the Psalmist, "...Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." Psalm 30:5. As the word of God raining from the heavens, we will then have accomplished what pleases God, not returning to Him void, but prospering in the thing which He sent us to do. Isaiah 55:10-13 will then have run its course to the Glory of God.

This sounds tremendous, and there is something deep within our souls that rejoices at thoughts of such awesome wonder, great glory and total victory. At least, there should be a rejoicing, but as good as all this is, what about today? What about the meantime? And there are times that are truly mean. Even so, what in the world can we do about it? Something has definitely been lost and that something is power, the wonder-working power of God.

POWER, which is ENERGY, produces fire. Yet while the fires were going out, people were doing everything that was contrary to keeping them burning. Rather than supplying the same fuel of that day’s anointed word from heaven that produced the flames, they were very often dumping yesterday's manna on them. In their efforts, they lost the power, the very energy they were trying to preserve. The dilemma has been that most people do not know what the energy is or from where it comes. Therefore, until they know what they are looking for, it is very doubtful that they will ever find it. Even if they should stumble across it, I do not think that they would know how to use it to kindle even a small fire; so in ignorance they continue stumbling around in the dark and implementing all types of ideas and imaginations that might work, but never do.

There are various things that will start a fire, but regardless of what they are, fire must come in the form of energy or it will not happen. For you see, anything that burns is the result of transferring energy in the form of heat from one object to another. The same principles work with spiritual matters. For example, we will quote again from one of Brother Eby's informative studies, “LOOKING FOR HIS APPEARING,” Part 42):

"We read in Rom. 14:17, `For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.' Do you believe peace is real? What does peace look like? Is it round? Is it square? Can you measure it? Can you buy a bottle full of peace, or a truckload? No! Peace is invisible, isn't it? And peace is powerful, isn't it? Peace is SPIRIT! And spirit is ENERGY! You can know when peace is present. You can sense peace, experience peace, speak peace, manifest peace and minister peace. How about joy? You cannot put joy in your pocket or roll it up like a wad of bills. Joy is SPIRIT! Righteousness is SPIRIT! Righteousness is ENERGY! Righteousness is attainable on this earth now because of the RIGHT SPIRIT, the Holy Spirit, God's Spirit. I have good news for you -- you can receive a new spirit, a new ENERGY FORCE, Holy Spirit, Holy Energy, and as a result attain a walk in righteousness. HOLY ENERGY -- this is what God IS!

"Never forget, dear reader, that all of the attributes and characteristics of the Holy Spirit and the unholy spirit ARE SPIRIT, and therefore ENERGY -- POWER! In the area of will, attitude, nature, emotion, mind, disposition, actions, etc., there is ALWAYS A TRANSMISSION OF ENERGY. Haven't you noticed that one person's attitude will `rub off' on to another person? One can begin complaining and soon everyone is complaining. One begins to be argumentative and soon everyone in the room is in a heated argument. Someone vents their anger on you and within seconds you are angry and screaming back at them. Or, a whole group of people may feel frustrated and hopeless in a situation, and just one person can enter the room with a smile on his face, radiating the attitude of confidence and assurance, speak a positive word of encouragement and victory, and soon the whole atmosphere changes, becoming charged with this new expectation, the spirit of the entire group being raised up into hope and anticipation. What is this? It is the work of SPIRIT: invisible, intangible ENERGY -- POWER! Invisible, but very real. And very powerful! There is constantly in this world a definite transference of spirit energy from person to person, from group to group, from nation to nation, positive or negative, as the case may be. The rise and success of false religions, communism, rock music, immorality, etc. are the direct result of negative satanic spirit influence transmitted to the masses through faithful ministers of unrighteousness who have become filled with the UN-HOLY SPIRIT, and consequently transmitters of the same, producing a SUPERCHARGED ATMOSPHERE. THIS, my beloved, IS the `power of the air!' Satan has a large elemental power. He is named the prince of the power of the air, meaning that he is the INVISIBLE RULER, which activity and authority he exercises IN and THROUGH men!

"Another example of the power of breathed-out spiritual energy was recorded by J.F. Goodavage: ‘Dr. Franklin Loehr, a minister of the Religious Research Foundation, discovered that plants, when PRAYED OVER by his congregation, grew 75 times faster than equally tended and nourished plants that were NOT prayed over.’" End quote.

Are we beginning to get a glimpse of the LOST POWER, that LOST ENERGY which has been lacking to keep the fires of God burning in people's lives? Are we beginning to see why there are no words coming forth today that are setting the world on fire? A few words from various ones are setting individual worlds on fire, but not the world as a whole. There are many factors for the widespread spiritual darkness; but primarily, we have replaced the vibrant, living ENERGY of the Spirit of God with the ashes of dead revivals past. The HOLY SPIRIT/ENERGY of LOVE, the HOLY SPIRIT/ENERGY of JOY, the HOLY SPIRIT/ENERGY of RIGHTEOUSNESS and PEACE have largely been lacking as a manifested reality in the world. Notwithstanding, we will not be held back, we will continue pressing toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus!

Surely, the earth is dark, it is awesomely cold and is virtually void of Light, so all the more reason to travail in the Spirit and cry out to our gracious God. In the gravity of this hour, we can praise our wonderful and mighty Lord of hosts, Jesus Christ, the firstborn from among the dead and of many brethren — the quick returning One. For He is the One who is descending out of the heavens in a war cry, He is the One who is coming in the voice of the Chief Messenger, and He is also the One who is appearing in the resounding, fiery trumpet of our living God (1 Thessalonians 4:16); and He is the One who rules in the kingdoms of men (Daniel 4:17). Jesus is the mighty One who is preparing to place blazing trumpets to the lips of those in travail and then to the ones called out of darkness to bring deliverance to the world. No longer shall we bring forth wind as Israel was doing in Isaiah 26:17-18, but rather, the very substance of God who is a consuming fire. So rejoice and sing aloud, ye saints of the most High, for your redemption draweth nigh, and the deliverance of the world is at hand. Even though it may be dark, and weeping endures for a night...joy cometh in the morning. You say this is hard to believe? Then lift up your eyes and see the dawn for yourself, for it is beginning, even as the prophet Joel declared and the shout of victory is so aptly heard:

 “...Like dawn spreading across the mountains a large and mighty army comes, such as never was of old nor ever will be in ages to come. Before them a fire devours, behind them a flame blazes....The Lord thunders at the head of His army; His forces are beyond number, and mighty are those who obey His command” Joel 2:2-3, 11 NIV.

“And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.” And after the silence, there were Trumpets of Fire! So come all ye trumpets of fire! Prepare yourselves to sound! For creation eagerly awaits your blazing word and manifestation!

In the midst of such a world of darkness — WHAT A DAY!  WHAT A DAY wherein we abide and WILL BRING IT FORTH!

Elwin R. Roach