Ideas Beyond our Time from Eric Johnson

When an idea has reached its time, it enters the minds of several people. A little over a year ago, we had a conference at Bethel where Bishop Joseph Garlington was here as one of the speakers. He made a statement that was so profound that it has become a key to understanding atmospheric shifts. It is as follows: "When an idea has reached its time, it enters the minds of several people." It is one of those keys that seemed to answer a lot of questions that surround shifts and seasons of revelation. A few years ago, Pastor Kris Vallotton began preaching a word on "Princes and Paupers," and, as many know, he has written an excellent book called The Supernatural Ways of Royalty. This message has become very important for thousands of people as they recognize they are called to be princes and princesses. One thing we have noticed is that, around the same time, a lot of large companies began using the words "prince" or "princess" on their clothing or in their movies. It became a regular thing to see somebody wearing a shirt with "princess" on it or a movie that had that title. When an idea has reached its time, it enters the minds of several people. Earlier this year we began to hear of a phenomenon that occurred in past moves of God and is actually taking place in our day. The reports are increasing of jewels and gems showing up in people's homes, prayer meetings, and church services. These jewels and gems are just appearing. Some are appearing as an angel flies by and drops them. Others are being found in people's hands as they are praying or worshipping. At the time of writing this article, I have some friends in Japan who have had 11 jewels appear. As people were marveling at one that appeared in a lady 's hand, it multiplied into two. The other day I was sitting on the couch playing a competitive card game of UNO with my oldest daughter. My youngest was sitting behind me on the couch, and in the middle of an intense game of UNO, she told me, "I want three diamonds and a crown on your head!" I put my cards down and turned around and asked, "What did you say?" She repeated the same thing. Now she had my attention. She was adamant that God would put three diamonds and a crown on my head. She also seemed frustrated because she was asking that God put them on my head, and they weren't there. After we talked for a minute, I went back to playing cards. A few moments later, she grabbed my head and began to search for diamonds in my hair. Recently a family in the church here was not able to leave the house one day because one of their young kids insisted that there were diamonds in the bushes around the house. He refused to leave the home because he was looking for the diamonds. When an idea has reached its time, it enters the minds of several people. The other night I was watching TV, and a commercial came on for a furniture company. The whole catch line of the commercial was "Transformation Nation." Their promotion was that they were going to transform the nation by people furnishing their houses with their furniture. This current move of God has moved from just getting people saved to a movement that brings transformation to a society and culture. The word "transformation" has become a regular part of our vocabulary. We talk about it, we pray about it and we dream about it. Ministries are adding this word to their mission statements. Some are putting this word into the name of their ministry. Why? When an idea has reached its time, it enters the minds of several people. I believe this is a key to understanding seasons of revelation. The spirit of Revelation is unveiling Kingdom principles in such a timely manner that it is evident that God is moving in such an unprecedented way. It's like this recipe for a massive worldwide revival is being formed as we live out our lives. God is adding ingredients that are essential to this move of God sweeping every corner of the planet. I believe that the things that you and I experience today in the spiritual and natural had the potential to be experienced 1,000 years ago. The Kingdom revelation that we walk in and are stepping into was something that, if it had been stewarded correctly after Jesus taught it, would have been experienced a long time ago. But since the ideas or revelations that Jesus taught were not stewarded correctly, they were lost in time. That is why the church is stepping into its rightful place; we are going back and truly understanding what Jesus preached. The same goes for things in the natural. The technology we experience today is because, since the industrial revolution, men and women have stewarded ideas that came and took things to the next level. The way people lived their lives until the late 1700's and early 1800 's pretty much remained the same. When the industrial revolution hit, it radically changed the way we did life and business. It ushered in a release of ideas. The people that took these ideas became pioneers in many different fields of expertise. Why? Because they stewarded them. They took an idea and found a way to actually make it happen. For some, the cost was incredible. One idea or concept is actually the gateway or door to a whole world of ideas. So what we see in the industrial revolution is that it essentially took the concept of manpower and got a machine to do it. This one idea released millions of other ideas. When an idea has reached its time, it enters the minds of several people. year or so ago, I remember having a conversation with God and asking him to give me some creative ideas. His reply was simple, "What have you done with the ones that I have already given you? " There is a simple principle of stewardship that is in place to actually release exponential increase. Stewardship is meant to be applied to the very practical things of life and all the way to the spiritual realm of miracles, healings, revelations…. One of the major flaws in the minds of the religious leaders of Jesus ' day was that they would not budge from a God-given revelation: The Law. They were so tied down to a layer of revelation that they were blinded to the fact that what they walked in was actually a stepping stone into what Jesus carried. They created such a fortified city around this one revelation that if you tried to go to the next level, you were punished and in some cases excommunicated from society. A revelation from God is not meant to become a fortified city in our thinking where we now live forever. It is designed to become a foundation to stand on and a trampoline to jump to the next level. A number of times Jesus was asked by the religious leaders: "Show us a sign." Jesus ' response reveals some things that can help us understand what to do with stewarding ideas or revelations. He says, "You evil and adulterous generation. "What was he saying? He was saying two things. First, he calls them "evil, " which means, "to disrupt the harmony that God set in motion." He was declaring to them that they were actually affecting the harmony and peace that God had set in motion since the beginning of time. The second thing that he calls them is "adulterous," that they are like a spouse that has committed adultery over and over. They were not faithful as a spouse should be. The nation of Israel had a marriage contract with God. He knew the motive of the question and that they wouldn't believe if he performed another miracle because there are two types of curiosities. One is to justify doubt or unbelief. The other is the raw hunger to know. So he referred them to two historical signs that didn't happen in their lifetime. They were in the history books. What's the point? They were required to go back to an old story and understand what God was saying and make that their foundation or trampoline. A revelation, testimony, healing, or miracle is literally a way God sets standard. We are to live by that standard. We are not to go below that standard. It is not allowed. It is what the Pharisees and Sadducees did. They failed to take an old story and the life of Jesus and allow that to take them to the next level. Again they refused to budge from revelation from God. A number of years ago, we had a guest speaker that was here for five nights of services. This guest speaker would spend a minimum of one hour, sometimes up to two hours a night, preaching on the offering. Then after the offering, he would speak a message. These services were five to six hours long. I remember the first night during the offering teaching, I felt that we were to give $50 for the whole week. At the time, that was a lot of money for my wife and me, so I decided to give $10 a night, thus accumulating to $50 by the end of the week. During the course of the week, I kept hearing and thinking of the number 500 over and over. The week of services and several weeks went by and I totally forgot the whole thing about the number 500 in my head. We had some friends over for dinner one night; we had a great time of fellowship. It was getting late, and they decided it was time to go home. We thanked them for coming over, and they left our apartment. I went to our room to get ready for bed, and we heard our front door knock. Candace, my wife, went to answer the door, and a few minutes later she came back to our room and she handed me a check for $500. Our friends, when they got into their car, decided to write a check for that amount and give it to us. Something took place that was more than just a provision of finances. A standard was set. I remember thinking to myself, I am responsible to never doubt or question God's provision for the rest of my life. When Jesus called the Pharisees and Sadducees "You evil and adulterous generation," he also said, "No sign will be given to you except the Prophet Jonah." What was he saying? I believe he was commanding them to go back in history and understand that what he did then was a standard that they have gone below or forgotten. Essentially they were responsible to uphold the standard or sign that didn't happen in their own day or in front of their own eyes. When Jesus revealed himself to Thomas after he had doubted whether Jesus was raised from the dead, He told him, "You have believed because you have seen, but blessed are those who believe because they have not seen." What is Jesus saying? He is saying that there is a tendency not to believe or use the things that did not happen in front of our own eyes to embrace a release from Heaven. We seem to think, "If I see it, I will believe it! "Jesus was addressing this mindset. He was saying. "Use what you may have only heard or even read to set a standard of how God moves. " And when we do that, he will unleash more of Heaven into our realm. To see God unleashing the Kingdom of Heaven into our realm is the passion of this generation. Let's begin to steward the ideas of the past, present, and future to see where it leads us in this Revival. In order for us to receive ideas beyond our time, we must steward the ideas of our time.