By Rick Joyner (printed with permission)

In the last edition of Morning Star Journal, I began to share the prophetic history of MorningStar. I concluded with how I wrote my first book, There Were Two Trees in the Garden, and our move to North Carolina. In this part I will back up in time just a bit, before continuing with the beginning of our community in Moravian Falls.

It was soon after I had received the “A Vision of the Harvest,” and as we were preparing for our move to North Carolina, that I received a call from Joyce Green, wife of the late Milton Green. Milton had just passed away and Joyce asked me to speak at there annual conference in his place, which was held in Palestine, Texas. I agreed to do this, and while I was speaking in one of the meetings, I noticed an elderly man come in with a small group and sit in the back. I knew right away that there was an extraordinary anointing on this man, and as I looked at him the Holy Spirit spoke to me saying “He is a modern day ’Simeon.’ “He too serves night and day in prayer while waiting for the last-day harvest. Like Simeon, he will be allowed to see the salvation of the Lord in its infancy.”

I was so taken by this word that immediately after my message I went to meet this man. His name was Leonard Ravenhill, one of the classic writers of our time and one of the great prophetic voices of the twentieth century. I was greatly inspired by our short time together that day, and we agreed to stay in touch, which we did. This was more of a divine encounter than what I realized at that time, and led to a significant prophetic event that I will describe later.

It was also at this time that James Robison asked for my permission to print “A Vision of the Harvest” in his magazine Restoration. A few weeks later while, passing through Texas I met with James, and he asked me to do a few television programs with him. This led James to read the only book I had written at the time, There Were Two Trees in the Garden. James is not only one of the most anointed evangelists of our time, but because of his uncommon depth of passion and devotion, he is also one of the most anointed spiritual promoters of our time. James liked Two Trees in the Garden so much that he asked to print a special edition, and took one of his entire programs just to read quotes from it. Combined with his printing of my vision in his magazine, our little ministry was quickly catapulted into such visibility in the body of Christ. Orders for books and visitations for me to speak at churches and conferences started coming in from all over the world.

One day when I was sitting in James’ office talking to him, he told me about a former Dallas Theological Seminary professor, Jack Deere, who had been fired for embracing the present operation of the gifts of the Spirit. While James was telling me about him, I heard the Lord, as if He were speaking in my other ear, saying “You will meet Jack Deere. He will be one of My most important teachers in the last days.” That obviously got my attention, so I was determined to meet this man.

Just as we had moved to The Lamb’s Chapel near Charlotte, I went to a small gathering of prophetic people in Minneapolis that was hosted by Chuck Porta and Jim McCrackin. I think that the only person attending that I knew was Art Katz, and I was looking forward to seeing him again. However I had a great sense of a unique destiny on this meeting that went beyond just seeing an old friend. The gathering itself seemed unremarkable to be a gathering of prophets, but I felt a strong bond to several people whom I met there, including Carlton Kenny, and three men from Kansas City—Mike Bickle, Noel Alexander, Jim Goll.

During the meetings, Mike told me about some of his experiences with a prophetic man in Kansa City named Bob Jones. I was amazed and greatly inspired by these accounts. When I asked Mike if I could meet Bob, he not only said that I could, but he knew that I was supposed to. He said that Bob already knew about me from some dreams that he had received. My interest in meeting Bob grew.

A few weeks later, Mike came to North Carolina with Bob and Viola Jones, and to my astonishment, they brought Jack Deere with them. The next couple of days were even more extraordinary than I had hoped. As I was driving Mike, Bob, and Jack to The Lamb’s Chapel Retreat Center, Bob starting saying as we were getting closer, “I was here last night in my dream!” He then accurately described some of the features of the retreat center that we were still a few miles from. He then started describing Harry Bizzell’s whom I was taking them to meet, but had not told them anything about.

When we were walking to the house, one of the Bizzell’s daughters was leaving. Bob stopped her and told her about a few details about her life. Visibly stunned she followed us back into the house. Before I had finished the introductions to Harry and Louise, Bob said that he already knew about them (because of his dream), and started telling them things about their lives that even I was not aware of. I had never seen Harry cry before, but in just a couple of minutes the tears were flowing.

I had seen a lot of personal prophecy before, but never anything with the kind of depth and accuracy that Bob walked in. What was even more amazing that he seemingly walked in it all of the time. He would even look at things, such as trees, and tell what had happened to them recently, or what was about to happen to them, such as being hit with a disease. Whenever I had the opportunity to check these things out, they always proved accurate. This awakened in me a much greater appreciation for the power of personal prophetic than I had ever considered. I also felt supernaturally bonded to Mike Bickle and Jack Deere, which continues to this day. Mike was one of the most passionate lover of God that I had met, and Jack, in spite of all of his academic learning, was one of the most spiritually hungry and teachable people I had met. I was told at that time that all of us would work together for the purposes of the Lord.

After the extraordinary afternoon with the Bizzells, we were standing in the parking lot of The Lamb’s Chapel getting ready to leave, when Bob started talking about seeing a great wind coming, and now it was so strong that he saw the rain blowing horizontally. We both speculated that this was something spiritual, but it really got my attention, and I thought about it often. Then when I went to Kansas City to visit Kansas City Fellowship, as soon as Bob saw me, he started talking about how he had seen more concerning the wind that would come against us in Charlotte. Because no hurricane had ever come that far inland before (over 200 miles), I did not think that this could be literal but spiritual, and asked Bob if he thought it meant spiritually. He did not know, but just felt an urgency to share with me what he had seen.

Bob also saw trees being flattened all around our property in North Carolina, and this should have given us the hint that this was literal, but since no hurricane had ever gone that far inland before, or even close to that far, this seemed out of the realm of possibility, so we spiritualized it and concluded that this had a spiritual application rather than a physical one.

I had basically concluded that the wind represented a great move of the Spirit, which is sometimes represented in Scripture as a wind, and this would be disruptive to all who did not have strong roots, etc. Bob tended to agree with these thoughts. This proves one thing—prophetic people can be just as dull as anyone else when it comes to understanding what the Lord is saying. Even if a prophet is getting a very clear word or revelation, because we “see in part,” “know in part,” and “prophecy in part” (see I Corinthians 13:9), The most any prophetic person to get will be a part of the revelation, and therefore to understand the whole picture we must put the part we have been given together with what others are seeing. This remains one of the weakest links in the prophetic movement—the failure of prophetic people to link together to share their part with each other to get the whole picture.

In the mean time, Charlotte had been awarded a National Basketball Association (NBA) team, The Charlotte Hornets, and they named their mascot “Hugo the Hornet.” This was just a few months before Hurricane Hugo was to strike Charlotte. This was an important part of the revelation, which became very clear after the storm, but it would have been hard to relate all of this as it was unfolding. That, too, is important to understand about prophecy. Many people want to use prophecy as proof of the Lord’s existence or interest in the affairs of men, but I think it is rarely given to prove Himself, but rather simply to give understanding of His ways and His acts to those who already believe Him, which usually does not come together after the events are prophesied.

I am sharing this because it is a recurring theme throughout our prophetic journey. We have matured somewhat so that we do not immediately tend to spiritualize what the Lord says to us, but we have at the same time become even more humbled, and understand regardless of how much we are shown, it is still only part of the picture. This is still useful, and at times incredibly helpful, but it also does serve to keep us humble and teachable.

It was about this same time that I was asked to share with a number of church leaders at the home of one of Charlotte’s leading citizens. I knew they were going to ask me what I saw the principality over Charlotte to be, and I felt that I had been shown a great deal about this in the preceding months. What I had seen was called “charismatic witchcraft,” which has nothing to do with the Charismatic Movement, but rather a form of witchcraft that has its roots in human charisma. Witchcraft is basically a counterfeit spiritual authority, which uses manipulation, control, and other forms of influence to control and manipulate in place of the Holy Spirit. This is a type of counterfeit spiritual authority that often gains entry into the churches, movements, and as I had been shown, was a major factor in bringing down PTL ministry, a downfall from which Charlotte was still reeling.

So, I went to this meeting with the church leaders with a purpose of what I had seen of this spiritual attack on the city, but was warned by God that when I shared this it would result in a great wrath coming against the city. My first response was not to share anything about it, but I was told that I was to share this and to expect the wrath to come. Later I was shown that whenever Satan is cast out of heaven, or his realm over a place, he comes down to the earth with great wrath, knowing that his time has been shortened, just as we see in Revelation 12:12. How would just my sharing the revelation of what the principality was going to do cast him down? It would not, but it would begin the process. Satan dwells in darkness, and whenever he is exposed by the light of revelation, it begins to displace him just as when a light is turned on in a room and darkness has to flee from it. My sharing this with those that have spiritual authority could be the beginning of bringing down this form of charismatic witchcraft over the Charlotte region, but it would not be over with the sharing of the revelation. That would only begin the battle because the devil would come down with great wrath.

As I had come to understand the strategy of witchcraft and how it works, I was also shown that it attacks like hornets attack, stinging their victims over and over and driving them out. I was shown what the specific stings were, all of which I have shared in my teachings on witchcraft and counterfeit authority. As this was all fresh to me, it got my attention when Charlotte’s NBA team was named The Charlotte Hornets (which have since moved to New Orleans, which is interesting). Did the devil really have part in naming an NBA team? Why would he do this? First, there is a basic aspect or nature to evil that wants to boast and flaunt itself. This is not to imply that every team reflects the evil principality over a region, but almost always the evil spirit dominating a region, will find some way of flaunting itself. Pride and boasting are basic characteristics of evil.

So shortly after my meeting with church leaders, a storm came off the coast of Africa quickly named Hugo, the Charlotte Hornet’s mascot’s name, and turned straight for the Carolinas. The day that Hugo was expected to hit the coast of North Carolina, I was given a word from the Lord, that He would protect me and my family, and all that we had. My response was “from what?” No hurricane had ever gone that far inland, and they were just expecting Charlotte area to get gusts maybe up to 35 mph with a lot of rain. To everyone’s astonishment, Charlotte was hit that night with full hurricane force winds of 90 mph. As I looked out of my window that night at the rain coming horizontally, which was maybe ten feet from where Bob had prophesied the “great wind coming against you,” and “ rain coming horizontally,” I knew what he had meant. This was the “great wrath.” Charlotte was devastated. Power was knocked out in some parts for a month. When I looked out the next morning, the forest that Bob had seen flattened was indeed flattened. I had a little twelve foot by twelve foot shack that was “the international headquarters of MorningStar Ministries” at the time, and I just knew that all I had in it must have been demolished. To my astonishment, it was not even damaged, though trees were down all around it, some falling within inches of it. We surveyed the rest of the property, and the only damage we could find were a couple of shingles blown off one of the buildings. None of our neighbors were so fortunate, and we knew that we had been protected.

Though we did not have electrical power to see it at the time, one of the local news stations had surveyed the path of the storm and remarked, ”Hugo made a beeline for Charlotte.” When I was told this, I had no trouble believing why. Could so much as sharing the nature of a principality stir up such a devastating storm? Yes, This was just the beginning of a long saga that we have had with storms, and a long battle we have fought against witchcraft This thread is woven throughout our history, including storms on the east coast, Gulf Coast, the North Sea, and other places. The understanding we have gained from all these is considerable, and the story needs to be told. Though this battle is far from over, there have been victories and ground has been taken. The end result of this is going to be a knew breed of leadership arising that walks in true spiritual authority, abiding in the Holy Spirit, and doing His will.

We will have much more to say about storms and witchcraft, but it was no accident that the last place hurricane force winds were measured from Hurricane Hugo was on the Brushy Mountains in a little place called Moravian Falls. The day the Hurricane Hugo hit was also the day that Steve and Angie Thompson joined the staff at MorningStar. We joke that we still do not know who did more damage, but Steve and Angie truly laid a major part of the foundation of what MorningStar has become. The plot thickens even more, and we will get into some things in the next issue that still astonish me, but they are our history, and the story does need to be told. Revelation is in it that will be crucial for our time. 

Printed with permission by Triune Last Days Ministries

From MorningStar Journal

Vol. 18, No. 2