John and Lisa Bevere are the cofounders of Messenger International, a ministry that exists to help individuals, families, churches, and nations realize and experience the transforming power of God’s Word. This realization will result in lives empowered, communities transformed, and a dynamic response to the injustices plaguing our world. For more information on Messenger International, visit MessengerInternational.org.

About the Author

Marked by boldness and passion, John Bevere delivers uncompromising truth through his award-winning curriculum and best-selling books (The Bait of Satan, Drawing Near, Driven by Eternity and others) now available in over sixty languages. He speaks internationally and is co-host of The Messenger TV program, which is broadcast worldwide. John enjoys living in Colorado Springs with his wife, Lisa, also a bestselling author and speaker, their four sons, daughter-in-law, and grandbabies.

Acknowledgments

My deepest appreciation to . . .

All those who labored with us in prayer and in financial support to bring this project to completion; to our ministry staff for their constant support and faithfulness.

I want to thank my wife, Lisa, for being the godly wife she has been to me. I love you, darling!

A special thanks to my four sons, Addison, Austin, Alexander and Arden, you boys are special gifts from heaven above!

Most important, my sincere gratitude to our Father in Heaven for His indescribable gift, to our Lord Jesus for His grace and truth, and to the Holy Spirit for His faithful guidance during this project.

Chapter One

The Elijah Anointing

God’s judgment will be according to His righteous standard, not our own.

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse. -Malachi 4:5-6

The Day of the Lord

The great and dreadful day of the Lord—the second coming of Christ — may be closer than you or I think. God says that He is going to send Elijah the prophet before the coming of that day. It will be a great day for the faithful and wise servants of the Lord and a dreadful day for those who never received the gospel of Christ and those who were unwise and wicked servants of the Lord. These are the ones who, though they knew His will, did not do it! This is illustrated in the following words of Jesus:

“And the Lord said, “Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has. But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more” (emphasis added). – Luke 12:42-48

The great and dreadful day of the Lord is His return to execute judgment. God’s judgment will be according to His righteous standard, not our own. On this day, “The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low; the Lord alone will be exalted in that day, but the idols He shall utterly abolish” (Isaiah 2:17-18). It is the day of vengeance on the pride and disobedience of man, even though now it seems as if haughtiness and rebellion go unnoticed, unpunished, and often rewarded.

Many today are deceived. They live for themselves but believe they are right with God. Their hardened hearts have lost the fear of God. Of these we are told “. . . that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts [desires], and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation’” (emphasis added) (2 Peter 3:3-4). These men and women walk according to their self-seeking desires, not God’s. Some deeds are even done in the name of Christianity. Their standard is not Jesus; they compare themselves with each other. The acceptance of society is their standard. Their reasoning goes something like this: “Why should I live a holy lifestyle when many in the church don’t live that way and they go unpunished? In fact, they even seem to prosper in what they do. Why should I put an unnecessary burden on myself?”

The Lord will rise in judgment by saying, “I have held My peace a long time, I have been still and restrained Myself. Now I will cry like a woman in labor, I will pant and gasp at once. I will lay waste the mountains and hills . . .” (emphasis added) (Isaiah 42:14-15). God has been still and restrained Himself for a long time. The purpose of this delay is salvation. Many will turn and return to the Lord in this season, while others will grow harder and harder as they refuse His call. To them the day of the Lord will come unexpectedly.

“For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape” (emphasis added). – 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3

The day of the Lord shall come as it did in the days of Lot. Sodom and Gomorrah were fruitful cities with no lack of food or shelter. There was no sign of impending judgment. Everything was the same as it had been for their fathers. “They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built . . .” (Luke 17:28). They were caught totally unaware. They must have thought God took no notice of the condition of their hearts and the perverseness of their ways.

Lot was even unaware of the coming judgment. Lot could represent fleshly, carnal Christians. We see this by where he chose to dwell (among the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah), the type of wife he had, and the children he fathered by incest, the Moabites and Ammonites. By contrast, Abraham chose to live a separated life. He was looking for the city whose builder and maker is God. Lot chose to take fellowship with the ungodly rather than live a separated life. The ways of the ungodly slowly but surely began to bear fruit in him and his family. No longer were his standards dictated by God; they were dictated by the society around him. Lot became “. . .oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)” (2 Peter 2:7-8). The day of judgment would have come on him as a thief in the night also, had it not been for the messengers God sent to warn him. However, even with this warning of judgment, his wife chose to look back because she had been so influenced by the world that she no longer feared the Lord. That is why Jesus warned us by saying, “Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it” (emphasis added) (Luke 17:32).

Elijah Comes First

God said He would send Elijah the prophet before the great and dreadful day of the Lord. This Elijah who is to come is not the Elijah of 1 and 2 Kings reincarnated. The text is not referring to a historic man, nor is it limited to a mere man. Rather, it describes the true meaning of “Elijah.” To explain, the word Elijah comes from two Hebrew words: el and Yahh, el meaning “strength or might” and Yahh being the proper name for the one true God Jehovah. By putting them together we come up with “strength or might of Jehovah, the one true God.” So what Malachi was saying was that, prior to the day of the Lord, God would send a prophetic mantle or anointing in the strength and might of the one true God.

Prior to Jesus’ first coming the angel Gabriel appeared to Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, and described the call upon his son’s life as follows:

“And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (emphasis added). – Luke 1:16-17

John was the Elijah prophet sent to prepare the way of the Lord prior to Jesus’ first coming. He was “the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight’” (Mark 1:3). The thrust of His ministry was to turn the hearts of the children of Israel back to God; his message: “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). Repentance means a change of heart, not just a change of action. The children of Israel’s actions were very religious, but their hearts were far from God. Thousands attended synagogue faithfully, unaware of the true condition of their hearts. So God raised up the prophet John to expose their actual heart condition. John declared to the multitudes, “Offspring of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath [judgment] to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father . . . ’” (emphasis added) (Luke 3:7-8, RSV.)

He exposed the deception in which their hearts were trusting. They believed they were justified because they were children of Abraham and because of their faithful attendance of synagogue and payment of tithes. John was not sent to the heathen who had never professed to know God; he was sent to awaken the “lost sheep” of the house of Israel, to prepare them to receive Jesus.

John the Baptist fulfilled the Elijah prophecies for his day prior to the Lord’s first coming. However, Malachi prophesied that this anointing would be sent prior to the great and dreadful day of the Lord. This means there are two different fulfillments of the prophecy. This is explained in Matthew 17.

Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him (emphasis added). – Matthew 17:1-2

It is significant that Jesus’ face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as the light, and Moses and Elijah appeared and talked with Him. For when Jesus returns on that great and dreadful day, He will rule and reign for a thousand years on the earth in His glorified body, and His saints will rule with Him. Continuing, we read:

Now as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, “Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead.” And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things. But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished. Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands.” Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist (emphasis added). – Matthew 17:9-13

Jesus spoke this after John was beheaded. Notice He refers to two different time periods of the Elijah anointing: future (is coming) and past (has come).

Prior to the second coming of Jesus Christ, once again God will raise a prophetic anointing. However, this time the mantle will not rest upon a single man but corporately on a group of prophets and anointed men and women in the body of Christ. In the book of Acts, Peter quoted the prophet Joel:

“. . .Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy . . . and on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy . . . before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD” (emphasis added). – Acts 2:17-20

One of the definitions of the Greek word for “prophesy” in the above verse is to speak forth under divine inspiration. As we can see, this anointing to speak forth what God is saying will not be limited to just the prophetic office but will come upon pastors, teachers, evangelists, and apostles. It will come on those ministers who will follow God fully and who are not out to build their own ministries and are not intimidated by the opinions of men or organizations. This anointing will also come upon the remnant of men and women who will follow God wholly without the fear of man. Young men and women who are not in full-time ministry will flow in this anointing because it will come on the remnant of people in the church who have not bowed their knees to compromise, thus preparing the church for the return of the Lord.

Like John the Baptist, these Elijah prophets will go after the lost or deceived sheep in the church structure, as well as those who have left through the “door of offense.” There are many who attend church and feel they are ready for Jesus to return. Like the people of John the Baptist’s time, they believe that by their works, good behavior, church attendance, tithes, or the fact that they once prayed the sinner’s prayer, they are justified. They may believe they are justified, but the truth is they’re not ready for His return.

There are ministers who live below the standard God has set for them. Their private lives are filled with the pursuit of gain and pleasure. They use the ministry to serve themselves and their goals. Some live as hypocrites; they ignore or terrorize their families while all the while acting spiritual and loving in the church. A leader cannot rise above where he is personally. He may appear to for a season, but sooner or later it will catch up with him. Not unlike the religious leaders of John’s time, they believe that through their service, training, experiences, and good standing with fellow ministers and organizations they stand righteous in the eyes of God. Or they may believe that because many follow their ministry, God also approves of them. The Pharisees had a large following until the word of the Lord came to John in the wilderness and the multitudes left. Then these hypocritical ministers came out to hear what God was saying through a man who not only yielded his mouth to God but also his entire life!

Yes, the day of the Lord will come upon the ministers who are lofty and proud. As a matter of fact, it will begin with them. There will be a sifting of their private lives and motives. They too have thought, “Ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things remain the same.” Ministers of the Lord, bare your hearts now that you may fulfill His call on your life and thus remove yourself from His judgment.

Before you proceed to the next chapter, I urge you to read the Introduction if you have not already done so. The message of this book is strong. But it is strong to save lives, not to destroy them. It is strong to save ministers, not to destroy them. It may even remove the parts of your ministry that were built by the strength of the flesh. But remember: God does not destroy, root out, or tear down things in our lives or ministries without building and planting what is new and fresh in their place. The message of this book is a message of His love and mercy. He warns us so we will not be judged with the world like Lot’s wife!