Given the relatively recent rise of self-proclaimed prophets and apostles such as Cindy Jacobs and Lou Engle within the Religious Right movement, I've recently read several books by Engle, Peter Wagner, and Johnny Enlow to try and get a better understanding of the theology and agenda behind this movement.
Yesterday, I finished reading Jacobs' "The Reformation Manifesto: Your Part in God's Plan to Change Nations Today" and just wanted to highlight a section that exemplifies the difference between the standard Religious Right leaders and this new breed of prophetic intercessors.
Whereas people like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell regularly made (and, in some cases, continue to make) news for claiming that specific natural disasters were the result of God signaling his displeasure with humanity, activists like Jacobs regularly take responsibility for unleashing these sorts of events.
In her book, Jacobs recounts an incident in 2006 when she came to Washington, DC for a conference. During her visit, God gave Jacobs a "prophetic word" that He was going to "wash Washington" and gave her a vision of "angels in chariots of fire encircling the area, waiting to be invited in." Jacobs delivered her prophecy to the conference, noting that "not only were we interceding for the upcoming mid-term elections in our nation, but for righteousness and justice to be released into the courts."
According to Jacobs, "there was tremendous warfare in the heavens that night" following her prophecy ... which was then followed by a rainstorm which flooded the nation's capital:
That night after the meeting, the skies over the Capitol looked like the bombing of Baghdad. Lightning and thunder rocked the skies and the rain began to fall. Over the weekend, the rain increased. The skies looked like the heavens would, with the angelic host fighting the powers of darkness over the city. There was war in the heavenlies!
The news services on Monday June 26, 2006 reported in the natural what the prophets prophesied at Shift the Nation. One part of the city was flooded with a five feet deep mudslide covering the Capitol Beltway road for one mile. One of our prayers during the conference was for corruption to be exposed and for God to build a “highway of holiness” across the nation and the Lord has spoken to us quite a bit about an Isaiah 35 holiness movement in Washington, DC.
In addition, as intercessors have been praying about the Free Masonic designs in the original layout of the Federal district by L’Enfant Plaza, the L’Enfant portion of the metrorail subway system in DC was stopped because of water on the electrical lines.
I also saw a vision the first night of a huge old tree being pushed back and forth until the roots were loosened from the soil. Considerable time was spent asking the Lord to “uproot” one more Supreme Court justice to help give the votes needed to overturn Roe vs. Wade. God gave us two remarkable signs as the news reported on June 26 that “Not even the White House could escape the damage, as a 100-year-old American elm tree fell near the front door.”
Additionally, The Washington Post reported that the Justice Department located on Constitution Avenue was shut down for a whole day on June 26, 2006. We also prayed and spoke about Ezekiel 47:9-11 which speaks of the river that flows from the throne of God and brings life to where ever it flows. It is one of the most classic passages on revival. As the waters rose in the city, fish were found washed up from the flood for the first time in memory - and fish are a symbol of revival!
Jacobs, Engle, and the like believe that they have supernatural powers of the exact same sort possessed by Jesus Christ, given to them by the Holy Spirit, thus allowing them to know the will of God, perform miracles, and cause events to happen.
I've been studying the Religious Right for more than a decade and have never seen anything like this among the groups and people that we monitor. But now not only are "prophets" and "apostles" like Jacobs and Engle being welcomed into the more "traditional" movement, they appear to be rapidly changing the nature of the movement itself, with Engle leading the FRC "prayercast" and leading more "mainstream" leaders in Call-like prayer sessions while Jacobs played in key role in orchestrating Janet Porter's upcoming "May Day 2010" prayer rally which is organized entirely around "7 Mountains" dominionist theology and is scheduled to feature several GOP members of Congress.
