Who is going to stand in the gap?

Hayley Braun-Who is going to stand in the gap || School of the Prophets, 2024.

From Kris Vallotton's channel.

This is one of the most powerful, apropos messages for the body of Christ!!! I attempted to transcribe it for those who prefer it in writing:

At the end of 2019 I found a broken watch in my bag. We were contending for a miracle at the end of 2019 and the Lord gave me a word and said time has stopped. 2020 happens, Time truly feels like it stops. And in 2021 of October, this is what the Lord saying in San Francisco airport:

“Time is starting again. I'm starting the timer. I'm flipping the order. I'm flipping the order of authority, Old systems are getting turned in my favor, and I'm birthing a new order. The natural order is being shifted and new favor will rest on those who have surrendered to my fire. They carry the fire for reformation. There’s a remnant rising and they have been tested by the fire, the 1st Corinthians 3:11-15 fire. That which is built for another or unto other has now been consumed, and now that which is me remains. I'm revealing myself through sons and daughters who have yielded to my nature and my likeness. Never before have you seen what I'm about to do. The fire of Acts and of Azuza will rest upon a company, not just one. With eyes like flint on my throne they will March boldly in unison into the earth to reveal me, for I long to reveal my glory. Time has Started. You have been in a seasonal maturation, incubation and birthing. I've asked for much and you have willingly given.

Now I am stepping in and coming through, for I am a covenant keeping God and I do not go back on my word. I keep my covenant with Abraham, with David, and with Hannah, and I will keep my covenant with you. I have searched and I've found a uniting of the church is coming. A three-cord strand is being woven. I am birthing a fresh move in my apostles and prophets and they will be consumed with a Heavenly mind and drawn to gaze, to gaze, to gaze”.

I'm getting caught up right now and I'm gazing, the flashes of lightning on his robe are striking  my heart and my eyes. Attention and affection to be consumed with His beauty, majesty and splendor, He is all powerful, He is all.

I write more about this and the Lord gives me this word “oil” about the oil of anointing that's being poured out, and an oil of preparation. I didn't fully understand then. I thought that word was for now, but then the next day after he gave me this word, I go into this trance with the Lord, this is what happens.

The TRANCE

Jesus is the lion of the tribe of Judah, and he's bigger than I can imagine and he's on the move. I was clinging to a strand of his hair and hanging on for dear life. In the vision, he continued to run and He invited me to sit on His forehead. Climbing up his mane to ride on his forehead. His face began to change back and forth, Lion to Lamb Lion to Lamb. I knew that me sitting on his forehead was a symbol of the authority for the church and to carry his heavenly mind. As I sat there yielding to his mind, He said to me. “24 is the completion of time”. Logically, I thought, well, yes, there are 24 hours in a day. And he repeated it like I hadn't quite understood over and over. 2024 is the completion of time. 24 is the completion of time. The more he said it, the more revelation I would receive. I began curiously asking, is it Psalm 24? Revelation 2:4? (But I have this [charge] against you, that you have left your first love [you have lost the depth of love that you first had for Me]. Rev 2:4 ) which I do believe is a part of it, but he kept saying “24 is the completion of time. 24 is the completion of this time”. You'll begin to see signs of the times Now. I’ve started my time again and tides are turning and you'll see a completion of this time in 2024. I will blow my trumpet in 2024 to signify a completion of this time, he says. Time has started and you are entering in and will be prepared. At the completion of this time the miracles will be firmly established. We are being prepared. Prepared with oil for fire.

Prepared with Oil for Fire. (4:01)

It’s a wild thing to think about the season the church has gone through the last 4 years. And if you ask me, it sounds like we’ve been going though preparation.

You know, Esther, before she was prepared to see the king, she spent six months bathing in oil to remove a season and six months to put a fragrance in for a new season. Six months was removing that the effect of desert storms and food and spices. She wasn't a rich girl, she was a peasant girl. She was chosen because she was beautiful, but she had to get ready to smell like the fragrance of royalty. And so for the first six months they took the fragrance out of her body. They took and old season off of her body. You know, you ladies, oil cleansing is the latest thing. It’s how you moisturize and remove dirt all at the same time. This is what they were doing for Esther. And then for six months, they put the King's favorite fragrance in oil and they made her smell like royalty.

This is where I feel like we've been in. I feel like the Lord is inviting us as the people of God to step back into the gap. And this is what prophets do.

2 Kings 2

The Lord is weaving a theme together about generational inheritance. We know the story of Elisha. He gets called when he was plowing a field. I think this is a message for this generation but probably for all of us. A lot of us want to get called when we are doing something spiritual but Elisha was just doing what his dad always did. He was working in a field; they say he was yoked to 12 oxen. That man was dirty. Can you imagine walking (it’s not just sand either, it’s poop too.) and He was doing, he had his hand to the plow and he was doing the work when he gets called and he gets a cloak thrown over his shoulders. And then Elijah pretends like, I don't know what I'm doing. Like, yeah, maybe. And Elijah goes, and he sacrifices his future. He slits the throat of his future and he gives his future to God. He has a party that eats his future. That's what they do. The whole community eats his future, and he Elisha goes to follow Elijah. And then we read this story today that Elijah now knows it's time to be taken up in a whirlwind. (x 1 Kings 19)

What Elijah is about to be taken up into a whirlwind, and today we read the story that he starts at Gilgal.

2 Kings 2:1

And it came to pass, when the Lord was about to take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. 2 Then Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here, please, for the Lord has sent me on to Bethel.”

But Elisha said, “As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you!” So they went down to Bethel.

3 Now the sons of the prophets who were at Bethel came out to Elisha, and said to him, “Do you know that the Lord will take away your master [a]from over you today?”

And he said, “Yes, I know; keep silent!”

I think he's saying just keep quiet I’m trying to figure out what's going on.

4 Then Elijah said to him, “Elisha, stay here, please, for the Lord has sent me on to Jericho.”

But he said, “As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you!” So they came to Jericho.

And so they go to Jericho and thy meet the sons of the prophets.

Then at Jericho Elijah says the same thing to Elisha. Now I'm going as far as the Jordan and we know Elisha goes with him. And then Elisha asks this. In verse 9 where they had crossed. Elijah rolls up his mantle, strikes the Jordan, crosses through the Jordan, just as the Israelites have done before.

9 And so it was, when they had crossed over, that Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask! What may I do for you, before I am taken away from you?”

Elisha said, “Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.”

10 So he said, “You have asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you; but if not, it shall not be so.”

Now as I was doing a study on this passage. I was reading through what a double portion meant. A lot of people see the double portion as twice the anointing, but many of the Hebrew scholars say that what Elisha was actually asking for was for the spiritual anointing of Elijah and the physical sonship anointing of inheritance. He was saying I don't just want to be a spiritual son, I want to receive the heritance of your natural son. Elisha was saying, I don't just want to be your servant, I want to be in your lineage. And Elijah says to him, you have asked for a hard thing, you're not gonna have to be looking for signs and wonders for this. You're gonna have to keep your eye on your father in order to become a son.

And here is such an interesting story, you see, because Elijah keeps telling Elisha, don't come with me. You see the journey from Gilgal to Bethel is not a simple journey. Because you read in, in Joshua, Gilgal is actually right beside Jericho, and they're gonna go Gilgal, Bethel, Jericho, Jordan. And Elijah is saying, I'm about to take a long trip. You should stay here.

Well, Gilgal in the Old Testament is known as the place where the manna ceased. It was the first time the Israelites ate of the fruit of the land. Gilgal was the place of first promise. It was the place of first fruit. And you see, I don't think Elijah was just saying stay here. He was offering him to stay at the high place of comfort. He was offering for him to stay at the place of provision, to stay at the place where I feel settled, where I know what I am to do, because he was going to Bethel.

Bethel was the place where Jacob poured oil on the rock and said this is none other than the House of God. The gate of heaven, it was the place of the miraculous, but it was also the place of standing between heaven and earth. Bethel was the same place in Genesis 32 where Jacob was told to return, where he wrestled with God. Do you know that they say. That when Jacob wrestled with God, that God must have punched him in the groin in order to pop his hip out of socket. Jacob, the man that was trying to settle his lineage, settle his inheritance, a man trying to strive to make his name known. God took his ability to procreate to say “You trust me with your destiny”. Bethel is a place where you go from you Gilgal comfort to a place that says I'm about to stand in the gap again. And Elijah chose to go.

And from Bethel, we know they go to Jericho. The place where you choose to be obedient. The place where you choose to walk in circles because you're believing for victory. Of course, then the Jordan a place of miracles, a place where Jesus is anointed.

After this story, Elijah goes up, you know this and his mantle falls to the ground. A lot of times I think we picture the mantle falling on Elisha. But Elisha had to physically pick up the mantle and choose to put himself in a place of in between. And he rolls up the mantle and he strikes the water to see “Did I receive what I was longing to get”?  And he says, “where is the God of Elijah”?! and the water parts. Are you with me?

A beautiful part of this story in the very next chapter, is people don't really know if Elijah is actually gone. They are kind of wondering and they're looking for a prophet. And Kris (Vallaton) said it today. And Elisha isn’t identified because people recognize the signs and wonders. They come to him because they remember he served a prophet.

SON OR DAUGHTER

(12:45) Sometimes we want to be recognized for our gifts, but actually we're gonna be recognized for our sonship or daughtership. And in this moment, in order for a young man to receive an anointing that counted for something, he had to not just assume the position of servant, but he had assumed the position of sonship. And he had to choose to go back to a place of tension that many other generations have got to and say, I don't want to stay in comfort. I want to stand in the gap because in the gap leads to obedience and obedience leads to anointing.

CLEANSING OF THE MOUTH OF THE BRIDE

You see, I believe in this season we have been seeing a cleansing of the mouth of the bride. I believe the Lord has been dealing with the mouth of the Church, because from the mouth the heart speaks. And the Lord has been in this season cleansing the mouth of the bride. I believe the Lord has been dealing with the mouth of the Church, because from the mouth the heart speaks, and Lord has been dealing with prophets, with priests, with worshippers, with the one who paved the way with his voice. And I believe they're being invited once again to leave the land of comfort and go to the place to stand in the gap.

Ezekiel  22:30 God uses language, he says. “Who will stand in the gap for my people”? He is using the same language to a prophet, Ezekiel, that he used when he's thinking of Moses in Exodus 32, where Moses begins as a friend of God to ask for favor from God to protect people. And God is saying there are no prophets, there is no one to stand in the gap Ezekiel. Who will get in the way of a generation?

(14:27) 2 Chron 20

Jehoshaphat is facing the Moabites. The Moabites and the Ammonites are coming against Jehoshaphat in battle. And they don't know what to do. And in verse 18 the Musician/Prophet stands up with the word of the Lord.

verse 14

14 Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly.

Asaph was a musician prophet, a prophet of the Lord who understood the times and the seasons. Asaph was David's man. He was the one that David raised up. David, who stood in the gap of a generation and brought a new covenant worship in an old covenant season. David who taught the people that God didn't want a sacrifice of animals, he wanted a sacrifice of praise. And here a priest, prophet, and King, David, who lent into the gap and found the heart of God, established an order of creatives and musicians who would be prophets, who in this moment knew what it was for a king to stand in the gap, for a prophet to stand in the gap, and they remembered what it felt like.

And here another generation remembers the fight of their father and he says this. 15 And he said, “Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the Lord to you: ‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s. 16 Tomorrow go down against them. They will surely come up by the Ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the [d]brook before the Wilderness of Jeruel. 17 You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you.”

And what we found out later is that these prophets, these musicians, they go out ahead of them and they begin to sing the song that their prophet King, David had established. “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good and his love endures forever”. The same thing that had opened up the Tabernacle worship with that the glory of the Lord would fill the temple with they now sing and lead a people from the place of question into victory.

Intercessor of All intercessors

We see this in Acts 7:60 where Steven is being stoned and he stands in the gap and asks God to forgive the people. We see this with Paul in Romans 10:1 where he stands and begins to pray for the salvation of Israel under persecution. And we see this in Luke 23 where Jesus Christ is hanging on a cross and he says Father forgive them as he hangs in the balance. And from that place of crucifixion, and defeat, he is resurrected from the grave, and he ascends as the intercessor of all intercessors standing in the gap in Heaven and declaring a new thing. He is declaring that the blood of Abel has nothing on the word of the Lord. For the blood of JESUS speaks a better thing.

From that place He us to come into the gap, to come up here as prophets, as declarers and say I will join the song of heaven and I will shout for victory. You see, prophets, we do have the privilege of equipping, we do have the privilege of prophesying, but I believe in this hour we are invited into the gap to pray. Pulpit Prophecy is powerful. Pulpit Prophecy is wonderful. But pulpit prophecy is a fragment of what God has called us to. You see, I believe, yes, He will raise us up in the pulpit to declare, but He is raising up prophet musicians again to play the song of the Lord and to prepare the way. He is preparing up intercessors again who will stand in the gap and will listen to the prayer and bring Heaven to Earth.

Death to Resurrection

If Jacob poured oil on the living stone and said this is the House of God, the gate of heaven, he is prophesying one day that we would be poured out by the Spirit, the oil of God goodness, and we would become a House of God and gate of Heaven. Here’s the challenge about standing in tension, it’s often in seasons of tension that we are in right now, we think that discomfort means we're not in the will of God. We have heard that glory to glory somehow means easy to easier. I think glory to glory means death to resurrection. It means I lay down to be raised up.