In this episode, Matthew has a chat with Jeremiah Johnson, founder of The Altar Global and well-known prophet.
LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE
The Altar Global • http://www.thealtarglobal.com
Houses of Glory • https://www.amazon.com/Houses-Glory-Prophetic-Strategies-Entering/dp/0768457335
The Presence Pioneers podcast exists to help YOU and your community experience and host the presence of God through day & night worship & prayer – because we believe God’s presence changes everything. Hosted by Matthew Lilley, episodes feature short Bible teachings and interviews with key leaders in the prayer & worship movement.
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Jeremiah was raised in a charismatic household with a preacher for a father, so the supernatural was never a weird idea for him. He grew up in that arena and then went on to bible college, starting a church that now has two campuses in Florida, and then moved to the Charlotte, NC area in 2020 and started The Altar Global.
Moving on to Jeremiah's book, Houses of Glory, Matthew asks what prompted this book. It really came out of a burden he feels the Lord gave him for the Church. He began to see the Church being exposed in some weak places, specifically the reliance on leaders instead of God and the celebrity culture that surrounds a lot of pastors and worship leaders. The book is a response to that exposure and what God's solution is.
Next, Matthew asks about King David, and what his significance is to this book and to Jeremiah personally. To Jeremiah, David is a man of one thing. He is a prototype for us. However, what is significant to him is the contrast between David and Saul. Jeremiah sees Saul as a representation of the religious spirit, relying more on his own talent than on God. Within the Church, Jeremiah sees a clear war between the "house of David" and the "house of Saul", which became more heightened during the lockdowns in 2020.
As Jeremiah puts it, Saul had position and David had Presence. And yet, David still had to serve Saul first, before becoming King. There are seasons when a pioneer will have to submit to others, and Jeremiah points out that these seasons are planned by God and are for your good. He urges you to remember that the pain has a purpose, and once you've walked through the pain of a difficult leader, you'll never hurt someone that way when you are the one leading.
So what can a Pioneer do when they're in that "Saul season", when they're still waiting for their vision to be realized? Humility is the name of the game. He submits that the healthiest form of criticism is building something better, instead of tearing down the original. If you don't like the way something is, just focus on what God's given you the grace to build, and let that do the talking.
You also have to build relationships and history in the place you want to pioneer. Reach out to leaders and those who have been in that place for a long time, and just take the first step and go out to lunch or grab coffee. Pioneering is not for the faint of heart, he says, and people may not understand what you're called to, but God will take care of it and you. So instead of being distracted by "Saul", or those who are having success, just lean in to what God has called you to and let Him do what He does.
Lastly, Matthew asks Jeremiah about "upper room DNA". Jeremiah's dad was involved relationally with lots of people who were part of the beginning of IHOP-KC. He remembers family vacations when he was a teenager being going to IHOP and spending time in the prayer room! He believes learning this priestly ministry before the prophetic ministry has helped him through the last season of his life. God is also bringing him "back to his roots" of this priestly lifestyle now. His "prayer movement" friends are the ones who reached out to him when he was under intense scrutiny for the fall out from the 2020 election - as he puts it, his roots reached out to rescue him.
To close, Matthew asks for Jeremiah's thoughts on the focus on Jesus' return in the prayer movement and beyond. Jeremiah's passion for it comes from an encounter in 2018 where he feels God commissioned him to raise up end time leaders, a call he feels he stepped away from when he stepped into politics. Matthew points out that all the scriptures used by the prayer movement to show the necessity of day and night prayer connect that necessity for prayer to the return of Jesus - as he puts it, they're inseparable now. Jeremiah takes it one step farther, that the return of Jesus was at the forefront of everything the original Church did. His vision is that it would be at the forefront of the Church again.
