I received this vision about a commando army in 1977. I can't remember the process by which I received it, but I have the version of the vision that I recorded on paper at that time. Usually, when I receive a vision, I do not actually see it with my eyes, but I can remember it, as if I had seen it. The Holy Spirit lodges the picture in my memory. Accordingly, I can still remember the vision.
I did not know what to do with this vision, but a few years later, when I was preaching on wealth and poverty at a church where a friend was the pastor, I shared the vision. My friend asked for a copy of it.
In 1982, David Pawson was invited to speak in New Zealand. He had a reputation as a bible teacher, so people the people of Wellington were surprised when he said that he had a prophecy. He carried two burdens that God had given him for our nation. One burden was as follows:
God wants New Zealand back.
He wants New Zealand back as
a nation that will be a model to the nations
of a people who are living under the government of God.
God intends New Zealand to be one of those nations
where he demonstrates his Kingdom.God wants New Zealand back.
He is wanting his people to reign with him.
Don't wait for eternity to begin to reign with him.
He is looking for a queen to reign with him now,
because New Zealand has a king and his name is King Jesus.
This country needs a change of government.
New Zealand is a nation that could be brought
under the government of God
and be a light to the nations.
This burden was not understood; his second burden was simple:
God wants to bring revival to New Zealand for the first time.
God will bring revival through economic ruin.
He then asked, "Who is willing to pray for economic ruin, to make revival possible". This burden was not well received in Wellington.
I was unable to get to hear David Pawson in Dunedin, but my friend handed him a copy of the vision of a Commando Army because he believed that it confirmed his burden. David Pawson took the message of "revival through economic ruin" to some of his meetings in New Zealand. I did not know that David had shared it until another friend gave me a copy of a talk that he had given in Auckland, where he read out the commando vision before he spoke in a talk called "Occupy the Land".
David Pawson was well known in New Zealand through his Bible teaching tapes, so his authority was widely acknowledged. He took the Commando Army vision around New Zealand without me having anything to do with it.
The burden of David Pawson contained four important points.
God will establish his kingdom in New Zealand
This will be a model that other nations can follow
A great revival will advance the kingdom of God rapidly
The revival will come through economic ruin.
The burden he shared has mostly been misunderstood or forgotten. This is sad, because God was providing a wonderful strategy by which he could bring about a great victory. He was challenging and warning his people, so they could prepare in advance.
Although forty-five years have gone by, the Commando Vision has not yet been fulfilled. God tried to do it several times, in 1987 - share market crash, 1997 - Asian crisis, 2008 - global financial crisis, 2021 - Covid crisis, but in each case, he had to hold back because his people were not ready.
Hearers of the vision picked up on the economic crisis, but they ignored the message about the Commando Armies. The latter were the key to victory, and without them, the church would be swamped. God has been unable to fulfil the vision because the commando units have not formed and prepared. His people never got ready, so he has been unable to complete his plans.
People listened, but they did not hear.The church has had forty years to prepare, but has done very little. Most Christians are still not in a place where they could cope with a real economic crisis. Very few could be strong during a time of disaster. Despite the advance warnings, we are not ready.
A word that is not heard,
cannot be fulfilled.
God shared his strategy,
and people listened,
but they did not hear
Crash, Crash, Amen, Amen! they said,
but no one got ready.
So God could do nothing,
he could not fulfil his word.
A word that is not heard,
cannot be fulfilled.
God still has the same plan, but an easy victory is no longer possible, because during the last 35 years, evil has become far more entrenched in the nation. A few years ago, I wrote an article that explains more clearly what is happening. I suggested that the next economic crisis will be the Devil's Depression, because the spiritual powers of evil now realise that they can consolidate their position further while the church is unprepared. See Economic Turning Point.
Why has the Commando Unit message been missed? My thoughts are as follows.
The Holy Spirit has done an amazing job of spreading this message. I am just amazed at how far it travelled. I used to get letters from people who had read or heard it saying that it resonated with them. These days, it is by email. And it still seems to get shared by someone on a platform every few years. For example, the operator of Inspirational Tapes did a special article on it, before he wound up his tape library. God certainly got it out there right from the beginning.
There is always a gap between hearing and acting. We all hear tons of things that resonate with us, but we only act on a few of them. It often takes something extra to get people to take action. One vision might not be enough.
Our society is extremely individualistic. I suspect that most people who received the vision did not have anyone with whom they could work together to form a commando unit. In a way, that was true of us. I presumed that someone would eventually come along, and waited for that to happen, but they never came, so we never did anything.
I suspect that many people who received the vision did not know what to do with it. They might have wanted to respond, but they were confused about how to do it. This confusion might be the reason they did not act. I suspect that people needed clearer instructions or guidelines about how they should get started and how they should go on.
Looking back, I suspect that the vision was not very clearly written. I mixed the vision up with the interpretation, which is not good practice. I suspect that the explanation of the commando units was not clear enough. Many people understood the economic crisis, but they did not understand how the commando units were relevant.
I wrote the book called Bride of Christ and its sequel, Being Church Where We Live, to explain how the Commando Vision could be implemented in practice, but I suspect those links were not clear to people who understood the vision.
Lots of people have heard or read the vision, but it might not be the people with influence. I only ever heard of one person who said that it was not from God. I suspect that the vision resonated with the people on the fringe, and they probably share it amongst themselves, but maybe it has not got to the leaders who could implement it. The leaders of the church possibly never heard it, and if they did, it probably did not resonate with them.
Peter Drucker, the management guru, noted that visionary people assume that "ideas move mountains", but they are wrong. He said that it is "bulldozers move mountains". That is so true. Ideas don't change things. In the Christian context, it is apostles who make things happen. There is a desperate shortage of real apostles in the modern church. There was an absence of people stepping up and looking to lead a commando unit. I suspect that most Christians expected someone else to do it.
What Peter Drucker said made sense to me. I have written seven books that fit together to describe the church and the Kingdom of God. When I go back and read them, I am amazed at some of the insights and wonder where they have come from. No one has ever pointed out anything in them that is contrary to the scriptures. Yet, they have had almost no influence on the church in New Zealand. (Although they are being implemented by people in a few poorer nations). I just trust that they will be ready for the church remnant when the time comes that they need them.
Strangely enough, I was recognized as a visionary in the government agency where I worked for many years. It had no eternal significance but the work provided sufficient income to support my family while I was doing the task I believe that God had called me to. I was asked by the head of this agency to write a vision for how it could do its work more efficiently in the modern world where information technology has become ubiquitous. When I shared my forty-page document, the senior managers were impressed and decided to implement the vision. Even though I have retired, some of my ex-colleagues are still working on the full implication of that vision. The big difference with this vision was that there were leaders/managers who committed to its implementation.
Furthermore, when I shared the same vision at an international conference, people were amazed and thought it made sense. I was invited to one Asian nation to share the vision, and within a few years, they were well on the way to implementing it. Again, the difference was leaders stepping up to lead the implementation of the vision.
