~Becca Smith

This past week has been an amazing time. Although it hasn't gone without difficulties, God has worked it all out every time just like He promised. He really has been teaching us to wait on the leading of the Holy Spirit in everything we do. In doing this, the team has become very unified and in tune with what God is saying. Insecurities, fears and all the things the enemy has been throwing in our faces are all being dealt with as we have yielded to the Spirit. The Lord has taken us to established churches, new church plants, house churches, individual homes, the Pottawatomie Indian Reservation, various cities and to the top of one of the highest points in southern Wisconsin to declare that He is the King and to establish a throne of worship and praise in these high places. It has been a very prophetic and rewarding journey so far and I believe there is so much more to come. It journey began in Seminole, OK and from there we traveled to Ardmore and then on to Little Rock and Chicago. We headed to the Northwoods of Wisconsin after that and have been up here for five days. Our hosts, Bear and Amy Wheeler, have allowed us to use their home as a refuge and a base from which we launched out to various places throughout the state. The Northwoods has experienced drought like conditions for the past several years but these past few weeks, the rains have began to fall and are saturating the ground again. I keep hearing the the Lord say the words Release, and Restoration. In the 1940's, Smith Wigglesworth traveled these Northwoods along with several others spreading the fires of revival throughout the land. Since that time things have seemed to dry up and the Northwoods and it's inhabitants seem to have been overlooked and forgotten but Wigglesworth prophesied during his time here that a great river of fire would be ignited in the North again and would flow southward and begin to cover the nation. There are many Native American tribes and reservations in this area. The Pottawatomie being one of them. After spending some time with an elder in the Pottawatomie tribe back home in Shawnee, we have learned that the tribe entered the nation through the Northwoods and traveled south through Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and many came to rest in Oklahoma. They were the first tribe to purchase and receive a deed from the U.S. government and they also have a 300 hundred year history with Christianity. We've also learned that at the changing of the seasons they ignite a fire that stays going 24 hours a day as they worship and pray to the Creator. It's called the Pottawatomie prayer circle and the tribe's name means "keepers (or people) of the fire". The journey that they took from the north, southward into Oklahoma was known as the "Trail of Death" because of the many people that died along the way. The Lord led us to the place in the Northwoods where much of their history began in order to declare life and blessings to His people. In my heart I believe the First Nations people are going to be a major part of the next great move of the Holy Spirit in this nation.

During this trip, we have not only been able to minister to others including a significant healing which lead a teenager to the point of salvation and an understanding of who Jesus is, but we have been greatly ministered to as well. Most of our team has received prophetic words which have blessed them greatly. I just wanted to thank each of you for the parts you have played in giving and in prayer for the team. I can honestly say that the Lord has made ways where there seemed to be no way and this trip has been more fruitful than I could have imagined. We probably won't see all that God has done in the spirit for many years to come but the seeds have been sown and the words have been released. I strongly believe a great harvest is coming and each of you will be rewarded for the part you have played in sending and praying for the team. Thank You! There will be more updates still to come.

First of all, about 5 people from the church showed up, not including Bear, Amy, and their usual worship leader.  So, we prayed a little bit and started the service.  The first 5 minutes were pretty dead quiet while we waited on the Lord to give us direction.  Then, Ryan began to sing and still we felt like we were hitting a wall.  Soon after that, we were quiet again.  This time, it was quiet in the room, but in my head things were going nuts!  It was a spirit of chaos and division we were battling!  I was getting so frustrated with everything.  For no reason!  Then, Kristy came up and gave me a word saying that the Lord wanted to speak through me tonight and the enemy was trying to silence me.  Well...even after that I was still frustrated.  Ryan felt it, so he started screaming for almost 20 minutes, exalting the Lord as psalms flew from his lips.  Things started to loosen.

I then went over to Ryan and asked if I could play piano and he play acoustic, so we switched.  We went into an attitude of worshipping God again and things still were getting lighter.  I suddenly felt like we needed to pray, so I told everyone that we should come together as a corporate body and pray while I would stay up and play the piano softly.  Well, when I said that, everyone in the building left except for Bear, Amy, and our group.  As soon as those people walked out, the resistance left with them.

As the team was praying, a few really good words came out, and I felt the need to get on my guitar again.  When I did, I felt a wave of the Holy Spirit blow over me.  Just a while after that, the team had reached a point when nobody had prayed anything for some time, so I started to sing.  I was just worshipping when I started calling out the destiny of Wisconsin.  Then, the Lord began to show me Ezekiel walking through the valley of dry bones.  As he walked he prophesied.  And as he prophesied, the four winds came like fire and lit up the bones.  They rattled and came together.

After seeing this awesome vision, I asked the Lord what it meant.  I had recently heard that a while back, Smith Wigglesworth had prophesied that in the end times, a fire from the Northwoods (which is where we are) would bring revival to the nation.  The prophecy is about 30 years old and the Lord told me that hope and faith to see it fulfilled was being diminished.  His word for that area was dying, becoming old, dried up bones, and believers were beginning to wonder if it was even going to happen...if there was any hope.  So as I began to sing over the dry bones, that they would come to life, the Lord was releasing faith, hope, and renewed vision for His word.  Destiny!  Ryan and Bear fell on the floor in deep intercession and could only groan.  He was restoring, renewing, and refreshing vision!  It was the most amazing and encouraging feeling!  I can't even hardly explain it!

God is bringing revival to the Northwoods and to America!  He's resurrecting the dry bones!  He's renewing vision!  Greater things have yet to come, and greater things are still to be done in this city!  In this nation!

Josh Cotts

It was about 11:30 p.m. this last Wednesday night when we were headed toward Elcho.  We had received a call from our host, Bear, saying to watch out for the deer because they were running rampant that night.  As it turns out, not even 10 minutes later we saw one on the side of the road that looked like she was just itching to run out in front of us.  But...instead of running out in front of us, she decided to run into our trailer, thus bending the fender around the tire that we had just fixed in Chicago.  Just after that, we noticed sparks flying off of the fender because it had been rubbing up against the tire, so we pulled over and had to fix it.

A few minutes later, we were headed on the road again for Bear and Amy's house.  On our way, we ran into a "road closed" sign and ended up having to take a long detour around to a road called Blue Bell which looked like something you'd see on a horror movie.  Soon, however, we were in the safety and comfort of Bear and Amy's beautiful home out in the wilderness.

On Thursday, we were scheduled to go into the island town of Minocqua, WI with George Kupfer to just pray and ask the Lord what He would have us do.  We stopped by a lake to sit and pray, while I couldn't help but going out to the docks just to be closer to the water.  There was so much beauty in the natural, but I wanted to see into the supernatural.  I wanted to see what God saw.  If you all know me, I have a thing for lighthouses.  Any time I see a big body of water, I think about lighthouses.  They serve an awesome purpose to anyone on the water.  As the currents bring the boats in at night, they show them where the land is, or where a "safe place" is.  As I was thinking about this, I looked out across the lake and saw a building that read "Beacons."  I felt like God was trying to say something, so I left myself open for it.

As we continued walking, we decided to stop by a museum so we could learn more about the history of Minocqua.  It turns out that an early Indian tribe had retreated to a nearby island town to escape a smallpox epidemic.  When they arrived, they called it Minocqua, which today they say means, "place of the midday rest."

That night, we met with the Kupfer's house church there in Minocqua.  There were people there from several different religious backgrounds, which we were excited about, but the enemy had a plan for it.  The worship was amazing.  We felt God so heavily resting among us.  It was so peaceful.  Suddenly, like popcorn, people started giving word after word after word that they had received from the Lord.  Becca gave a word about us being priests who were called to speak God's word into the darkness.  Shortly, though, the enemy started to work.  Two men that were in the group started having an argument about an issue concerning healing.  The funny thing is, they were both right, it's just that neither one of them was willing to admit that the other was right.

One thing that I didn't mention was that since we had entered Wisconsin, we all began feeling very weird.  We knew that something wasn't right in the air.  Thursday night, we were able to pinpoint what it was.  We were battling with a spirit of division.  Like I said, the two men were both scripturally right in what they were saying.  They were just not willing to submit to one another's opinions.  Rachel put it this way:  "It's like one of them was saying, 'Apples are healthy for you' and the other was saying 'Oranges are healthy for you.'"  Ryan, George, and I all tried to keep the peace by telling them that they were both right, it just had to come down to submission.  One of the men ended up leaving early, while the other stayed.  So, that problem never really got solved.  But, in the light of all of that, we continued the service.

We started singing again and the Lord showed me the connection between Minocqua's history and the lighthouses.  Minocqua, being the "place of the midday rest," was to be a beacon of light, a safe place.  Midday is when the sun shines its brightest, the time of day when nothing is left in darkness.  Even shadows disappear at exactly midday.  This was Minocqua's destiny.  It was to be a gathering place for the hungry, the lost, the broken, and the weary.  The "light" that they were called to shine, was going to be an attraction to the environment around them.  They were to be a safe haven, a place of "rest."  So, I released what I was seeing and Ryan released it in prayer.  He also mentioned to them that our body in Shawnee was called to be a safe haven as well.  The north winds were meeting with the south winds in that moment.  And what happens when the cold air from the north mixes with the hot air from the south?  Rain.  A storm.  A tornado.  God is going to drench Minocqua in His glory!

Josh Cotts

After our services at Ardmore, I felt extremely out of place.  Any time anyone asked us how the services at Ardmore went, everyone on our team would say, "Eh...it was good...I guess."  Then, I would be in the back going, "WHAT?!  It was AWESOME!"  It's not that my opinion was different than everyone else's, just that I seemed to be more excited for some reason.  So, I addressed it in a team meeting this morning.  As it turns out, everyone was struggling with similar issues.  They felt weighed down, weary, and just to put it simply...blah.  Several of them were saying things like, "I thought the services went well, I just didn't feel much."  I knew we had to figure out why, so I dug a little bit.

After a lot of digging, we realized what was going on.  We were putting too much of our expectation on the way God moved in the natural.  We expected to "see" things happen.  And, to be honest, they weren't!  NOTHING happened in the natural except for just the normal stuff that usually happens in a church worship service.  Every time I heard one of the team members saying, "Eh...it was good" I was so confused because the entire time we were at Ardmore I was thinking, "YES!  God is moving!  He's here!  He's reigning over this city!  It's so EXCITING!"  Yeah...nothing happened in the natural.  But in the supernatural, God did some major junk!  He got some stuff checked off on His to-do list!

When we worship Him, when we praise Him, when we exalt Him and lift Him high over a nation, HE GETS STUFF DONE!  We can't base everything that we feel off of what we see in the natural.  We have to believe and know that God is moving whether we see it or not!  We are to set our eyes on the realities of heaven!  We are to have a heavenly mindset!

God keeps saying, "High spirits!  High spirits!  High spirits!  Be joyful and know that I am God, I am King, and I WILL DO WHAT I WANT WHEN I COME!"  God is not enthroned on our praises to just sit there and look around.  We invite Him in to take care of business!  Believe it!  Be joyful!  Be excited!  He is moving!!!

He is pushing us to march into the battle believing that He has already conquered the battlefield and not to walk in there feeling "blah" and wondering if we might win this time.  Celebrate!  Rejoice!  Focus on what He is doing now!  He is a today God!  And when His children gather with faith that He is going to show Himself, He will get stuff done!!!

We should be able to find excitement even at the most unnecessary times because He is King and He always will be!

Josh Cotts

We just finished the Sunday morning service in Ardmore, OK and it was INCREDIBLE!  God came!  He moved!  His fire fell!  His glory suffocated us!  [Insert fiery word here!]

This morning the Lord gave Ryan and Kristy VanMeter a word about the spirit of pride that existed in the area and how we needed to handle it.  Kristy said that she felt we needed to handle it by "coming in a spirit of humility."  Becca Smith also received a word about not keeping in a box.  It seemed we were all hearing different things, but they all came together in one big glory explosion!

During the service, there was a moment when the worship team got extremely quiet.  While we were waiting on the Lord, you could feel the air in the room begin to get lighter.  We began to sing, "Lord, we want You...Lord, we want You" very softly.  Before you know it, we were welcoming the King into the atmosphere just as we did the night before!

As we continued to wait on Him, Ryan VanMeter had a word for the body in Ardmore.  While he was giving his word, things began to intensify.  The Lord's presence blanketed the room and He began to speak in such a heavy way.  Ryan was speaking about coming in the spirit of humility to deal with a spirit of pride.  Thinking that we know it all, feeling like we know exactly what God wants to do, can hinder what He wants to do.

After his word, the Lord began to tell me that He wanted to release perfect wisdom and fresh revelation from heaven, strategy over Pastors Andy and Jami, for the future. So I began to shout, “Wisdom, wisdom, wisdom! Fresh bread, fresh bread, fresh bread!” Little did I know, Ryan told me that just before I started shouting that, he had seen a blue light fill the room. If you didn’t know, the color blue in the positive represents WISDOM! He was pouring out the river of wisdom flowing straight from the throne into the hearts of the leaders of this body. He was doing a new thing!

Ardmore will harvest in the goodness of the Lord!  Stay tuned for a video!

Josh Cotts

                Burn Wagon Midwest arrived on its first stop, Ardmore, yesterday. We were greeted with love and hospitality, but most importantly food. After setting up and enjoying a bit of free time, as well as practice and prayer time, we had an amazing worship service. God really planted a seed at Harvest Fellowship to be God’s dwelling place in Ardmore. God proclaimed breakthrough for this body and, after service, we were all blessed to see a wonderful sketch of breakthrough. We also declared this place a place of honor to the King and we welcomed him as he came. God showed himself faithful to us. When God shows up, great works aren’t far behind, and this was equally true last night. We prayed for arthritis, left eyes, and macular degeneration. One of our team members, Rachel, was healed of constant back pain that she has been struggling with, and we are believing with her for complete healing, so she can dance in his presence all day. God is showing up in Ardmore and we are excited to see what he will do today.

Becca Smith