CRISIS RESPONSE INTERNATIONAL TRAINING
The Two Trumpets of Joel- Randy Martinez
I.
THE CALL TO HEAR
A. The greatest need we are facing in this hour in America is our inability to discern the prophetic
season we find ourselves in and consequently what is required of us. There is much confusion
over what has happened in terms of crisis, what will happen, and how the Father is involved in it
all. We are standing at the hinge point of history for this nation and the spiritual leadership is
largely unaware.
B. Jesus emphasized the the importance of what you hear and again in Revelation 2-3, repeatedly
exhorting, “He who has ears, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches…” and in
Mark 4:24.
Then He said to them, "Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be
measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given. For whoever has, to him more will
be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him." - Mark
4:24-25
C. Without the prophetic spirit in operation in the Body of Christ we will wander with no restraint
and resist God in the hour that He visits in mercy [revival] and judgment. If the prophetic voice is
not in place, the people of God will have no ability to discern the time and will not know what to
do.
“Where there is no prophetic vision, the people cast off restraint…” – Proverbs 29:18
…of the sons of Issachar who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to
do… - 1 Chronicles 12:32
D. The book of Joel is written to address leadership in hours of unprecedented crisis and disaster.
The prophet begins with the call to hear. This is a prophetic call for humility and understanding
to the spiritual leadership of the nation. If they missed the prophetic window, it would cost them
their children.
Hear this, you elders, And give ear, all you inhabitants of the land! Has [anything like] this
happened in your days, Or even in the days of your fathers? – Joel 1:2
E. A locust plague has swept through the land, and Israel finds herself in the peril of the aftermath.
The chewing locust, swarming locust, crawling locust, and consuming locust have devastated the
nation. Locust plagues do not always destroy an economy; however, Joel’s description of the
plague paints a bleak picture. The crops are destroyed, the trees are stripped, and next year’s seed
is in danger. Drought compounds the problem as fire spreads throughout the barren land, and the
herds are dying of hunger and thirst. The land has experienced a financial catastrophe. The
agricultural engine to their financial system is destroyed. In a short time the locust plague has
brought the nation to financial collapse and the people to a crisis of survival. The prophet begs
the question in verse 16, “Is not the food cut off before our eyes?”
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The two trumpets of Joel
F. Joel stands between two crises and in verse 15 gives the correct interpretation of national events.
It is the Day of the Lord. This crisis is God ordained, God orchestrated, and God purposed to
preserve the covenant.
“Alas for that day! For the day of the LORD is near; it will come like destruction [shod] from
the Almighty. [El Shaddai] ” – Joel 1:15
G. Joel warns that if you misinterpret the prophetic season, you will not have the keys you need to
interpret what is coming on the horizon. Joel understands the Father’s ways. He is not simply
interpreting every disaster as judgment. Joel is giving prophetic insight in context of the
knowledge of God and His ways. Joel recognizes the state of the nation, the voice of the Lord,
and the pattern of discipline that God uses on nations (Deuteronomy 28). He, in that context,
interprets the current crisis and provides understanding of what is to come.
H. In Chapter 2, the prophet sees a military invasion coming just over the horizon and calls for two
trumpets to be blown in the land. These two trumpets are the prophetic calls for the nation in
crisis. If the people of God responded to these trumpets, then God would respond in his nature,
“…gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in mercy; relenting over
disaster.” (Joel 2:13)
II.
FIRST TRUMPET: MESSENGERS
A. Joel gives the correct interpretation of the prophetic season and the crisis that is on the horizon
and calls for two trumpets to be blown throughout the land. The first trumpet is a call for
Prophetic Messengers to begin to declare the prophetic season and the nature of God with clarity
in every sphere of society.
Blow the trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of
the land tremble; For the day of the LORD is coming, For it is at hand.. – Joel 2:1
B. Joel calls for alarms. Alarms serve for one basic purpose, to awaken from slumber. They are
uncomfortable and they are loud.
C. God is requiring us to proclaim His nature and His ways even in the midst of crisis and disaster. It
is an issue of allegiance to Jesus and obedience-- not about being a “doom and gloom prophet”.
Prophetic messengers also proclaim the positive events on the horizon and call the people of God
to prepare for great revival.
D. The great distinction between the true and false prophetic spirit in Jeremiah’s day and the defining
issue for the emerging prophetic movement in this nation is standing in the council of the Lord.
Thus says the Lord of hosts: "Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you,
filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the
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Crisis Response International
LORD. They say continually to those who despise the word of the LORD, 'It shall be well with
you'; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, 'No disaster shall come
upon you.'" For who among them has stood in the council of the LORD to mark and to hear
his word, or who has paid attention to his word and listened? - Jeremiah 23:18
1. Standing- diligent attentiveness to stand in God’s presence in prayer and Scripture.
Prophetic messengers learn first what it means to stand before God before they stand before
men. They develop an unmovable spirit. Day after day, year after year, as the trends of the
generation come and go they stand before the face of God. This is the place of priestly
ministry-- ministry to the Lord.
2. Hearing- positioning yourself to receive the spirit of revelation in where the word of God
comes alive to you and overcomes you. A listening ear (Is 50) is developed in this place-- a
tenderized spirit that can receive the word of Lord with no resistance. God is looking for men
and women he can entrust His secrets to.
"For the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the
prophets…” - Amos 3:7
E. Prophetic Messengers emerge out of the place of standing and hearing with clarity and have
been cleansed from:
1. The fear of man by the fear of the Lord.
2. Independence and self reliance and has been replaced with weakness and dependence
3. Selfish ambition and desire for fame and they operate in humility and meekness.
4. The seduction of the spirit of the age and are filled eternal pleasures of God
5. The Orphan Spirit by an encounter with the Father
F. God is cleansing the prophetic ministry in this nation and calling the emerging leadership in the
prophetic church to “come away” and prepare in the wilderness of communities of fasting and
prayer. Priestly ministry has to return to the center of the prophetic ministry or we are in danger
of “speaking visions of our own mind instead of from the mouth of the Lord.”
G. In transitional seasons God raises up more than mere deliverers of information. He raises up
Nazirite prophets whose very lives prophecy of the coming crisis. They are embodiments of the
Word of the Lord to their generation. Before a word ever comes from their mouths their lifestyles
shout ,“Transition! Transition!”
But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet. –
Matthew 11:9
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The two trumpets of Joel
Now the boy Samuel ministered to the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was rare in
those days; and there was no widespread revelation… So Samuel grew, and the LORD was with
him and let none of his words fall to the ground. – 1 Samuel 3:1&19
III.
SECOND TRUMPET: THE CALL TO CORPORATE INTERCESSION
A. The second trumpet the prophet Joel calls for is the call to corporate repentance and intercession.
The nation must respond in the way God has prescribed in Deut. 28-29 and 2 Chron. 7:14. Joel
simply calls the people to return to the biblical prescription for crisis as set forth by the Lord to
both Moses and Solomon.
B. The role of the prophetic messenger is to call the people of God to the place of repentance and
corporate intercession. By their message they call the body of Christ to build a wall of
intercession on behalf of the nation.
C. True prophetic information concerning crisis and judgment must always have at its core the
call to repentance and corporate intercession.
Blow the trumpet in Zion, Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly: Gather all the people…
Let the priests, who minister to the LORD, Weep between the porch and the altar; Let them say,
"Spare Your people, O LORD, And do not give Your heritage to reproach, That the nations
should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their God?' " – Joel
2:15-17
Thus says the Lord GOD: "Woe to the foolish prophets, who follow their own spirit and have seen
nothing! "You have not gone up into the gaps to build a wall for the house of Israel to stand in
battle on the day of the LORD. Because, indeed, because they have seduced My people, saying,
'Peace!' when [there is] no peace--and one builds a wall, and they plaster it with untempered
[mortar]…—Ezekiel 13:3-10
D. Corporate crisis calls for a corporate response. To the measure that we have been compromised is
the measure we must return. Joel calls out in v.12 for a wholehearted turning of the people of
God.
E. God always desires to release the greatest amount of mercy but He will only release it in the
nation in conjunction with the repentance and the intercession of the saints. Communities of
fasting, prayer and repentance are God’s primary crisis response. Solemn Assemblies are the most
effective (and cheapest) homeland security for the nation. God designed corporate intercession as
the means by which he would release mercy and safety. It is preemptive crisis response.
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Crisis Response International
F. If your primary means of preparation for disaster is practical crisis response training then you will
live your life in the lull waiting for the next disaster instead of entering into the glorious calling of
mitigating crisis through intercession. What you do in between the crises is as important if not
more important as what you do when the crisis comes. What you do in the lull in response to
the prophetic spirit will determine the scope, impact and frequency of the coming disasters. The
destiny of the nation hangs in the balance and rests in the hands of the intercession of the saints.
G. We have to be connected with the crisis and from that place contend in intercession for historic
revival and a third great awakening. If we don’t connect our hearts to the crisis coming, prayers
for revival will sound more like “build our ministries” and “make our meetings better”, instead of
“spare your people”.
H. Wrong responses to the prophetic warnings will further and perpetuate the problem.
IV.
THE URGENCY FOR THESE TRUMPETS IN AMERICA
A. In many ways America finds herself much like the nation of Israel in the days of Joel. An
economic shaking is upon us much similar to the prophet Joel in his day. Standing at a crucial
juncture in between two crises, the word comes to him and he pleads with the children of Israel to
hear and give ear to the word of the Lord. The people must hear the correct interpretation of the
first crisis in order to respond correctly and avert the second crisis.
B. Discussing God’s role in times of crisis is not suitable to our modern sensibilities. In fact, it is
quite offensive to the western mind to even hint that God may be involved in natural disaster and
national crisis. But the Bible is very clear that God hold nations accountable for their sin and
judges to preserve and extend mercy.
If a trumpet is blown in a city, will not the people be afraid? If there is calamity in a city, will
not the LORD have done it? – Amos 3:6
C. We must not change the nature of God to bolster our own comfort and bend to the pressure of
being politically correct. The same God who raised up Nebuchadnezzar as “His servant” as an
instrument of discipline to His people (Jeremiah 25:9,) is the same God who took the lives of
Ananias and Sapphira at the feet of Peter and consumed Herod with worms for persecuting the
early church.
D. Our forefathers would have never considered a God who does not hold this nation to account.
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The two trumpets of Joel
1. The Almighty has his own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offences! For it
must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence
cometh!" If we shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those offences which,
in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His
appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South,
this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offence came, shall we discern
therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a Living God
always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope—fervently do we pray—that this mighty
scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all
the wealth piled by the bond-man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil
shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by
another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must
be said "the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether" – Abraham
Lincoln (Second Inaugural Address)
2. God who gave us life, gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we
have removed a conviction that these liberties are a gift of God? Indeed I tremble
when I reflect that God is just. That His justice cannot sleep forever. – Thomas
Jefferson
3. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which
conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every step by which
they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been
distinguished by some token of providential agency. We ought to be no less
persuaded that the propitious smile of Heaven can never be expected on a nation
that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has
ordained."- George Washington
E. God will use the least severe means to bring about the most amount of repentance and love in
the shortest amount of time. His judgments preserve love.
F. Around the turn of the century, the spiritual protection around this nation began to wane. God
began shouting “TURN!” to the nation heading like a cruise ship into a category 5 hurricane.
Over the past decade the warnings, have become more and more frequent and severe. We cannot
keep pretending that we are nation not under judgment. We have no right to ask God to be
something other than who has eternally been and will be- righteous and just. There is a military
crisis scheduled apart from a third great awakening that builds Joel Chapter 2.
G. Our only hope is that he gave us the biblical prescription: rending our hearts with fasting and
weeping, gathering together and crying out for mercy, and the priesthood of believers taking their
place in corporate intercession.
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