Rating: 
Summary: Is it prophetic or delusional?
Review: The first half of this book depicts a symbolic and epic battle between Christians and the forces of evil, complete with flaming arrows, spiritual armour, etc. A few pages of this would have been enough for me but it goes on for a hundred pages. Also, we're never told whether the vision represents a battle that is occurring now or will occur at some point in the future.The last half was more interesting. Joyner speaks with a variety of figures in Heaven including Jesus and Paul. A valuable message from these discussions was that we need to question our own motives and that our actions should be undertaken for the glory of Jesus and not to glorify ourselves. Most interesting was the discussion with Paul in which he (Paul) asserts that Jesus' message and ministry has become so distorted in today's church that they (he and Jesus) can barely recognize it. Unfortunately, Joyner doesn't elaborate so we're left to wonder what's so wrong with today's message and ministry, - and to wait for his next book (it's not in there either!). While I found the 2nd half of the book inspiring, I was ultimately disappointed by this book and the sequel (The Call) for the following reasons: 1) Despite all of the symbolic battles and such, we're given scant instruction for how to apply this to our lives as Christians. 2) After telling us that Jesus' message and ministry are barely recognizable today, - we are not told in this book or the sequel what the problem is. 3) Love God, love your neighbors as yourself, and attempt to come to exemplify the fruits of the spirit (Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-control). That sentence gives you more practical advice on Christian living than both of Joyner's books that I've read. His books rant on about spiritual battles and such, but somehow don't capture Jesus' message of Love. 4) Despite the exhortations to question our own motives, I wonder how honestly Joyner questions his. Paul didn't charge money for his writings, but I get the distinct feeling that Joyner is doing this, at least in part, for the money and to make a name for himself. In The Call he flat out says that he is a prophet and that God is going to reveal truth through him. The not so subtle message to us is that if we don't want to miss out on God's truths than we have to keep buying Joyner's books. 5) In these books, Joyner takes the emphasis away from Christian living and the simple act of connecting with God. And instead, he distracts us from that pursuit with symbolic battles, and swords and eagles and such - largely unexplained. When you look in a Christian bookstore today you will see thousands of books presuming to tell you how to be a better Christian, live a better Christian life, serve God better, be more inspired, pray more, sin less, etc. I get the feeling Jesus didn't mean for it to be that complicated. Jesus' message was simple: Love!
Rating: 
Summary: The Final Test
Review: In a review below I pointed out one of the serious falsehoods in Joyner's teaching. One reviewer later suggested people "ask God for the Spirit of discerning so that you will know if this [book] is the truth, or a lie. Let's do that. The final test we are told to give to all perported revelations is to see if they align with the word of God. It's easy to show that Joyner flatly contradicts and undermines the authority of the Bible. While I'm not a fundamentalist, that's not something I take lightly. So, I'd like to present Joyner's major false teaching and then the scriptures that contradict it: In his vision, Joyner asks the apostle Paul, "What would you say to my generation that will help us in this battle?" Paul responds, "I can only say to you now what I have already said to you through my writings. . . . I so appreciate the grace of the Lord to use my letters as He has. But I am concerned with the way many of you are using them wrongly. They are the truth of the Holy Spirit, and they are Scripture. The Lord did give me great stones to set into the structure of His eternal church, BUT THEY ARE NOT FOUNDATION STONES. The foundation stones were laid by Jesus, alone. . . . If what I have written is used as a foundation, it will not be able to hold the weight of that which needs to be built upon it. What I have written must be built upon the only Foundation that can withstand what you are about to endure; it must NOT BE USED AS THE FOUNDATION." Now lets see what the Bible says about Paul's and his writing. First, the words of Paul, himself: "Consequently, you [Paul's followers] are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, BUILT ON THE FOUNDATION OF THE APOSTLES AND PROPHETS, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone." (Ephesians 2: 19,20) Paul clearly teaches that the apostles ARE the foundation of the Church right alongside Jesus Christ. Jesus is honored by being called the "chief cornerstone," which is the largest and most significant stone in a foundation, but the apostles are clearly considered stones in the foundation of Christ's Church ("God's household") as well. Paul does not say the apostles built upon the foundation laid by Christ, he says they ARE the foundation laid by Christ. (Without the ministry of the apostles, no one would even know Jesus Christ today. We only have their word (and the words of their disciples) as to what Jesus taught.) Paul also clearly considers himself one of the apostles. He calls himself an apostle frequently in his writings and takes great pains to point out that his ministry was NOT handed down to him by the other apostles, but was given to him directly by Jesus Christ. In fact, he says he ministered for something like thirteen years before he even went to Jerusalem to visit the other apostles for the first time, and then he did not go to get their confirmation or ordination, but just to inform them about his ministry. He was not seeking their blessing because he considered himself to be on an equal footing with them. In Romans 15:20, he says, "It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation," making it clear that he is laying a foundation of his own, not building upon someone else's foundation. Clearly he considers his work to be as foundational as any of the other apostles; but are the other apostles foundational? The Book of Revelation, written by the apostle John says "yes." It describes the Church of Christ as if it were a great city being lowered out of heaven: "One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, 'Come, I WILL SHOW YOU THE BRIDE, the wife of the Lamb [Christ].' And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high AND HE SHOWED ME the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God." (Rev. 21: 9,10) This holy city, then, is a representation of the bride of Christ, elsewhere identified as the Church. In describing this city, John says it is built upon "twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb." (Rev. 21:14) So, there, again, the apostles ARE the foundation of the Church. At least twice Paul got in major arguments with the apostle Peter and won both times, showing himself to be equal in authority to the other apostles. And it is Peter who confirms near the end of his life, ". . . our dear brother Paul also wrote you with wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction." So, Joyner fails the final test and distorts what Paul says about his own writing. Joyner's vision contradicts three of the apostles (Paul, John, and Peter), two of which clearly teach that the writings of the apostles are foundational; and Peter comes very close to saying the same thing (and would have said the same thing if that was the question he was dealing with).
Rating: 
Summary: Words For Your Spirit
Review: This book aligns rightly with cannonized scripture. God will use these words to illuminate sin, rebuke, prune, and encourage you to depend on Him as never before. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read For Everyone
Review: This book was given to me for reading some months back. I was not moved at that time to read this book. After starting a ministry in which the Lord Jesus would instruct me to begin. I have been face with many opposition, challenge, as well as deny by other ministry and churches. Feeling that I must prove to someone that I was called to begin this ministry, wanting to compete with those who challenge, and just feeling bad about those who had deny me. But I thank God for this book "The Final Quest" and I would recommend this book to anyone that is involved in ministry. 1. That you don't loose your focus 2. That you love them that will hate you 3. And that you come to realize that it is not the building of ministries that is important 4. That we would press forward for the High Calling in Christ Jesus 5. We become more concern with winning Jesus heart over wanting to know Jesus I have after reading this book, have had to repent about loving the fact that God was using me and making me somebody, that was suppose to be so great that every person would have to follow the ministry that God ordained for me in order to be obedience to God. Reading this book has helped me regain my focus and help me to realize that it is very important to humble yourself before the Amighty God. I do pray that The Father and God of our Lord Jesus Christ, will reveal to you Himself in this book. So that we all can have our rightful places in heaven. People can say whatever they want or feel. But I ask you to simply pray and ask God for the Spirit of discerning so that you will know if this is the truth, or a lie. Because if you ask you will receive. God Bless you and let me beg of you to please allow yourself to read this book, with an open mind.
Rating:
Summary: Dante did it better.
Review: It's not easy to rate another man's vision from God. Who of us can say for certain what God has revealed to someone? And yet even the Bible instructs followers of Jesus Christ to question the spirits, meaning to question what spirit really gave a vision to someone. Apparently, then, Jesus' own followers can receive visions from deceitful spirits from time to time or simply from their own imaginative spirit. And, so, the greater body of believers is instructed to question what they hear from their fellow believers. I don't see many blatant contradictions between what Joyner writes and what one can find in the Bible, but I also don't see any new insights. Joyner's purported vision combines Dante's multiple levels of paradise with John Bunyon's famous trek by the Pilgrim--only without the high art of these other works. There's nothing particularly original or illuminating about Joyner's book. If you're the type who is easily motivated to a closer walk with Jesus by guilt, then this book might give you some motivation. The problem I had with Joyner's work was the tone. It comes across as falsely humble. It reads like the visions of a Manic-Depressive. On the one hand, Joyner will comment on how overwhelmed by his own sin he is during his journey into heaven. Then, only six paragraphs later, he states, "Immediately the entire host of heaven seemed to stand at attention, and I knew that I was the center of their attention." Wow! What a delusion of grandeur! And then he swings immediately back into a darker mood: "I was too corrupted. I could never adequately represent such glory and truth." So, while he's openly humble, he's also the center of attention for all of heaven--and he's the center of attention throughout his book. Joyner even says the Apostle Paul was eager to speak with him: ". . . you do not understand just how much we have looked forward to meeting you." And what has the Apostle been dying to tell Joyner? "I would have you understand [my writings] by knowing that I fell short of ALL that I was called to do." Paul proceeds to confess his shortcomings to Joyner and then declares that his writings as an apostle were never to be considered as foundational to Chritian belief. Other great saints also apologize to Joyner for not having served him better with their writings than they did. Why, then, I wonder, shouldn't we place Joyner's vision of a hierarchical heaven in the Bible right after Revelation--as the great revelation that begins the end times? While lacking all the genuine grandeur of Revelation, it certainly reveals far more about heaven than Paul's writings. And if Paul's writings aren't foundational, then why are John's or Peter's or Matthew's? And why not add Joyner's as a needed corrective? How humble is it to sound as though the person who wrote half the New Testament has been long awaiting the chance to tell YOU that he could have done much better than he did? In deed, Joyner walks right past many great evangelists who have been relegated to the lower parts of heaven, and proceeds to the center of heaven--the throne of Christ. And it is upon Joyner's entrance into heaven that we are told the great mysteries of God will now begin to be revealed on earth. Apparently, the greatest revelations in heaven and on earth were all awaiting Joyner's entrance into this part of heaven before they could be revealed. (At least in the Apostle John's book they were awaiting the Lamb of God, not the apostle.) Certainly, then, Joyner's visions from God should be appended to the New Testament right after John's Revelation. In this multi-tiered heaven, we are told that those who sit closest to Christ "will be known by two things: they will wear the mantle of humility, and they will have My likeness. You now have the mantle," Christ says to Joyner. Really? It seems to me that humility is not thinking lowly of yourself (as Joyner often does in his grovelling about his unworthiness and sinfulness), and certainly humility is not thinking highly of yourself (as Joyner also does by placing himself superior to Paul and by having all of heaven's attention centered on himself). Humility is simply not thinking of yourself at all. When you read John's Revelation, there's not too much in it about the Apostle John. When you read Joyner, it's all about Joyner. I also question the validity of a heaven that gives better seats to some than to others. Apparently God's grace gets you to the threshhold, but after that it's works all the way--it is, however, not the quantity of the deeds themselves, but the spiritual motivation behind them, that gets you a higher seat in the tiers of Christ's throne room. I'm concerned that a work that centers constantly on one man, no matter how much it declares the glory of Christ or how piously he frowns upon his own unworthiness, is trying to build a following. To what eventual end? In the one truly revelatory prayer near the end of his book, Joyner implores, "Lord! . . . I ask you for the grace to love You like this so that I can be delivered from the delusions and self-centeredness that have so perverted my life." I can only hope his prayers were answered by this review.
Rating:
Summary: ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!
Review: This book absolutely changed my life! After a 27 year walk with God my eyes are not open to who God really is - the importance of humility and how easily pride and arrogance can slip in and destroy everything that God has created.
Rating:
Summary: The Final Quest is a MUST READ
Review: The final Quest is an excellent book that details the vison that the Lord gave to a man of God. It is a peek into a world that we know very little of. Some people think that it is full of "fascinating and spiritual imagery", I suggest that they read the book of Revelations! The Word teaches us that "you will know them by their fruit", I have read this book and it changed my life forever to the better of the kingdom. It gives the reader a scripturally clear look into what spiritual warfare is. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against powers, against the RULERS OF DARKNESS OF THIS WORLD, against SPIRITUAL WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. (Ephesians 6:12) The Bible clearly portrays the follwers of Christ as warrior, Eph.6:13 goes on to tell us to put on the WHOLE ARMOR of Christ, Rom. 8:37 tells us we are "more than conquerors in all these things, which I might add goes on to add that principalites and powers are defeated by us through Christ.There are many instances in the word where we are portrayed as warriors. We are in a spiritual battle for souls. To fulfill the Great Commission. Our enemy does not want us to win. THE FINAL QUEST seeks to awaken the slumbering Christain to the battle. If you are asleep at your post, you will be hurt.It gives the Christian a picture of the battle and keys to be a conqueror in it. It encourages the Christian to be knowledgeable about our warfare. You will laugh, you will cry and you will be deeply touched by God. Our final authority is the word of God. The fruit in my life, was proof for me. My friends have also testified to me of how it changed their lives. Be prepared to be ministered to by the Holy Spirit.
Rating:
Summary: Final Quest a MUST READ
Review: The final Quest is an excellent book that gives accurate descriptions of our spiritual warfare. (we wrestle not against flesh and blood,.... but against spiritual wickedness in high places) In reviewing some other reviews on this book, one commentator noted the book was "overflowed with gushy spiritual imagery", I guess he hasn't read Revelations, it is filled with such imagery. And I'm sure the "spiritual leaders" in Pauls day had a heyday when they heard of his vison where God told him (in a vision) to "take and eat" of "unclean food." That was certainly opposed to everything that they had learned through the laws of Moses. I guess what I am trying to say is that God does not Always present things the way we would like him to. CAUTION IN READING: Don't box God in with a religious spirit! Allow God to minister to you AS HE CHOOSES. In reading this book, the Lord moved in my life dynamically, I will never be the same, THANK GOD! It really brought back focus to my life. I praise God that it was written. I encourage everyone to read this book and ask God to reveal Himself to you. You WILL NOT be disapointed. This book gives us a rare look into a place that we know very little of. A world that stunned Moses, and I'm sure when Elijah saw "the chariot of fire and the horses of fire" that it was a brilliant awesome site! Ezekiel's vision of the throne of God, TALK ABOUT IMAGERY, or Daniels vision of the man, or Balaam when the donkey saw the angelwith the sword before he did. Our God created this world in all it's beauty, looking at creation we can see the complexity of our God, yes His message is so simple that we stumble over it, but how he chooses to carry out His plans and purposes is not necessarily as simple, nor is it how we would do it. He is perfect, we are not, we need to learn to trust His judgement. Read the book, you will be glad you did.
Rating:
Summary: I've been changed
Review: This book is awesome. It has helped me gain a better understanding of the spiritual realm. The part that impacted me the most was the scene at the throne of judgement. It made me look at myself and my life and see how much time I have wasted in selfish amibtion. The FINAL QUEST also gave me a greater appreciation for the "foundation" of the mountain. The preacher from LA wrote: The concepts related in this "vision"...2) qualify as "standing on a lower level" the Christian who seeks to honor Jesus Christ's command in the Great Commission... I disagree. The FINAL QUEST gave me a greater appreciation for those that "seek to honor..command in the Great Comission". In this vision, they are the FOUNDATION of the mountain. Salvation IS the foundation. Many Christians forget this commission from God in their quest for spiritual maturity and intimacy with Him. Besides growing in intmacy with God, "setting the captives free" is the most important thing God has called us to do. As with anything, if you read this book with the intentions of criticizing, you will find things to criticize. But, if you read this book with the expectation of gaining knowledge to help you grow spiritually, you will be blessed. For God does want us to grow in our understanding and in our passion for Him. This book has "fanned the flames" in me to want to know God and His Son, our Bridegroom, in an even more intimate way, and to follow wholeheartedly after Jesus.
Rating:
Summary: It gets deeper with each read.
Review: I thought little of this book the first time I read it, but it grew on me. I found myself thinking about what it said all of the time. I highly recommend it to those who are open to the idea of prophecy in our time.
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