Pray Network Forum

Please join us as we lift up our nation and the Church at this very crucial crossroads (spiritually and otherwise) during the next few months. Starting August 1 through December 31 (one name per day, which is 153 names total), let's unite in praying that Christ will rule and reign in every person, place and situation across America. The 153 names of Christ and accompanying Scripture passages cover a wide breadth of who He is. He is vast; He is supreme; He is the Lord of all; He is worthy of all praise. God will do more than we can ask or imagine (in our individual lives and in every sphere of influence in our nation), if many thousands of Christ-followers unite (Matthew 18:19-20).

I hope I'm not breaking any rules here . . . and please accept my apologies for such shameless self-promotion! But I'm so pleased to announce the release of my new book, CONFESSIONS OF A PRAYER SLACKER. It's my belief that most of us are clueless when it comes to having a daily, committed time alone with God in prayer. Whether we're new in our faith walk, or long-time believers, most of us never established the habit of daily prayer. And how else do we get to know God on a more intimate basis? Yet it's the one thing He wants most from us!

After a life-time of lame attempts and screw-ups, I finally "got it" in a most unusual way. God literally drew me to Himself after I hit rock bottom in my spiritual life. As a former pastor's wife (we're still together, he's just no longer in local church ministry!), I should have known better, but I let so many distractions get in the way of having that one-on-one relationship God desires with each of us.

I share my journey in CONFESSIONS OF A PRAYER SLACKER, and it's my prayer that others will learn as I did what it means to find joy and power through prayer. I've included study questions which can be used for self-examination or for small group discussions.

Hey, thanks for letting me tell you about my book. I look forward to getting to know more of you here at Pray! Network!

Blessings!

Diane Moody

www.dianemoody.net

www.dianemoody.blogspot.com

Sometimes you discover a new truth by accident.

That happened to me recently as I was reading through Ephesians. Actually I’ve beenreading and re-reading Ephesians for the last few months. When I read David Powlison’s advicethat we should master Ephesians and be mastered by it because “in apinch you could do all counseling from Ephesians” and “It’s all there:the big picture that organizes a myriad of details,” I decided to goback and make it the focus of my daily Bible reading. So that’s whatI’ve been doing for the last few months. Sometimes I read a few verses,sometimes a chapter or two, sometimes I read the whole book.Occasionally I ponder a single verse.

I’ve been struck repeatedly by how Paul emphasizes the cosmic dimensions of God’s plan. He does itin Ephesians 1 where he talks about God bringing all things togetherunder the headship of Christ (v. 10) and how Christ is now seated farabove all authority and power (v. 21). He does it again in chapter 6when he says that we wrestle against principalities and powers and thespiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (v. 12). Paul sees what happens here on earth as being closely connected to events in the spiritual realm.So with that in mind, I’m reading along in chapter 3 where Paul talksabout how in the church Jews and Gentiles stand on an equal basis, withthe same standing and the same privileges. That’s a tremendous truth tothink about. Then you come to this verse:

“His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of Godshould be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenlyrealms” (Ephesians 3:10).

That’s the sort of verse you might read quickly and not think about. But it deserves closer examination. Paul says that God has arranged things so that the church of JesusChrist displays the “manifold” wisdom of God. The word means“many-colored.” Picture a bouquet of multi-colored flowers or a piece offabric with a vast variety of colors, red and pink and blue and brownand green and yellow. I have seen computer programs that promise thatthey can print pictures in “millions of colors.” That’s the idea here.God’s wisdom has many hues, many varieties, and God intends to use thechurch (meaning those of us in the church) to display that wisdom.

Ray Stedman explains it this way:

The word translated manifold here is literally the many-colored wisdom ofGod. Why did the apostle choose this poetic adjective? It is becauselife consists of many colors. We all have blue days. And red hours ofanger and passion. And golden moments of glory. And dark, somber valleysthrough which we must pass. And lush, green pastures into which we aresometimes led. God’s love is manifest in all of these hues of life. Sowhen you go through a blue time, it is God’s love that you are learning.When you go through a dark and pressured time, the love of God is beingmanifested there. You may not see it, but God knows how to make itclear. And even the joyful times are manifestations of the many-coloredwisdom of God.

So far, so good.

But then look at that last phrase. God intends to display his“many-colored” wisdom to “the rulers and authorities in the heavenlyrealms.” That can only be a reference to the angelic beings watchingfrom heaven. When Ligon Duncan preached on Ephesians 3:8-13, he painted this word picture:

The Apostle Paul is saying that God has put you up on the stage of historyand that when you look up into the galleries and into those expensiveboxes you are going to see the angelic powers of heaven, good and evil,because God is putting them in graduate school to learn from you of Hiswisdom and glory. In other words, God is going to display His glory togood angels and bad angels. He’s going to display the wisdom of Hisplan to principalities and powers through you as the church.

Kenneth Wuest offers this succinct summary:

The Church thus becomes the university for angels, and each saint a professor.

Folks, that’s a mind-blowing insight. It’s telling us that what happens to us on earth has a purpose that goes far beyond us personally. God intends to use the events of this life, the good and the bad, thehappy and the sad, the positive and the negative, all of it together andeach part individually, to make a display for all the universe to see.He does it so that the angels scattered across the universe, in alltheir various ranks and orders and levels, will see something of God’swisdom worked out through what happens to us here on earth.

Unanswered Questions

I find this perspective helpful because so much of what goes on around usseems to make little sense. I’m thinking of the heartaches of life, howone person gets cancer and dies while another person is spared cancerand yet another person gets the same cancer, goes through chemotherapyand survives. Why does one child live and another die? Why is one familyhit with a seemingly endless series of trials? Why did this husbanddecide to walk away from his marriage? Why did the car wreck leave thisman crippled but the man next to him walks away unscathed? The list goeson and on and on.

Why was this person promoted and that one passed over?
Why do some people want to get married but never find the right person?

Ephesians 3:10 offers us a unique perspective that we need to consider. I can say it in one simple sentence:

Something big is happening here.

Something much bigger than us.
Bigger than our own personal agenda.
Bigger than anything we’ve ever dreamed.

If we are Christians at all, we know that life isn’t about us.
We’ve heard that for years.

But here is an insight that may bring light on some of those “why” questions.

God intends to use us as a demonstration of his wisdom to a whole galaxy ofangelic beings who watch with great interest as we move through life onour way to heaven. They see us struggle, they watch us grapplewith tragedy, they see us deal with setbacks, they pay attention when wecry out to our Father for “grace to help” in the nick of time. They seein ways we don’t see how God’s plan is moving forward through oursuffering and pain and tears.

Now if this is so–and this seems to be exactly what Paul is inferring in Ephesians 3:10, lots of thingsthat happen aren’t just about us. Something much bigger is going through our struggles in this world. We wouldn’t understand it even if God tried to explain it to us. But we get little hints of it in verses like this.

As I pondered this some more, I remembered that Jonathan Edwards commentedthat in heaven we will spend the vast stretches of eternity marvelingwith other believers about how the wisdom of God was displayed in hisplan to save us and shape us into the image of his Son. When I firstheard that, I thought to myself, “Well, fine. But I think after maybe250 years or so, I’ll have fully covered all the mysteries of my ownearthly journey.” I admit that’s a very human way to look at it, butthat’s what I thought. But suppose God intends to use our life journeyas a canvas on which to paint the richness of his wisdom for the angelicbeings to study. Suddenly that lifts us into a realm of cosmic purposethat will truly stretch across the endless ages of eternity.

I think it means that at some point when we face hard times and when lifemakes no sense whatsoever, we need to stop and say to ourselves,“Something big is happening here." God never wastes anything. Not even the tiniest tear falls without a purpose.

Sometimes we think that life should get easier as we get older. I doubt that is the case for most people. If anything, the mysteries of life become more profound as we realizehow little we understand about why things happen the way they do.

Two people die every second.
But you are not dead.
Why?

Three Quotes

As a means of helping us think about this a little deeper, consider thesethree quotes gathered from very different authors in very differentplaces.

The first quote comes from a pastor who asked the following question, “Where in the Bible did God ever give someone aneasy job to do?” Now we may quibble with the question, but I think thelarger point is quite true. It’s hard to think of anyone in the Bible towhom God gave a truly “easy” job. Now why is that? God puts all of usto the test so that we will be forced to trust in him. If he only gaveout “easy” assignments, we wouldn’t have to trust him very much. Maybewe would conclude we didn’t need him at all. But hard assignments driveus to our knees in prayer.

The second quote comes from a certain TV preacher. A few months ago, while listening to asnippet of a program, I heard him offer this insight: “God will neverbring us to the place where we no longer need him."

And all God’s children said, “Hmmmm.”

That’ll make you stop and think. Down deep there is a part of us that would like to come to a place where we don’t have to trust in the Lord so much. Not that we don’t want to pray, but secretly we’d like to be in such aplace of earthly fulfillment where we didn’t have to pray desperateprayers to the Almighty. It would be wonderful (or so we think) ifthings were going so well that all we had to do was to praise the Lordall day long.

Not going to happen.
Not this side of heaven.

If all our needs were met, we’d end up forgetting God just like the children of Israel did in the Old Testament. Earthly prosperity tends to be no friend of spiritual growth. And total prosperity generally means total disaster. I think thatpreacher was right on in what he said. God intends to bring us again andagain to the place where we are crying out to the Lord, begging for hismercy and his grace.

That’s not a fun place to be.
But it’s where we need to be.
Anything that drives us to our knees is good for the soul.

The third quote comes from my friend Peter who pastors a house church in China. Lastmonth he and his wife came to the U.S. for a special seminar in Dallaswhere they spent a week with leaders from other countries at a fancyretreat center. Peter said it was a very good week, but there was onedrawback. “We had a beautiful room, wonderful meals, and everything weneeded was provided for us. We didn’t even need to pray.”

It’s always easier to pray when we have a consciousness of our own need.While we were with Peter, he prayed powerfully for us and for my wife inparticular who was going through some physical difficulties at thattime. It was a transforming moment to hear this Chinese pastor pray sofervently to the Lord.

So much faith!
So much earnest desire!

Later he told us that the Chinese church has no choice but to pray and askGod for healing. Given the pressures of the last sixty years, the churchhas learned to call upon the Lord fervently. I know I’ve used that wordtwice, but then I think of James 5:16, which in the King James Versiontells us that the “fervent” prayers of a righteous man avail much withGod.

The end of the whole matter is clear. Do not lose heart when hard times come. Something big is happening here.

Something bigger than you can see.
Something bigger than you can imagine.
Something so big that you can’t begin to figure it out.

I believe God brings us back again and again to these times ofdesperation so that we will see that it’s not about us and our problems.God intends to use our trials to teach us to pray and to trust him moreso that (and this is the point of Ephesians 3:10) the angelic beings will behold in us the many-colored wisdom of God.

When we see a fellow saint going through hard times for which there seems tobe no earthly explanation, let us erect over that spot a sign withthese words:

Quiet
God at Work

When I was a teenager, I used to attend country churches where they wouldsing, “We’ll understand it better by and by.” Back then I didn’tappreciate the depth of theology behind that song, but with the passageof many years I see it more clearly now. And in this one verse Paulpulls back the curtain to give us a peek at God’s purposes that we wouldnot otherwise know. As you face the trials of life, keep this truth infront of you and make it a bedrock of your faith:

Something big is happening here.

Proverbs 8:34 “Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway.” (NIV)

Believing that God is calling His people to stand watch with Him in prayer during these critical times,America’s National Prayer Committee is calling upon the Lord’s peopleto pray with them for 66 hours of intense intercession and worship,August 26-29, 2010. From 6pm on Thursday, Aug. 26 until Noon on SundayAug. 29, prayer leaders from around the world will gather in KansasCity, MO at the facilities of the International House of Prayer toworship and pray. Live streaming of this event will be seen around theworld, and portions will be seen on GOD TV.

Dave Butts, Chairman of the National Prayer Committee said, “God’s Word is filled with the commandto ‘watch and pray’. This type of intense intercession is increasinglyneeded in a world that seems to be unraveling before our eyes. As thosewho belong to Jesus, we want to proclaim His Lordship over the nationsof the earth, and ask Him to intervene to bring about His purposes inour day.”

There are a number of passages of scripture that call us to this sort of watchful praying:

• Psalm 5:3 “In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.”
• Luke 21:36 “Be always on the watch, and pray.”
• Isaiah 62:6-7 “I have posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they will never be silent day ornight. You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest, and give himno rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of theearth.”
• Habakkuk 2:1 “I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what hewill say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint.”
• Micah 7:7 “But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.”
• Colossians 4:2 “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.”

The theme that continued to arise during the planning of this initiative was “preparation”. There is astrong sense that God is calling us to the walls of our communities andnations to watch and pray as an act of preparation. It may bepreparation for something that God is going to do that will shake thenations. It may be preparation within the Church, a calling toholiness, purity and repentance. It may even be preparation for theLord’s Return. All we know is that God is calling us to Watch and Prayin order to prepare us, and to prepare the way for something that iscoming. We call on the Church to stand with us in prayer. For more information go to: www.prayerwatch2010.com ;

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• "Be still and know that I am God." I need to get my attention off the bothersome habits of others onto the amazing beauties and stunning glories of our great God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe boring is an opportunity to give God the praise I've been too busy to offer throughout the day.
• Pray for each person as they pray. Ask God to inspire their praying by giving them a deeper hunger and thirst for Spirit-led, worship-fed, corporate-bred praying. It is easy to judge; more difficult to bless.
• Read scriptures. Ask the Holy Spirit to lead you to a passage related to the prayer focus or simply a passage that you can pray back to the Father as you silently read it. "Father, we seem stuck again on rehearsing our list but I want to pray from Your Word and declare Your intention for us to _____."
• Write a prayer. So, if you've already prayed several times or the focus is stuck in a myopic groove, then write a better prayer. The written prayer of a no-longer-judging person is powerful and effective. Read it silently or alound.
• Prayerwalk. Everyone will think you are going to the rest room so get up and get out. Take a prayerwalk to your child's Sunday school room or to the front door of the church facility and ask God to send the believers out and to bring the lost and lonely in. Or, if all else fails, or simply walk out of the room and take a break to get your mind off the boring prayer meeting for awhile.
• Cover your pastor. Spend time thanking God for your pastor and other leaders. Intercede for their needs; body, soul (mind-heart-will) and spirit. Include their family. Bless them with an increasing vision for a hunger and thirsty for prayer ministry.
• Meditate on a name of Jesus. "Holy Spirit, Your role is to reflect Christ to us; remind me of His greatness and glory." Then as He does, give thanks for this amazing-grace Savior and invite Him to be the center of your lifestyle and the first love of the entire congregation.
• Add "so that" to the end of someone's prayer. Turn a reactive prayer ("Lord, our sister is sick, please heal her") into a proactive prayer (..."Yes Lord, heal our sister so that she can return to her fifth grade Sunday school class and disciple those boys into authentic followers of Christ.").
• Inject a scripture rather than a prayer. As the Spirit leads you to a scripture verse or passage, read it aloud as your prayer, maybe changing pronouns to personalize the word of God into your petition or praise.
• Start a song everyone knows. Sing a chorus or hymn with lyrics directed toward God or relevant to the focus of previous prayers.
• Share a Holy Spirit thought. (Speaking to the group) "As I listen to our prayers and mediate on the scriptures, it seems to me the Lord might want us to go back to our earlier burden about the young people in our community. Let's pray for God to raise up leaders they will respect who can point them to Christ on their campus."
• Cry out . . . Kneel . . . Lay prostrate on the floor . . . Raise holy hands. Use sound or posture to reveal the depth of your burden or joy.

"Secrets to a Powerful Prayer Culture"

by Daniel Henderson

This topic has been on my mind for quite a while. I first delivered this talk at a missions conference in Montreal several years ago. It came to mind again this week after I was asked a question about the Second Coming during a question and answer session at Cannon Beach Conference Center in Oregon. I have been thinking and praying about what we should expect as we consider the call of Christ to take the gospel to the ends of the earth in light of the end of the age. It’s not just a question of missions and it’s not just a question of Bible prophecy. It’s a more focused question. “What should we expect as we do the work of evangelism in light of the Second Coming of Christ?"

There are several ways to get your hands around this question. Here are two preliminary observations:

1) What we believe determines who we are and what we do.

We can never separate theology and practice nor can we divorce doctrine from daily life. Belief matters because ultimately whatever is in the heart comes out in what we say and what we do.

2) Our view of the last days shapes our view of evangelism and world missions.

Perhaps a better way to say it is that our whole view of the future shapes our hopes and prayers for what God may yet do around the world. Obviously there are missionaries scattered in many places who hold a variety of views regarding the end times. It is not necessary (or likely) to suppose that Christians will come to a general consensus regarding the rapture, the tribulation, the millennium, the eternal state, the place of Israel in God’s plan, or the proper way to interpret Revelation. We’ve been discussing those things for a long time, and there is no end in sight. What would seminary students do late at night if they couldn’t argue about the fine points of Bible doctrine?

And I suppose that one’s evaluation of the future depends greatly on where and when you make your judgment. Christians living during a world war are likely to view the future much differently from those who live in a time of peace and prosperity. No one does theology in a vacuum. To Christians in Muslim lands facing severe persecution, the hope of the Second Coming may seem much more real than it does to happy, well-fed Western Christians whose biggest worry is how much they can spend for Christmas this year.

With that background, I would like to focus the question a little bit more. Are there any reasons to believe that we will yet see great spiritual awakenings around the world? I think the answer is yes, for reasons I will set forth in this message.

For many years I’ve read about great revivals in the past. Note the last three words. “In the past.” Sometimes those stories sound so amazing that you wonder if such things could happen in our day.

Could there be another Welsh revival in our day?
Could there be a Third Great Awakening?
Could there beanother Laymen’s Prayer Revival?
Could we see whole nations shakenand changed by the preaching of the gospel?

Instinctively we know the answer is “yes.” Of course those things are possible in our day. God is not limited by the moral decay around us nor is he bound by our unbelief. My sermon hones in on one key point. If these truly are the Last Days before the coming of the Lord, could these things still happen?

In order to answer that question let’s back up and answer another one first. What will the world be like in the Last Days? Here are two lines of biblical evidence to consider.

1) It will be the worst of times

“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days” (2 Timothy 3:1). The word translated “terrible” occurs only here and one other place in the New Testament. In its other occurrence, it refers to the two violent men who were possessed by demons in the region of Gadara (Matthew 8:28). They were wild, uncontrollable men who lived among the tombs. The “last days” will be fierce, violent, dangerous and frightening. Savage times will come as men cast off all moral restraint and society begins to disintegrate.

Two decades ago evangelical philosopher and theologian Carl Henry predicted that as America progressively loses its Judeo-Christian heritage, paganism would grow bolder. What we saw in the last half of the 20th-century was a kind of benign humanism, but he predicted that by the start of the 21st-century, we would face a situation not unlike the first-century when the Christian faith confronted raw paganism–humanism with the pretty face ripped off, revealing the angry monster underneath. His words have come true, and we see the proof with every passing day. So Paul warns Timothy, “After I am gone, things are going to get worse before they get better. Buckle up, Timothy. Terrible times are coming.” That’s why Paul said, “Mark this,” or “Understand this,” or “Pay attention to this.” Don’t be naïve and think that everything is going to be okay. It’s not all going to be okay. But forewarned is forearmed. If we know what is going to happen, we won’t be surprised when it does.

Consider two more verses:

1 Timothy 4:1 “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.”

2 Peter 3:3 "Knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.”

We can summarize this line of biblical evidence by saying that the entire age will be characterized by unbelief and religious apostasy as men continually reject the truth and follow their own desires. There is a sense in which these things have always been true for the last 2000 years, and there have been many periods of extreme spiritual darkness. When Jesus uses the image of “birth pains” in Matthew 24:8, he may be telling us that we should expect these hard times to increase as we near the end of the age. The moral collapse of the end times will be like labor pains before a new world is born where Christ reigns as king.

But that is not the end of the story. There is another line of evidence we need to consider.

2) It Will Be The Best of Times

Let’s look briefly at two lines of evidence:

First, consider these words from Joel 2 that are repeated by Peter on the Day of Pentecost:

But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: “And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." (Acts 2:16-21).

This passage is extremely important because of where and when Peter uttered these words. It’s as if Peter is saying, “The Age of the Holy Spirit is now upon us.” It certainly means that God intends to pour out the Holy Spirit across a wide swath of humanity. What Joel predicted and Peter preached not only characterizes this entire age, it will come to a climax in the final days of human history. There will be amazing signs in the heavens and on the earth surrounding the Day of the Lord. And there will be a great movement of evangelism in the last days, starting 2000 years ago on the Day of Pentecost, continuing through the Church Age, and coming to a vast climax just before Jesus returns.

Second, we have the parable of the wheat and the weeds in Matthew 13. Jesus told a story about a farmer who sowed wheat in his field, but during the night his enemy came and sowed weeds (sometimes called tares) among the wheat. The farmer had no idea what had happened until weeks later when he discovered the wheat and the weeds growing together. When his servants volunteered to pull up the weeds, he told them to leave the weeds alone lest they accidentally pull up the wheat at the same time. They were to let the wheat and weeds grow together until the harvest, at which time he would have the reapers gather the weeds for burning, then the wheat would be gathered into the barn (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43). Later his disciples asked him to explain the story.

The wheat and the weeds represent believers and unbelievers in the world. The Lord sows the good seed that produces believers while the devil sows bad seed that produces unbelievers. That’s the world as we see it today. Christians and non-Christians live and work and play side by side. We shop at the same stores, we eat at the same restaurants, we drive on the same roads, and we work in the same companies. Very often we watch the same programs on TV, and we may even send our children to the same schools. The real point of the story is that you can’t always tell by looking who is a Christian and who is an unbeliever.

Superficially we may appear to be much the same. And when we die, we are all buried in the ground. I’ve walked through many cemeteries, and you can’t tell much about the spiritual state of those who rest six feet below the surface. The saved and the lost rest side by side. We are much the same in life and in death. But a day of final separation is coming when the Lord himself will send his angels to separate the righteous from the unrighteous. Since he alone will be the judge, there will be no mistakes.

What does this parable teach us about the Last Days? I think it suggests that there will be parallel harvests of good and evil in the days preceding the coming of the Lord. Evil will be more outrageous than ever before, and the good will easier to spot. Evildoers will become more brazen, and there will be a corresponding harvest of righteousness in the last days. The Lord’s work will prosper in the midst of continuing moral decline. This leads me to believe that the greatest revivals in history are still ahead of us. We’ve all heard it said that the darker the night, the brighter the light shines. When a jeweler wants to convince you of the brilliance of a diamond, he places it against a black background.

If we are indeed living in the last days before the return of Christ, we should expect things to get better and worse at the same time. I think we should believe God for amazing answers to prayer, culture-shaking moves of the Holy Spirit, and unprecedented open doors for evangelism. We should pray for the gospel to spread like wildfire across India and China. If there is going to be a final harvest of righteousness, then we should expect to see hundreds of millions of people coming to Christ in the years to come. And at the same time, the devil will do all he can to ignite an explosion of evil around the world.

As we rush headlong into the final days leading up to the coming of Christ, we should expect hard times and good times, increasing opposition and amazing open doors, trouble ahead and glorious gospel victories. All these things go together just before Jesus returns to the earth.

What Difference Does It Make?

As I travel to various places to speak, I sense worry and uncertainty everywhere I go. Last week during the question and answer session at Cannon Beach in Oregon, I talked about trends that may be leading to the events of the Last Days. At one point a person in the audience raised her hand and said, “If all of this is going to happen, what can we do about it?” Excellent question.

So I shared a short summary of this message and said, “I think these are great days to be alive. Think of it! We may be the generation that sees the return of Jesus Christ.” And that’s truly how I feel. I’m optimistic about what God is doing in the world today.In light of all this, how should we live?

Be Alert!

The last days will be a time of confusion and spiritual delusion. Don’t be sucked in by the spirit of the Antichrist that is already in the world. That spirit tries to make us think that sin isn’t really sinful and that there is no such thing as right and wrong. It also seduces us into silence when we ought to be speaking out. Ponder the words of I Peter 5:8 (ESV), “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Don’t let that “someone” be you. A great deception will come to the earth in the last days. Many will be deceived. It’s easy to say, “That would never happen to me.” Don’t be too sure. Many will be deceived who today would laugh at that suggestion.

Don’t be Naive!

This is a time for the people of God to be “wise as serpents and harmless as doves.” Don’t be naive about the true nature of sin in the world. Bad things happen because evil people cause them to happen. They hijack planes and fly them into skyscrapers. They mail anthrax to public officials. The strap bombs on young people who then blow themselves up on crowded buses. They loot and kill and destroy and defraud and break the laws of God and sometimes they go on TV and gloat about it. If we are indeed living near the coming of Christ, then we ought to brace ourselves for further outbreaks of hideous evil. The worst is yet to come. No matter how good the world seems to be in terms of technology, the moral compass is pointing in the wrong direction.

Don’t Be a Pessimist!

Believe God for great things in the last days. Pray big prayers. Ask God to bring in the last-days harvest in your town, your city, your state, and your nation.

Be Bold!

This is no time for compromise. In times like these, Christians ought to be bold and open about our faith. Raise the flag of Jesus high above your head and then take your stand under that flag so that those near and far know who you are and whose you are. Open your mouth and say a good word for the Lord. Speak up for the Savior. Let your voice be heard so loudly that no one can doubt whose side you are on.

March in Tight Formation!

This is no time for believers to wander off on their own. Stay tight with your brothers and sisters in Christ. Stay tight with your local church. Stay tight with your Sunday School class or your small group. Stay tight with your Christian friends at work. Stay tight so you can’t be easily picked off by the enemy. When we march in tight formation, we are a formidable force to be reckoned with. When we try to go it alone, we become easy targets for Satan’s attacks.

Live Without Fear!

If we know the Lord, we are joined with the One who is the ultimate Victor in the battle between good and evil. A friend reminded me that one of the old spirituals says, “My Lord, what a morning, when the stars fall from the skies.” The slaves often sang songs that talked about the coming of the Lord because that great hope contrasted so vividly with the bleakness of their bondage.

If we read about “terrible times” to come and then give in to fear, we have missed the great point that Jesus is the Victor in the end. We live in hope because our God is a God of hope, and in Christ we have great hope for the future. The church has always done its best work in bad days and hard times. When the skies are the darkest, it is then that the glory of the gospel shines the brightest.

Charles Dickens began his epic novel A Tale of Two Cities with these words: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." That stands as a good description of what lies ahead of us as we approach the end of this age. Satan will unleash his full arsenal, knowing that his time is short. Therefore, we should not be surprised when hard times come. But this age will also end with an unprecedented spiritual harvest around the world. I can’t imagine a better time to be alive.

We are fighting a battle we cannot lose.
The Lord is looking for somesoldiers who will serve in his army.
Will you answer the call?

The Fruit of Confession

By Copi

When God says "revival" what does he mean? Many people believe it means "Brownsville" or "Azusa Street" on every street in your community. Others use metaphors like the spiritual water line high enough to see people coming to Christ in unprecedented numbers.

I remember the Jesus People movement in southern California (where and when I came to Christ) there was a spiritual atmosphere where it seemed impossible to go anywhere without someone coming up to you asking if you knew Jesus. People were coming to Christ almost everywhere. But after awhile it became the cool thing rather than the real thing; so ended the Jesus People movement revival. But not before thousands and thousands of new believers with fish T-shirts and One Way bumper stickered VW Bugs were filling new churches. Those were the days my friend…

Whether we are a Christian nation or not, or if we have ever been is arguable and irrelevant from my point of view. The question in my mind is- what does God mean when he says he is bringing revival? I don’t want to know what the theologians think. And I don’t want to know what pastors think. I want to know what God thinks.

Understanding that God knows what he is saying let’s define the word.

Revival:
1. Restoration to life, consciousness, vigor, strength, etc.
2. The act of reviving
3. The state of being revived
4. Law. The reestablishment of legal force and effect.

Revive:
1. To activate, set in motion, or take up again; renew
2. To restore to life or consciousness: We revived him with artificial respiration.
3. To make operative or valid again.
4. To quicken or renew in the mind; bring back5. To reanimate or cheer (the spirit, heart, etc., or a person).
6. Chemistry, To restore or reduce to the natural or uncombined state, as a metal.

So let’s make is simple… let’s just say revival is God’s act of reviving (awakening) people who are spiritually asleep. That may mean people inside church buildings on Sunday mornings and people outside.How do individuals wake up when they have been asleep spiritually? It is not through some kind of adversity or tragedy that people come to God. They may be on their last rope, or down as far as they can go, or facing some other catastrophic occurrence that they find themselves powerless against? It’s not from winning the lottery.Let’s face the truth… the pews of our congregations are full of sleepy people. And forgive me for saying so but some are in a coma.Church is now an event or a community like the Rotary Club with god. A sort of country club without a Golf course. Something you do, instead of something we are.What happened? What ever happened to discipleship anyway? I’ll complain about that later.

Let’s look at the Bible. Let’s look at the parts talking about the "last days" before Christ comes again. I think you may agree that we are somewhere between now and when Jesus returns? And if you a pre-tribulation person, you have your "way out" all figured out, so you have nothing to worry about (just kidding, don’t be offended).

As we continue to progress with technological breakthroughs in medicine, communication, transportation, biology, agriculture, and so on, with every breakthrough comes a trade-off of some sort. Air pollution, more production with fewer workers means fewer jobs, people living longer means less money to provide health care services to the unexpected growing number of people still living. The list goes on and on. Whatever Man has made, presents itself with unexpected consequences.

The bottom line is in America we have one of the highest standards of living in the world, but once you get past the big mortgages, and car payments, and all the other trappings of living the high-life, people are still trapped by sin, families are broken and wounded as much or more today than in past generations. Do you have it better today than you did 10 years ago? Is your life better today than it was 10 years ago? How about your mom or dad?

So let’s agree things are not too good and are likely to continue in that direction. How’s that sound? Does is sound true to you?

There have been many people over the last 15 years that have said God is going to bring forth the greatest revival that America has ever seen. So if that is true what will he do to wake us up? Will it be like the Jesus People Movement or Azusa Street again? If you are too young to know what Azusa Street is (Google: Azusa Street Revival). I don’t think so. They were too short lived. And although they affected thousands, this one is going to affect millions. So what is God going to do?

The Christian right is spending all it’s time and money trying to make a non-Christian Government govern by what they believe are Christian principles (that is not to say they necessarily are). So they lobby, spin the truth, and propagandize all in the then name of Jesus, to move the system in the direction they believe is right. As if all Americans should have the same belief system they do.

So what is God going to do?

Let me flip this perspective around. What if God does not want us to change the system? Could God be using this broken, corrupt, sinful, system to change us? Could God’s plan for revival include the progression of our freedoms being slowly taken away by this and future administrations?

Could there be a tsunami of events that converge at the same time causing a catastrophic end of life in America as we know it today? These are turbulent times and almost anything is possible. Would this wake us up? Would that wake up the people in a coma on Sunday morning?

How did the Church in China grow so fast and get so big? By tribulation and oppression. How do we mature in Christ? By tribulation. Without a struggle we cannot increase our strength. So the good news is… revival is coming. The scary news is… revival is coming.

I believe that the result of tribulation and oppression (however God allows it to come) will be what God uses to make his church become the Bride of Christ without spot or wrinkle.

So whatever happened to discipleship? Why did we stop? Obviously we did not all stop, but most congregations stopped doing it or have never done it. Discipleship is one mature discipler pouring his/her life into another, teaching all that he/she knows about living the life. Then the disciple becomes a discipler to someone else in the same way he/she had been discipled.

We need to train up disciples so they can become disciplers and reproduce themselves. We must train up people so they are able to live the life no matter what the circumstances are around them. They need to know God in a very personal and powerful way. They need to be willing to die for Christ and for other believers. They need to be willing to lay their life on the line for the Truth.

This is what being awakened is all about.

Are you awake yet?

I welcome your comments.