If a modern-day Jonah walked through our cities, proclaiming, “Yet forty days and this city will be no more,” would anyone pay attention to him? Would anyone seek the Lord? Would anyone repent?
My prayer today:
Lord, open up the ears of American believers to hear what the Spirit is saying to our nation. (Based on Revelation 2:7)
What do you think and has the Lord spoken to you today?
Join with me on Thursdays to fast and pray for America.
Filed under America, Christianity, Church, Fasting, Gifts of the Spirit, Judgment, Prayer, Prophecy, spiritual warfare
Most Christians fall into the Pre-Tribulation or Post-Tribulation theological camps for the end-times. Just so you know: there are other end-times viewpoints, such as the Amillennial and Preterist point of views, but both of these require believers to read the Book of Revelation, Daniel and Matthew 24 through fogged-up glasses.
The Pre-Tribulation viewpoint is held by approximately 90% of American believers. This viewpoint believes the Body of Christ will be raptured and taken to heaven at any time before the Seven Years of the Great Tribulation (Daniel 7 and Revelation 13) takes place. Then, the church will return with Jesus at His second coming to set up His thousand-year reign on earth.
The Post-Tribulation viewpoint believes the Body of Christ will go through a major part of the Great Tribulation, will be raptured and taken up to heaven at the Seventh Trumpet Judgment, just before the disastrous Seven Bowl Judgments. The Post-Tribs agree with the Pre-Tribs on the church returning with Jesus at His second coming. About 90% of the Chinese, North Korean and Asian believers believe in the Post-Tribulation viewpoint.
But there are a some scriptures most Pre-Trib and Post-Trib believers seldom think about —
And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows. (Matthew 24:5-8)
The “beginning of sorrows” will be one tough time-period for us believers to endure. We will be arrested, persecuted and killed. The whole world will hate us, just because we follow Jesus. Many believers will turn away from following the Lord, betraying and hating other believers. There will be many false prophets who will deceive many believers. Sin will be rampant and everywhere, with the love of many believers growing cold.
Now, maybe, we have our fingers crossed, hoping we will be raptured into heaven before these terrible things happen.
“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:14)
Who preaches the gospel? Believers do.
Therefore, it makes no difference whether Jesus returns for us before the Great Tribulation takes place or near the end of it because we have to remain on earth and endure the “beginning of sorrows,” so we can preach the gospel to all nations (or people groups).
(Continued in Part 6…but if you want to read all of the parts to date, you can go here.)
Filed under America, Christianity, Church, Civil War, End-Times, Kingdom of God, Prophecy, spiritual warfare
A great conflict loomed on the national horizon in 1857 because of the unresolved slavery issue. Yet, unlike other times when America faced dangers, people did not flock to churches. God no longer seemed relevant to the nation, especially for businessmen who enjoyed great prosperity during this time period.
An unexplained financial panic then hit America. Banks closed. Railroads declared bankruptcy. Thousands of workers were laid off. Desperate families faced starvation.
But in the midst of financial despair, Jeremiah Lanphier, a middle-aged businessman, felt God wanted him to start a noontime weekly prayer meeting for businessmen in New York City. He printed a pamphlet, How Often Shall I Pray, and handed them out to local businessmen, inviting them to prayer meetings at the Old Dutch North Church.
The first meeting was held on September 23, 1857. Lanphier prayed alone for the first half hour, but six men joined him for the second thirty minutes. On the following Wednesday, twenty men showed up for prayer. Forty showed up the week following. By October 14, 1857, more than one hundred attended the meetings.
They soon decided that weekly assemblages were not enough. So, they met on a daily basis. Pastors whose spirits were inflamed by these gatherings opened their own churches for prayer times. Before long, meetings were overflowing with young, old, rich, and poor. Within six months, ten thousand businessmen attended over one hundred and fifty different prayer meetings in New York City on a daily basis.
The Spirit of Prayer then spread the fire across the nation tosuch cities as Boston, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Richmond, Louisville, Charleston, Savannah, New Orleans, Memphis, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago, and countless other cities.
The prayer meetings were quite simple in structure. A leader would start the hour by announcing a hymn. All would stand and sing one or two verses. Then, the leader would say a brief prayer, and the service was turned over to the assembled members. Any person was free to speak or pray for no longer than five minutes. A bell rang if the man overextended his time so that another could take a turn.
Prayer requests were made for family members or others not present. Many stood asking prayer for themselves. Others exhorted the men to pray more fervently and to live holy lives. Over the weeks, testimonies were given on answered prayers and all praised the Lord for them. Promptly, at the end of one hour, the leader rose and ended the meeting with a closing prayer. The members filed quietly out of the buildings.
This move of the Holy Spirit was known as the Businessman’s Prayer Revival, Laymen’s Prayer Revival, or the Prayer Revival of 1857. Powerful preaching was not involved like most of the other awakenings in America, but rather, it was filled with earnest, forceful prayer. Dwight L. Moody, the noted evangelist, and Fanny Crosby, the blind hymn composer, were numbered among the Revival’s converts. George Duffield wrote the hymn, Stand Up, Stand Up For Jesus, to encourage businessmen.
The revival did not diminish with the beginning of the Civil War. Instead, it broke out in both armies, but in particular, the Confederate forces. It began for the Southerners in the hospitals among the wounded and was spread into the camps when they returned to their units. Prayer meetings were organized and hundreds joined the gatherings on the frontlines.
The great evangelist, Charles Finney, summed up the prayer revival: “The general impression seems to be that we have had instruction until we are hardened; it is time to pray.”
It was estimated that over 150,000 soldiers in the Southern armies were converted and overall, nearly 6.6 per cent of the entire United States became Christians in this prayer revival.
For those who think a Holy Spirit revival would stop a civil war from happening here in America today, the Businessman’s Prayer Revival of 1857 doesn’t offer us much hope. The Civil War broke out four years later, killing over 620,000 people dead – more than all of America’s other wars combined.
(Continued in Part 5…but if you want to read all of the parts to date, you can go here.)
Filed under America, Christianity, Church, Civil War, End-Times, Gifts of the Spirit, Kingdom of God, Prayer, spiritual warfare
Photograph of Christ Anglican Church, Stellarton, NS. Taken the morning of October 28, 2005
This may explain why the people of Nineveh were so willing to repent when the prophet Jonah walked through the city in 759 BC, proclaiming, “Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”
At the time, Nineveh was the largest city in Assyria, which was Israel’s hated enemy. The city was impregnable. It had double walls with the inside wall being 100-feet high and 50-feet wide. It had twelve-hundred 200-foot towers spaced along the sixty-mile circumference of the inside wall. Over a hundred-thousand people (maybe as many as five hundred-thousand) lived inside the walls and grew crops there. The city could sustain a military siege almost forever.
How is it that a pagan super-power could listen to the words of a reluctant prophet and had enough spiritual vision to change, but America with all of its churches, Christian TV and radio stations, Bibles and so forth only listens to prophetic voices that scratch its itching ears with teachings it wants to hear?
My prayer today:
Lord, remove the spirit of stupor from the American church so that its eyes can see and its ears can hear what the Spirit is saying to the church. (Based on Romans 11:8)
Join me on Tuesdays to fast and pray for the American church.
Filed under America, Christianity, Church, Civil War, Fasting, Kingdom of God, Prayer, Prophecy, spiritual warfare
The prophet Jeremiah accurately spoke the Lord’s words to backslidden Judah for over forty years, from approximately 627 BC to 586 BC.
The king’s court was filled with Judah’s leaders, temple priests, other prophets, various soothsayers and ambassadors from five neighboring nations. King Zedekiah and the ambassadors were setting up a military alliance to fight King Nebuchadnezzar at that precise moment.
Perfect timing, right?
Heart beats probably sounded like base drums at that moment.
Then Jeremiah challenged them by adding, “Your prophets have prophesied that the vessels and articles taken from the Temple will soon be returned from Babylon. Well, if they are true prophets, let them make intercession to God to stop King Nebuchadnezzar from taking all of the rest of the vessels, articles and furniture still hidden in the Temple and the King’s house to Babylon. God is giving all of these to Babylon and will restore them to Judah at a later time.”
A prophet named Hananiah stepped forward and prophesied, “The Lord will destroy Babylon’s stranglehold on Judah. All of the Temple’s precious treasures and all of the people, including Jehoiakim, our former king of Judah, will be returned within two years.”
Jeremiah may have shrugged his shoulders when he replied to Hananiah, “I hope you’re right, but you aren’t! My words agree with the prophets who spoke before me about wars and disasters befalling Judah. So, your words of peace will have to come to pass before we will know if God has sent you or not.”
Hananiah boldly broke the wooden yoke off Jeremiah’s neck and proclaimed, “God will do the same for Judah within two years.”
Jeremiah meekly walked away from the court. Maybe the onlookers cheered and applauded Hananiah and his boldness to stand up to the old prophet.
Hananiah died three months later.
What do we know about Hananiah? He was the son of a prophet named Azur and would have been trained in the proper ways of the Lord and prophesying.
It’s my guess that Hananiah had a history of speaking accurate prophecies. Otherwise, why would anyone pay attention to his words?
(Continued in Part 3…but if you want to read all of the parts to date, you can go here.)
Filed under America, Christianity, Church, Civil War, End-Times, Gifts of the Spirit, Kingdom of God, Prayer, Prophecy, spiritual warfare
Honduran immigrants pray in an improvised shelter in Chiquimula, Guatemala, on October 16, 2018. (https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2018/10/photos-migrant-caravan/573604/)
The thousands of people marching in the migrant caravan heading toward our southern border are probably useful pawns for certain political factions that have an agenda, which we may not all agree with. That’s a fact and can’t be argued.
But even so, each member of the caravan has value in the eyes of God with many of them being our brothers and sisters in Christ.
So, we believers need to be careful how we speak and act on this issue.
My prayer today:
Lord, we look on the migrant caravan and realize our helplessness so we come to You and ask for wisdom for ourselves and for our leaders on how we should speak and act on this issue. (Based on James 1:3)
What do you think and has the Lord spoken to you today?
Join with me on Thursdays to fast and pray for America.
The disciples asked Jesus about the signs of His second coming and also the end of the age. He replied, “There will be wars and rumors of wars with nations rising against nations and kingdoms against kingdoms and famines and earthquakes.”
But in the midst of His above words, Jesus said:
See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. (Matthew 24:6 ESV)
Since Cain killed Abel in Chapter 4 of Genesis, the world certainly has witnessed its share of wars and uprisings throughout the centuries. Yet, I don’t believe Jesus is talking about all of the historical wars here, but instead, I believe He is talking about a specific turbulent time period at the end of the age.
It’s my belief that the nations of the world, especially Israel, will be so fed up with war and the chaotic calamities happening during this turbulent time period that they will be willing to do anything to have peace. This will result in the signing of a peace treaty for a one-world government, which will usher in the Antichrist at its head. Just so you know, the Antichrist will not appear as the son of perdition (even though he is), but rather as an angel of light and a minister of righteousness. He might even be carrying a Bible and singing, “Power in the Blood,” when he takes his oath for office.
Okay, but why did Jesus say, “This must take place?”
Chapter 24 of Matthew is the best timeline for the end-times and the prophetic Book of Revelation. So, in order for all of the end-time prophecies to take place in the Father’s chosen time and season, some actions will have to kickstart those scenarios. These are a few of them.
Now we need to remember that some prophecies are placed in the Bible so we can pray the problems away, but others are there to forewarn us so we can prepare ourselves beforehand. Jesus’ words plainly tell us ahead of time not to waste our energy trying to pray these problems away, but rather, we need to prepare ourselves to go through these times of sorrows.
If you’re thinking the Lord wouldn’t allow His church to go through such suffering, let me ask a question: who sets the Antichrist and his killers loose to prey upon the earth?
Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals…When He opened the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh seals.. (Revelation 6:1 to Revelation 8:1)
The Lamb – our Lord Jesus Christ – is the only One who can open the seals for these seven seal judgments. He is also the One who releases Death and Hades to kill one fourth of the earth in the fourth seal judgment.
Each of us can study Revelation, Daniel, Zechariah, Matthew 24, and the other end-times’ scriptures to determine our own beliefs, but what does this have to do with an upcoming American Civil War?
For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom… (Matthew 24:7)
Most of us can see the possibilities of wars breaking out between the United States, Russia, China, Iran and countless other nations, but how many of us can see the possibility of a civil war breaking out in America?
Sadly, I firmly believe it will happen. Not only do I believe a civil war will soon take place, killing thousands of Americans, but I also believe we can’t pray it away.
Why would the Lord allow this to happen to America?
(Continued in Part 2)
Photograph of Christ Anglican Church, Stellarton, NS. Taken the morning of October 28, 2005
The Apostle Paul uttered some words that still shake me to the core when I read them.
For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. (Romans 9:3)
If you missed what Paul was really saying in this verse, read it again. You see, Paul was willing to give up his salvation and go to Hell forever if his doing so would result in his fellow Jews being saved.
I don’t know about you, but Paul’s words make me uncomfortable at my low-level of love for my neighbors and other Americans.
My prayer today:
Lord, give the American church a love for our neighbors and other Americans like Paul had for his kinsmen so that we have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in our hearts until we see a great harvest of souls in our nation. (Based on Romans 9:2)
Join me on Tuesdays to fast and pray for the American church.
Filed under America, Christianity, Church, Gifts of the Spirit, Kingdom of God, Prayer, Prophecy, spiritual warfare
My guess is that 5 to 10% of American Christians believe the gifts of the Holy Spirit are not for today’s believers. They believe the gifts were only for the early church and passed away when the last apostle died. Another 15 to 25% are either Pentecostal or Charismatic in their beliefs and believe the spiritual gifts are for all believers.
If my guess is accurate, this leaves approximately 70% of American Christians who either have not considered the spiritual gifts as important enough to seek or have received no teaching on them.
Here’s the dilemma for the 5-10% naysayer group and the 70% clueless group: what will we do when the Antichrist requires everyone to receive the mark of the beast in order to buy and sell anything?
What if our spouse needs special medications in order to live or our child needs emergency medical assistance to survive an ailment, what will we do? Will we let our spouse or child die? Or will we take the mark of the beast for their sakes? There will be no fence straddling at this time.
But here’s what we can do: we can prepare ourselves ahead of time for these end-time events by seeking the spiritual gifts now. The gifts of word of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, and interpretation of tongues have already been provided by the Lord for these extreme situations. Thus, why not lay down our traditions and follow the practices of the early church by seeking the spiritual gifts now?
Ah, that brings up another dilemma.
Let’s say we seek the spiritual gifts and then receive them through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, where will we practice using our gifts? We have to remember that our gifts and our faith will be strengthened as we use the gifts, but still there is a learning curve and mistakes may occur along the way.
Can we practice using our newly received gifts in a median-sized sanctuary of 300 or more members? Probably not. This is generally the realm for pastors and elders to operate their gifts. Most pew-sitters are required to be spectators only.
So, the only place where each believer can practice using his or her gifts is in a small home fellowship where each knows and trusts each other.
(Continued in the future…but if you want to read all of the parts to date, you can go here.)
Filed under America, Christianity, Church, End-Times, Gifts of the Spirit, Home Church, Kingdom of God, Prophecy, spiritual warfare
In God’s first attempt at planting a new church, He did it in a unique fashion.
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2:2-4)
The gifts of the Holy Spirit fell on all the people, not just the apostles or prophets or evangelists or pastors and teachers. Everyone was empowered by the Spirit and His spiritual gifts.
Four or five years later, Philip was preaching in Samaria when a revival broke out with many people being saved. Peter and John traveled to Samaria to help Philip. The first thing the two apostles did was check the new believers to see if the Holy Spirit had fallen on them.
For as yet the Holy Spirit had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. (Acts 8:16-17)
Almost twenty years later, the Apostle Paul had already planted many churches, including the Corinthian Church, when he met some new disciples in Ephesus. What was the first thing Paul checked with these new believers?
“Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said to him, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” (Acts 19:2)
When Paul heard these new disciples had not been baptized in the Holy Spirit, but only into the water baptism of John the Baptist, he wasted no time.
And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. (Acts 19:6)
The evidence seems to prove that the apostles made sure that all of their new church plants followed the same pattern God used when He planted the first church in Jerusalem. They laid hands on the new believers and asked the Holy Spirit to fall on them so that the spiritual gifts were poured out on the new believers
Why was this important? And is it important for us today?
(Continued in Part 12…but if you want to read all of the parts to date, you can go here.)
Filed under America, Christianity, Church, End-Times, Home Church, Kingdom of God, Prayer, Prophecy, spiritual warfare
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