A time to wake up!
We live in unprecedented times, a time for preparation for battle, not for business as usual! We’ve entered a new season in salvation history, when events will culminate in the return of Jesus Christ, a glorious prospect for the Church. Right now, events are accelerating and coming into sharper focus. Jesus may come back within the lifetime of people alive today.
All around us, we see an unparalleled escalation in world-wide ethnic cleansing and sectarian violence, increasing globalisation and a developing New World Order with a corresponding loss of national sovereignty. We see worldwide financial and economic chaos, and an increase in natural disasters. Judaeo-Christian values have been rejected here in the West and there’s increasing persecution of Christians worldwide. Israel has been betrayed by her friends, and she’s hemmed in on every side by enemies seeking her annihilation. We see growing apostasy in the Church, believers abandoning the true faith, and at the same time a significant growth in New Age, Eastern mysticism and pagan spirituality, promoting the deification of man and the worship of creation.
From any perspective, this is a sobering state of affairs. Dark forces of evil, in order to cover their tracks, say ‘Peace, peace, when there is no peace’ and scoffers rise to say ‘where is the promise of his coming.’ The prophets, on the other hand, recognise that we are witnessing the beginning of birth pains.
Taken together, these things lead us to the conviction that we’ve reached God’s End Game (God’s final judgements coming upon the earth). It may not be too long before we experience even more cataclysmic and earth-shattering events. But far from being ’prophets of doom’, we carry with us a great sense of anticipation, expectation and urgency 'as we look forward to the day of the Lord to speed its coming’ (2 Peter 3:12).
Not all Christians look at life this way, however. While storm clouds gather on national and global fronts, large sections of the Church appear to sleep whilst apostasy takes hold. As the End-Time battle for the souls of men intensifies and all hell is beginning to break loose, the Church should be experiencing her finest hour. Instead, many saints have abandoned their posts, gone absent without leave, and are hardly distinguishable now from the rest of the world. The unity that Jesus prayed for is still a distant dream.
God is given a makeover in the house of his friends. A new, softer, more palatable and culturally acceptable God - a God (or is it a goddess?) made in their own image, is now on offer. The offence of the Cross and the notions of sin, hell and judgement have been removed from the Gospel message.
Overwhelmed by the opposition, some Christians have retreated from the public square. They’ve given up the fight against the cruelties of abortion, the normalising of homosexuality and the rejection of our Judaeo-Christian heritage. Others embrace Paganism, New Age teaching and Eastern mysticism and inevitably drift toward the so-called 'new spirituality' of experience, relativism and tolerance.
Thankfully, it’s not all bad news! In every generation, God always has a faithful remnant and we still rejoice that many come to faith each day. We can still point to faithful believers who contend for the truth of the Gospel, to vibrant communities of faith and to societies experiencing transformation through the power of the Gospel.
Nevertheless, if we take an overview, we have to admit that the Church in general has ceased to be a prophetic, subversive and counter-cultural movement – the hallmarks of the Church birthed by the Holy Spirit in the first century. And if the Church is ever to rediscover her true destiny, she first needs herself to be awakened!
In the meantime, the Lord calls his faithful remnant to battle readiness. He's raising men and women with the anointing of the men of Issachar (1 Ch 12:32), the strategists in David’s army of whom it’s said, ‘could understand the times and knew what Israel should do.’ Winston Churchill, a man for his time, used by God to deliver the world from the tyrannies of Nazi Germany, had this same anointing and calling on his life.
Today, God looks for those who will stand in the gap. Men and women, who not only understand the times and know what to do, but who also crucially understand the nature of the battle we face. Our war is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Eph 6:12).
They understand that unseen forces are at work behind every philosophy, ideology and every earthly event. Like the prophet Elisha, the unseen realm is becoming as real as the seen. These people also carry a sense of urgency, knowing that as God’s judgement fall, it may not be long before genuine persecution kicks in, and the politically correct State, underpinned by the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Eph 6:12), will close down our witness for Christ.
Though the days ahead will be filled with uncertainty, and no doubt the battle will be hard, these sons and daughters of Issachar will refuse to take the easy path of appeasement and compromise. They will declare Christ's Lordship over the powers in heavenly places (Eph 3:10) and announce to all forms of earthly government and power, that they are not sovereign. No, Jesus is Lord!
They will not give their allegiance to any human ruler or institution, nor passively submit to ungodly laws or let injustice go unchallenged. But rather, through their understanding of the times and by their example of faithfulness, they will encourage those with the spirit of prophets like Amos and Wilberforce, to go and highlight injustice, change public opinion, affect government policy and ensure continued freedom for the Gospel. As Paul urged Timothy, they will pray that we may live peaceful and quiet lives (1 Tim 2:2) where the Gospel can be proclaimed and demonstrated in every street, without limitation, and without police interference.
Equally, they will empower those with the spirit of a Wesley or Booth, to go and preach the one true Gospel, in order to see individuals, neighbourhoods, villages, towns and cities cleansed and transformed by the power of the Spirit and through the love of Jesus Christ, while there is still time. Through their purity of heart refined in the battle, they will awaken the warrior Bride, pure and spotless, clothed in white linen, made ready for the coming Bridegroom King.
Every true believer in Jesus Christ has been called for such a time as this. It’s a time to let our light shine and to push back the powers of darkness, so that once again the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ will cause an unstoppable fire to be lit in these islands of ours. The warrior Bride of Christ will become more assertive and bold, even as the battle intensifies, and as the day of her Bridegroom King’s return draws ever nearer.
We live in unprecedented times, a time for preparation for battle, not for business as usual! We’ve entered a new season in salvation history, when events will culminate in the return of Jesus Christ, a glorious prospect for the Church. Right now, events are accelerating and coming into sharper focus. Jesus may come back within the lifetime of people alive today . . .