Dale Rumble
Introduction
Where there is no vision, people are unrestrained (Proverbs 29:18). Each person will go his own way. A common vision for what God will do in the future will discipline believers to unite and stand together as one man. It becomes the basis of corporate strength. Should this vision fade, individuals become satisfied with where they are, and their vision becomes one of what God has done in the past. The emphasis becomes tradition. They are no longer united in a vision for what lies ahead; they have become complacent. The church in America today is complacent and passive concerning the rising tide of evil in the land. The worldwide influence of the gospel is growing rapidly as increasing numbers are turning to Christ. Mega-churches are appearing in the land. However, the church in America is not preparing for the darkness that is coming. The church age began with Christ embracing His cross; it will end with the church embracing her cross in the final conflict with evil. This tract has been written to pull back the curtain of complacency, and bring vision to the church.
SHAKINGS HAVE BEGUN
This country was founded by godly men, who defined in a constitution, their vision for America as being one nation under God. Since its beginning, America has faithfully taken the gospel to all parts of the earth, and she has been blessed with freedom and economic prosperity as a result.
However, in recent years (the past fifty years in particular), she has forsaken her godly heritage as evidenced by the following actions: legalized abortions, removal of Bibles, prayer and biblical instruction from public schools, promoting the teaching of evolution, acceptance of homosexuality as a normal lifestyle, confidence in our military might rather than in God for national safety, a growing acceptance and display of pornography, and increasing efforts by groups such as the A.C.L.U. to remove God from our national conscience. The spirit of lawlessness is increasingly evident in American society.
All of these moral failures warn us to prepare for God’s judgment. Unfortunately there is no clear, united voice from the church calling for repentance and preparation for the days ahead. There have always been times of shaking. However, God has a strategy of judgment for these end-times in which He is shaking everything that can be shaken, so that our faith will be in Him and His kingdom, and not in the arm of flesh (Hebrews 12:25-27). He is shaking regions, nations and even the heavens. And this includes America! God is going to judge sin in the church. He will deal with activities like selfish lifestyles, racism, inappropriate music, the occult such as New Age activities and witchcraft, etc. A minister who uses self-centered, carnal appeals to manipulate and control others to follow him and support his agenda is practising witchraft. Witchraft (or sorcery) is not only demomic, it is also a work of the flesh (Galations 5:19-20).
Because He loves the people of America in spite of our sins, the Lord lifted His hand of protection over us on September, 2001 and September, 2005. These two shakings expressed God’s judgment of our sins. They were sent to turn us to repentance and righteousness, not to destroy us. God’s shakings are not His wrath, which does not extend mercy, they are judgments that He sends to bring repentance and revival. Where sin abounds, God’s grace abounds even more as His people repent and cry out for mercy. God’s heart is to transform cities, regions and even nations. He shakes these places so that the believers will unite in prayer and intercede for their community. They must stand against demonic strongholds and repent of any historical injustice that could be the root of sin in their region.
I expect to see revival break out in New Orleans and the surrounding area as mercy is extended by the Lord through His body to hurting people there. How the church responds to this shaking is key to the Lord’s visitation in that locality. Furthermore, the shakings in America are not over yet; more are to come because the Lord has a great inheritance in this nation! It is not important whether the agent of shaking is a hurricane, an earthquake, terrorism or pestilence; what is important is our response to Him. It is important that we recognize what is happening and understand the call of God on our generation.
THE CALL OF GOD
God calls believers to be a prophetic voice to their generation. We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God has prepared beforehand for us to walk in; what we say and do is to express the will and purpose of God to our generation. That is our call. While it is true that disciples of every generation are called to be witnesses of Christ, the social, economic and political circumstances will vary greatly from generation to generation. In particular, believers living in the last days will experience perilous and difficult times. For that reason they must know the current strategy of God for their day and locality. Unless God directs otherwise, where we are located and those with whom we have fellowship, are elements of His strategy for that region. We have been called to His kingdom for such a time as this..
The place to begin is recognizing that the time of our birth and the locality in which we now live were not chance happenings. They are part of our call in God, a call that was established long before creation.
Who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted to us in Christ Jesus from all eternity. (2 Timothy 1:9)
God created time, and being eternal, He is not subject to it. Long before creation, He simply moved forward down the corridors of time into the future to see how each individual would make decisions, out of his own will, to serve or not to serve Him. God’s grace doesn’t violate man’s will. In this way, God foreknows those who will be His elect (chosen) in every generation. This foreknowledge is the basis of our call, justification and eventual glorification (Romans 8:29-30). By foreknowledge He chose us in Him before the foundations of the world and predestined us to adoption as sons. Thus, in every generation, God waits for what He already knows will happen to take place in the lives of His children (Ecclesiastes 3:15). Examples in scripture of God’s foreknowledge of those whom He has called to serve Him are found in the lives of Jeremiah and David (Jeremiah 1:6; Psalm 139:13-17).
When we consider events taking place in the world today, it is possible that we are entering into the closing days of this age. There is no place for complacency; we cannot expect the future to be a continuation of what we have known in the past. We must understand God’s call on our generation to judge sin in the church, to prepare her for the time of tribulation and for the glory that is to come. We are to lay aside other agendas and give ourselves wholly to His strategy of restoration and harvest.
RESTORATION
When we scan the horizon of the future, we see a final end-time harvest of souls being gathered in through a time of great tribulation, a harvest that will be followed by our Lord’s return in glory! However, His return will not take place until there has first been a period of restoration to His people; a restoration that will be essential for the harvest. Believers who are the first to proclaim and walk in new truth are forerunners. The spirit of Elijah came upon John the Baptist, who was a forerunner of the Lord Jesus. The same spirit will rest upon those believers who are the first to walk in truths being restored to the end-time church. Forerunners will lead the way in restoring ministries such as prophecy for regions and nations, open visions, working of miracles, laying apostolic foundations for churches, greater dimensions of worship and intercession, etc. More than anything else, Jesus will be exalted to His proper place as lord of each believer and head of the church.
And He (Jesus) answered and said, “Elijah is coming and will restore all things. (Matthew 17:11)
Therefore repent and return so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord (revival visitations); and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive (i.e. retain) until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time. (Acts 3:19-21)
An obvious restoration will be salvation of the nation of Israel, once fulness of the Gentiles has come in (Romans 11:11-27). The church will not be complete until this takes place.
The early church was brought forth as one body in Christ, an organism of life. Jesus taught His disciples that through the cross, He would make Jew and Gentile believers into “one new man” (Ephesians 2:15). He prayed to His Father that they would be united in Him because of the presence of His life within them (John 17:21-23). His prayer will be answered.
Today the church is fragmented into many organizations or institutions which mask the reality of Christ’s headship. Restoration of the church, in full, will see the body of Christ emerge as a mighty united army to display the power and love of God in a final demonstration of His mercy, grace and love to a lost and guilty world. The church will rearm herself with the power of intercessory worship and prayer. Prophets and apostles will emerge, men who walk with the hearts of bondservants. Body ministry will replace programmed agendas; this ministry will include the whole body of our Lord, including the youth (Malachi 4:5-6).
Your people will offer themselves willingly in the day of Your power, in the beauty of holiness and in holy array out of the womb of the morning; to You will spring forth Your young men who are as the dew. (Psalm 110:3; AMPLIFIED BIBLE)
Spiritual warfare will increasingly be waged against forces in the heavens. The ministry of angels will become common.
I believe this final harvest will be fulfillment of the “feast of tabernacles.” It will take place in a time of deepening darkness in the world and a time of rising glory upon the church.
THE HARVEST
Whenever the church experiences material affluence and social acceptance, she tends to grow lukewarm in her zeal for God. On the other hand, times of persecution and tribulation initiates a turning back to the Lord. The death of martyrs brings life to the church. For this reason, the Lord’s strategy for the final harvest is that it takes place during a time of deepening darkness in what is called “the great tribulation” (Matthew 24:21). The church will experience the sufferings of persecution; martyrdom will increase. The call of believers is to overcome the darkness (Revelation 12:11). The following scripture paints a picture of the harvest and how the glory of God will draw multitudes to Himself from the darkness in the earth.
Arise and shine; for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples; but the Lord will rise upon you and His glory will appear upon you. Nations will come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes round about and see; they all gather together, they come to you. (Isaiah 60:1-4)
Implicit in this scripture is the restoration of glory and power to the church; the Lord Himself, becomes her light!
The promise to Jesus from His Father provides this expectation for the harvest:
Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as your possession. (Psalm 2:8)
Great communication technology has made the world as we know it to become like an “open book.” Through techniques such as radio, satellites, TV, the Internet, cell phones, wireless devices, etc., the word of God can be sent to people in every nation. God has foretold that He will shake all nations and that they will respond (Haggai 2:6-7). Thus we read:
This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:14)
The Lord has an inheritance from even the Islamic nations, and they will come to Him before He returns (Isaiah 60:6-7).
THE DAY OF THE LORD
The day of the Lord begins the moment that Christ returns to “catch up” His people to Himself 1 (1 Thessalonians 4:14-17).
I don’t know how many times over the years that I have heard evangelists on TV make the following statement:
“No scripture remains unfulfilled; Christ can return at any instant.”
This mind-set reveals how unprepared for the future believers are who made such statements. There are at least three events that must take place before the return of Christ.
1. A great end-time harvest of souls.
2. A period of restoration of those things that have been promised to the people of God: Christ is returning for a victorious, overcoming bride, His church (Acts 3:20-21). And Israel will be saved.
3. Revelation of the antichrist; a climax of the deep darkness that will be in the world at this time (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4). The power, signs and false wonders of the antichrist will deceive those who will not receive the love of truth so as to be saved. All tares, sons of the evil-one, will be removed from God’s kingdom. The only harvest of tares from God’s kingdom takes place at the end of the church age. Their removal is a unique part of the final harvest.
Allow both (tares and good grain) to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into My barn . . . . The tares are the sons of the evil one; and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels. . . . The Son of Man will send forth His angels and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire . . . . (Matthew 13:30, 38, 39, 41, 42)
The day of the Lord will be both a day of glory for believers in Christ and a day of judgment for the unsaved. It is a day that we must prepare for.
Summary
The voice of complacency is frequently heard on the Christian media: “Just believe in Jesus. Then there is nothing to fear, for the Lord will return and catch away His people before the great tribulation occurs.” This word lacks vision for what lies ahead!
But change is coming. There will be good consequences to His shakings and judgment of sin in the church. The Lord is raising up an army with many young people who have a prophetic word for this generation. Their word will replace complacency with the following vision:
This is God’s vision for our generation!
REFERENCE:
1. The Day of the Lord, a FOUNTAIN OF LIFE tract, Dale Rumble