PREPARE FOR THE “END TIMES” EVENTS TO COME

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“Why do the nations rage…? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, ‘Let us tear off their bonds and cast away their ropes from us” (Psalm 2:1-3).

David describes a time when many rulers would see God’s Word in a negative light, as though it were bonds enslaving them and as cords binding them to His morality, godly ways and truth. They would see the demands of God’s Word as hindering “human potential” in sexual expression along with many other life choices.

This prophecy is being fulfilled now and it is time to speak up and to refuse to remain silent. In this hour, as the cultural wars intensify, the voice of aggressive secularists is getting much louder and bolder. At the same time, many in the church are retreating into fearful silence. To some, it seems as if the church will be overrun by the angry voices of the liberal left. However, I assure you that the Lord’s purposes will surely succeed. He is raising up those who will speak up with clarity and courage because of their fierce love for Jesus and the truth (John 14:21, 2 Thess. 2:10).

Where is all this going? Some ask if things will get better or worse. The truth is, both light and darkness will increase at the same time. Before Jesus returns, godliness and sin alike will reach their greatest heights in history:

“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For the darkness shall cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples; but the Lord shall rise upon you, and His glory shall be seen upon you” (Isaiah 60:1-2).

The greatest outpouring of the Holy Spirit in history is yet to come, in conjunction with a deluge of deep darkness assaulting the nations.

The Lord is raising up courageous messengers who will fearlessly proclaim Jesus as the only way of salvation, the authority of His Word and the supremacy of His glorious leadership.

Where do you stand? Where does your church stand? What is God calling you to do in this hour? It is time to make important decisions, to align yourselves with like minded brothers and sisters in Christ. The persecuted church invariably looks like the church described in the Book of Acts.

Compiled using article by Mike Bickle, The Lord is Raising Up Courageous Messengers in Charisma Magazine

ONLY A RADICAL CHURCH WILL SURVIVE THE COMING TRIBULATION

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The Coming Church: article by John Burton – see bio below. I suggest you reread these posts for further confirmation – Are our churches making disciples, July 16th – Church as God intended, July 26th – Wake up church, Aug 3rd – Church in the last days, Aug 9th – Building church God’s way, Aug 17th.

“The book that I’m currently writing will address some of the spiritual and practical changes that will come to the structure and expression of the church. Trust me, it will shock our nation severely.

Those who hold on to a structure or a ministry instead of Jesus Himself will not be willing to go where God is leading.

The coming church will be rooted in scripture. The biblical structure has been largely forsaken in traditional churches. What will the emerging church look like? Here’s just a small peek into a grand shift in the structure of the church:

1. Services will become more like prayer meetings. One of the greatest indictments on the church today is that prayer is not the driving force. Today, people tend to choose churches based on the appeal of the teaching and the worship instead of the fervency of prayer. If the church was a house of teaching or a house of worship, that would make sense, but it’s not. The church is a house of prayer for all nations. Every person in the church will function as a burning intercessor and the services will be marked by this unified groan of fiery prayer.

2. Personal need will give way to personal mission. Today, churches are often more like organic, socially driven hospitals. People tend to use the church as a way to meet their personal needs instead of serving it as a minister of God. This is going to change. Of course, there will still be personal ministry and true needs will be addressed.

However, instead of the church functioning as a hospital, it will once again function as a mission-driven military. The mission will take precedence. The saints will be equipped for service, not for personal survival. In this ancient and emerging model, there will be MASH units that will take very good care of the wounded with the primary purpose of getting the soldier back into battle. Apostles will again lead with governmental authority and pastors will be seen as the main leader less and less as they focus more on shepherding and less on primary leadership.

3. Teaching will be minimized while instruction is emphasized. Teaching is mostly for personal edification while instruction is mostly for corporate assignments. Today, most churches focus on teaching principles of Scripture, providing truths that will help believers navigate through their lives and giving nuggets of biblical info. While there will still be important Bible teaching, apostolic instruction will emerge as a necessary new ministry.

There is enough Bible teaching online, on CDs, in books and on video to turn every one of us into personal spiritual giants. We need to take it upon ourselves to grow. What is lacking, however, is apostolic leaders, military commanders who give instruction and assignments to a ready army. Teaching is personal growth-based while instruction is a call to corporate action for the sake of mission fulfillment.

An example of apostolic instruction is this: The apostolic leader gives a corporate assignment for everybody in the church to fast for a week and then show up together to prayer walk through the city streets. It’s a corporate call to action versus biblical study. It’s mission focused versus personal growth focused. Personal growth will be largely our responsibility between services so we can be ready to respond to the corporate instruction where we will receive our assignments.

4. We will gather together most days of the week. The 24/7 church will again emerge as the church drives culture instead of reacting to culture. Cares of life will lose their power as we simplify our lives and put corporate prayer and mission ahead of most everything else.

This may be the most challenging change for Christians. Today, Sundays are the days to set aside for corporate worship while we give precedence to our ‘normal lives.’ In the Coming Church, the very reason we live will be to pray on fire together every day, receive apostolic assignments and then move out into our lives as kingdom ambassadors. It wouldn’t be surprising if a tithe of our time is what became the standard. Two to three hours a day, whether it’s in the morning, afternoon or evening, or even in the late night hours, will be given by every believer to praying on site together with others, ministering and giving ourselves to intercession-fueled kingdom ministry. Of course, much of what we have been giving ourselves to will have to be eliminated so we have the time necessary to devote.

5. Worship will be supernaturally driven. There is a new sound coming to worship, and it’s not simply a new style. There is a supernatural, otherworldly groan of intercessory worship that will explode out of the entire body as a new breed of trembling worship leaders lead the way into the shock and awe of the glory of God. We will no longer simply sit in a pew or stand with a raised hand while a familiar worship song is sung.

The prophetic, groaning sounds of Holy Spirit facilitated worship will make it normal to shake and fall to our faces as we cry Holy! The natural, logical sing-a-longs will be no more. We will have a hard time standing as God’s Shekinah and Kabod glory resides in His church. Worship teams will practice less and pray in the Spirit with tears in their eyes more.

Of course, this is an extremely limited glance into the many, many changes that are coming. I wanted to share this to provoke you to preparation. There is much that you and I enjoy in the church, or that is comfortable to us, that we will have to let go. Again, the coming church will be troubling and shocking, but it will result in the power and life that we have been crying out for.

God is about to answer that cry.

I strongly recommend that you read my book 20 Elements of Revival. That book reveals much of the shift that we must embrace right now. If you truly take in all that it has to say, you’ll never participate in the church the same way again.”

John Burton has been developing and leading ministries for over 20 years and is a sought out teacher, prophetic messenger and revivalist. John’s mandate is to call the church in the nations to repentance from casual Christianity and to burn in a manner worthy of the King of kings. He is equipping people to confront the enemies of God (established religion, Jezebel, etc.) that hinder an extreme, sold-out level of true worship. He planted two churches, has initiated two city prayer movements and is currently directing a prayer and revival focused ministry school in Detroit called thelabuniverstity.com.

THE ETERNAL FATAL EFFECTS OF LIBERAL THEOLOGY

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Bert M. Farias, revivalist and founder of Holy Fire Ministries provides us with a revealing testimony about the real state of the liberal church. Article from Charisma News.

“A few years ago I was engaged in a friendly spiritual dialogue with a former childhood friend on Facebook. The conversation was spawned from a status I had just posted on my timeline. What I shared was a diagram of two photos, exposing in a dichotomy, the hypocrisy of liberal values. The photo on the left portrayed two homosexuals in festive, colourful attire kissing each other in what looked like a gay pride parade. Below the photo was the word “encouraged”. The photo on the right portrayed two little children sitting at their desk in school with hands folded in prayer. Below that photo was the word “unacceptable”. In other words, Liberalism encouraged homosexuality while deeming school prayer unacceptable.

This is why a person can be a member of a church and yet be living a gay lifestyle. He can carry a Bible and be in an adulterous affair. He can adhere to a form of doctrine but have no peace. This is the sad state of things in much of America.

My friend pointed out that the photo of the children was upsetting to him as he believed that no one should discourage children from praying, but the one of the homosexuals kissing didn’t bother him.

Here is the exchange between us:

Friend: As for the picture on the left, get over it. Homosexuality has been around for hundreds of years, and it will remain for hundreds of years to come. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not a big deal.

Me: The loyalty of true devoted Christians is to the truth and testimony of the Word of God, David. The Scriptures, which you probably doubt are God-inspired, are clear on homosexuality. It is an abomination to God (Lev. 18), unnatural (Rom. 1) and in opposition to God’s nature and sacred order (Rom. 1). No one in this lifestyle can inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9-11), but will incur God’s wrath unless they repent and seek help and deliverance. Homosexuality has always been rejected throughout history. It is biologically abnormal and gay people know that deep inside. They are forever trying to get society to accept it in order to remove the heavy burden of guilt they are under. The good news is God loves them, did not make them this way and can change them and set them free. I know a number of people who were in that lifestyle but are living normal lives today. David, I say this to you with all love and kindness: To say that homosexuality is no big deal reveals to me that you are not a true Christian and have not yet been enlightened and come to repentance from sin and faith toward Jesus Christ. I also discern that because you know a number whom you say are “good” people in this lifestyle, you have concluded that it must be OK. But once more, this is error. Our loyalty must be to the truth of the inspired Scriptures, and not to men, be it loved ones or close friends. Do not be deceived. He that is born of God cannot practice a lifestyle of sin because his nature has been changed by the grace and power of God (1 John 3:9).

Friend: The church I grew up in, and continue to attend on a very regular basis is an open and affirming church. During my faith journey in this church, I have been a deacon, an elder and president of our church council. Since our church is open and affirming, and my Christianity has been brought into question, one can conclude that the faith of all 763 members of our church is in question based on your position. I choose to love and respect all people regardless of their own faith, culture or lifestyle. I have been married to women twice, and divorced twice. If two men or two women are perfectly content with each other, and truly love each other, I am perfectly content in that and would be supportive of them in any way I can. I often think the manual used in justifying our individual faith or agenda can be extremely damaging. We will agree to disagree, and I have enjoyed this little debate. I will forever choose to love and respect all people regardless of the journey they choose to take while on this earth.

Me: David, that is not my position, but the position of the Word of God and the Scriptures that I referenced. That is the manual! And not adhering to the manual is what is extremely damaging. Can anything be clearer than 1 Corinthians 6:9-11? Ephesians 5:5-6? Rev 21:7-8? And if time permitted, I could list a host of many other Scriptures. This is the great deception of Christianity in America today, and one that I am currently and passionately speaking on and writing about. I know of what I speak. I love and respect all people for they are God’s own creation, but I don’t respect people’s sinful lifestyles that are contrary to the Word of God. True love and respect speaks the truth, and warns people of death, hell and the judgement to come commanding them to repent. Be not deceived, David. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but God’s eternal Word will last forever. Our faith must be based on that Word.

My friend’s comments actually represent a large segment of professing Christians in America today, both on the liberal and even now on the conservative wing. His comments are also indicative of how secular humanism has penetrated in one form or another into the mainstream of our culture and infiltrated many of our churches; be it denominational, evangelical and even Charismatic/Pentecostal churches. This wide departure from the faith, in what has now become a sort of post-modern Christianity in America, signals the death knell for many. The celebrated philosophy of the day of “no absolutes, no right or wrong—whatever makes you happy—be tolerant and accepting of everything and everyone” is eroding the core of Judeo-Christian biblically-based values, and greatly weakening real Christianity in America and in other nations as well, especially in Europe. I fear for the multitudes of the deceived who shall soon be the deceased. This could indeed be the final acceleration of the great apostasy the Bible speaks of will happen in these last days.

“Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith and pay attention to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils” (1 Tim 4:1).

“ For the time will come when people will not endure sound doctrine, but they will gather to themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, having itching ears, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn to myths” (2 Tim 4:2-4).

By the world’s standards, my childhood and now Facebook friend, is a good church-going citizen. I can tell you that he is nice and kind to people, willing to go out of his way to lend a helping hand to anyone who needs it, well-liked and even esteemed by others, but he is still deceived. His stand on homosexuality and sin is not Biblical, ungodly and most of all eternally fatal. His beliefs are the product of a false gospel.

Think of it: Here is a man, now in his 50s, who’s been in the same church all his life, has held various positions in the church and still has not been converted and entered into the real faith. Like millions in America, he is a product of a liberal theology birthed from secular humanism that can’t tell you for sure, or won’t tell you for sure, if there’s a heaven and a hell, but will try and keep you happy while you’re still alive, all in the name of God and love.

This is why a person can be a member of a church and yet be living a gay lifestyle. He can carry a Bible and be in an adulterous affair. He can adhere to a form of doctrine but have no peace. This is the sad state of things in much of America.”