a great turning

He was a man who spoke bold things (some would say, outlandish).  To say that he broke with tradition, would be an understatement.  He aroused the ire of every competing party of the Establishment ~ both Jewish and Roman, all of whom despised him.  His appeal seemed to be to the common, the poor, the uneducated among the people.  But his fame was short lived.  The movement he started seemed to quickly fall apart.  All outward appearances suggested that the life and work of an obscure carpenter from Nazareth ~ whose rising star shined brightly albeit briefly across the skies of ancient Israel, ended in abject failure and defeat.  His death was cruel and disgraceful.  He was forsaken by his closest friends.  Even the midday sun hid its face from that desolate, bloodstained hilltop, as if the darkness of that day bore witness against the man named Jesus.  Finally, his mutilated corpse was unceremoniously laid to rest in a place of burying, and that not his own.

But through it all, the great and dreadful, the mighty and mysterious God was at work.  He was preparing the way for a great turning in the history of humanity.
That same God is at work, today.  Throughout the past century and more, the world has steadily become less moral, less civil, less humane; more divisive, more dangerous, more brutal.  A spirit of lawlessness has seemingly become pervasive ~ especially, amongst the upper echelons of government and society.  Hope and joy appear to be "withered away from the sons of men" (Joel 1:12).  The day of the LORD ~ as I have oftentimes warned ~ is now at hand.  Antichrist himself is doubtless ready to step forth on the world scene.  While heaven seems like a woman in labor and ready to give birth ~ to unspeakable judgments from God.

Yet, all is being prepared for a great turning.  

That same God who raised Jesus from the dead; who poured forth His Spirit at the onset of the Church Age; and, who sent forth an innumerable host of fearless disciples of Jesus Christ who "turned the world upside down" by the power of their message and the boldness of their witness; ~ in other words, that same God who turned the most ignominious event in history (the crucifixion of Jesus) into the most glorious event in human history (the Resurrection of Jesus), is preparing to turn what Jesus himself said would be the darkest time in human history (this present generation, culminating in the Tribulation) into the brightest days the world shall then have ever known (the Millennial Kingdom Age).  And that great turning shall transpire over the course of but a very few years.

We, that is the true Church, must be very careful at this present time, not only to rightly perceive current events ~ whether those may appear to be either bad or good.  But we must more especially be careful to rightly perceive the mind of God as He has revealed that, in great measure, in Scripture.

Christ's faithful should be filled with hope and joy, at the realization that God is fully in control, and that He truly is working all things after the counsel of His own will.  God is not now, nor is He ever going to turn the world over to the devil.  The coming of Antichrist shall not represent Satan's ability to prevail over God's kingdom.  Rather, Antichrist shall be, in the hands of God, largely the means whereby God shall then finally move to rid the earth of rebellious and unrepentant sinners (see, Isaiah 10:5 and 13:9).

Although the recent election of Donald Trump appears to be a God-send, especially, for the Church in America; yet, we must be very careful to persevere in our prayers to God for genuine Revival.  This certainly is not a time for us to lose sight of the reality of where we stand, in terms of the fulfillment of Bible prophecy and the rapidly approaching time of Christ's return: we daily are drawing closer than ever before, to the "end of all things."

I strongly suspect that many in the Apostate Church will mistake the election of Trump as a sign that the danger is now passed; as if their wrongheaded ideas related to "Dominionism" may after all be true, and their misplaced hope concerning world domination are about to come to fruition.  I also expect that the Apostate Church thus will continue to move not closer, but ever farther away from God.

Within hours of the recent election results, a close friend of mine sent me the following passage from the book of Ezra (9:7-9):

"Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day.  And now for a little space grace hath been shewed from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage.  For we were bondmen; yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem."

I have not heard a more prophetic word for our time, in a long while.  "To give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations thereof, and to give us a wall...".  That is the main purpose, I believe, wherefore God evidently is raising up Donald Trump and his soon-coming Administration.  We desperately need real Revival in America.  Trump is not Revival.  But Trump may well be the firewall against evil forces that is needful, in order that the Church may be free to pray and to labor to bring in an End-time harvest of souls, through Revival ~ before the end comes.

We must not waste this opportunity.  We must not be negligent concerning this "little space" wherein "grace hath been shewed [to us] from the LORD our God."  But we must pray and labor, now, even more earnestly for Revival.  It is within our reach: if we will come to take hold of it (the promises of God) with all of our heart.

"If," I say.