clearing up the fog of war



"Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us" (1 Thessalonians 2:18).

I do apologize that I was not able to get a video published, today.  It is not for lack of effort (production is underway; it will be worth the wait).  But I have been much occupied this past week, working to push back against ongoing tyrannical practices of Ohio's political leaders.  I am now completely convinced that the so-called "pandemic" is a grand ploy on the part of those who are desperate ~ and will stop at nothing ~ to regain the reigns of power in America.  As if everything else we've witnessed, throughout the past three years of Trump's presidency, was not enough to convince us....

From the very earliest days of what quickly has become a national crisis, I have said that the world is going to be very different on the other side of this so-called pandemic.  I believe it behooves us, as Christians, that we should be very much involved in determining what that emerging world is going to look like.  The freedoms and blessings we have long enjoyed in America ~ were obtained by others at very great cost to themselves.  We (most of us) merely inherited a legacy of freedoms left to us by generations of our forefathers (and mothers) many of whom paid with their lives for those freedoms.

Like you, I have been appalled by the callousness of this present generation ~ no, I don't mean this generation of teenagers and young adults!  I mean this present generation aged 35 or so and older!  Oftentimes in my prayers, I have confessed to God that America is well deserving of judgment.  So it is.  Yet, I have also pleaded with God that there are two ways He may put an end to sin and rebellion, namely: destruction or salvation.  Either way, "sinners" (whether destroyed, or converted) thenceforth cease to live in rebellion against God.  God can kill ~ or He can save, sinners.  I plead with God in prayer that Salvation is by far the better way to put an end to sin.

That is one reason why I am so intensely focused on praying and working for Revival.

I furthermore plead my case before the throne of God, thus: That a great move of God in Revival would so captivate the popular mind (the attention and desire of the masses), that no tyrannical government would be able to prevent multitudes from coming together to seek the living God.  On the other hand, in the absence of Revival ~ there were then little if anything that could be done to withstand against tyranny on the one hand, and to advance the kingdom of God on the other.

God is our super-power.  But for far too long, the Church has been so cozied up to the world that the Church has completely lost touch with the reality of God.  Perhaps, in the wisdom of God, He has lately allowed us to be stripped of our worldly attachments, in the hope of turning our attention and affection back to Him.  How else can God help us, if we don't "return to our first love"?  When Jesus said that we must make him to be the highest priority in our lives ~ or, else, we cannot be his disciple: Was he serious?

His seriousness is never in question.  But ours is.

I have recently been using a little mental exercise to illustrate the great problem of unanswered prayer ~ and the solution to that problem; as follows:

Question:  Does God have desires?  Are there things God wants for Himself?
Answer:    Yes.  (Example) God wants all men to be saved.
Question:  Does God always get everything He wants?
Answer:    No.  (Example)  Not all men will be saved.
Question:  Why, then, does God not get everything He wants?
Answer:    Because ~ where it concerns humanity, individuals have a will.
Question:  What is required, then, in order for God's desires (concerning humans) to be fulfilled?
Answer:    Individuals MUST align their will with God's, in order for God to act on their behalf.

In that little exercise can clearly be seen both the reason for unanswered prayer (or, as is most often the case, no prayer at all) ~ and the solution for obtaining answers to prayer.  If we will truly come in line with God's desires, that is to say, with His will, God will surely then move to answer such.
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My title for this essay, "clearing up the fog of war", is intended to be more than click-bait.  We MUST have clear spiritual vision, if we are going to win this End-time conflict.  I assure you ~ by the Word of God, that we shall in fact win it.  But only as we get serious with God and, so, come into line with God's perfect will, shall we win this great and final battle.  It is not over. . . .

Which leads me to ponder a very important question, namely:  When will this war be "over" for us?  How ought we to define the goal which we will identify with "Victory", in this great spiritual conflict?  Should we identify Victory with our own death, or with the Rapture, in this war?  In either of those two cases, we, individually, expect that we shall be delivered from this war, to be in the Presence of Christ.  However, I suggest that neither of those two outcomes should be identified as the Victory for which we are contending.  Let me tell you a true story, as follows.

Duncan Campbell testified (here) that, in the early days of the great Hebrides Revival (1949-1952), he was called to minister to the people living on one of those islands, where Revival had not yet come.  He said that, for a while, it seemed as though all the powers of hell were arrayed against him, to stop Revival from coming to that place.  Reverend Campbell soon called for a small group of men then known in that area as "the praying men of Barvis" to come and help him ~ and, "If you can, bring young Donald Phail with you".  During a certain evening's service, Campbell found it very hard to preach.  When he looked down where Donald Phail was sitting, he saw that young lad (then 16 years old) with his face buried in his hands and a puddle of water at his feet.  Campbell stopped preaching, and asked Donald to pray for him and for that service.  Whereupon, the teenager rose to his feet and, looking up, passionately spoke a very few words in prayer ~ when, all of a sudden, as Campbell reported, the power of God fell mightily upon that assembly!  (You really should listen to his testimony!)

At that same instant, the Spirit of God moved powerfully through a town about five miles distant from the church ~ and many were there brought to repentance: not by a preacher, nor by a campaign, but solely by the power of the Holy Ghost!  Moreover, Campbell reported that, within one week, every single person in that congregation was "soundly converted".

For many years that island had languished in a state of spiritual darkness.  Nor was that darkness dispelled at the moment Duncan Campbell arrived.  No.  But Campbell prayed, and fasted, and sought the Lord for Revival.  Campbell furthermore called upon other faithful men to pray with him.  At last, it pleased the Lord to seal those prayers with the heartfelt pleading of one, 16-year old boy.  And IN ONE MOMENT OF TIME ~ years of spiritual wasteland were swept away in a mighty tidal wave of God's Spirit poured out in Revival power!  Revival did come to that island, and from there it spread far and wide to other regions, changing many lives for ever to come.  That Revival is still touching and changing lives yet today.

THAT, my dear friends, is what I propose we should identify as the "Victory" for which we are (or should be) contending.  THAT is the "goal" which, I say, we ought to hold firmly before our own eyes.  How could God be pleased with us if we are so little concerned with the Cause of Jesus Christ, that we would suppose that for ourselves to leave the world ~ to forsake the battlefield ~ were somehow the Victory for which Jesus gave his own life?  If heaven were the "Victory", then why doesn't God take individuals on to heaven as soon as they are converted?

There is more to this Christian life than that.

"...and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.  The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle" (Psalm 78:9). 

"Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb.  My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations"  (Hosea 9:16-17).

The battle is not lost.  It is late; it is very late: but, it is not (yet) too late.

The true Body of Christ is going to win this war.  The question is: Are you going to be part of that?

Or will you be as Ephraim?  "Chosen of God" ~ in their own minds.  But, in the end, castaways.