By James Wilson
The 4th Great Awakening in American
history is underway. There have been a
number of words from recognized prophetic voices published in the past few
weeks and there is a compelling co-incidence to their witness. We got the word ourselves when our prayer
team made its monthly visit to the California State Capitol July 3. One of our members reported a vision in which
the Lord showed him two piles of dry bones on the floor – reminiscent of the
famous passage in Ezekiel 37 – and while he watched the bones rose to form two
skeletal bodies, one of them a man and the other a lion. Putting aside the natural skepticism of many
of our readers about revelations from God in capitol hearing rooms – or
anywhere else – let’s track with the internal logic of the vision. That too is supplied by God, but it is
subject to rational critique.
The
interpretation came to me instantaneously as the vision was described. The man represented Jesus Himself and the
lion the Lion of Judah. Their rise to
incarnation was clearly about the promised Awakening but the caveat is at least
as important. Attention was drawn to the
skeletal nature of these bodies; that is, to their lack of flesh, skin, hair,
and organs. Clearly the Awakening is in
its most fragile infancy. The present
outpouring of signs and wonders has been with us for some time; it does not
constitute an Awakening by itself. And there
is much more at stake here than whether a bunch of charismatic Christians get
to raise hands and shout glory to the Lord.
The call to the people of God to practice ongoing repentance – re-focus
of our attention on God – is even more urgent than it has been the past several
years.
There is a dark
side to this season which also grows exponentially. Jesus said the last days – whatever their
duration – would feature worldwide wars and rumors of wars, and we have armed
conflict on the five heavily populated continents. We would see men calling evil good and good
evil; look no farther than the outpouring of sympathy for Hamas as it shoves
women and children in front of its own missile batteries as human
shielding. And we would see Christians
hated by all for no other reason that that we bear the name of Christ; the
legal assaults on American and European Christians in the name of political
correctness pale next to the slaughter of the faithful in the Middle East but
the source is the same and the escalation as certain.
Yet most of these
so-called revelatory words are steeped in triumphalism. There is no acknowledgement of ongoing need
for repentance. There is a childish
obsession with the healings and the other goodies which are indeed part and parcel
of any move of God in our midst, but which are anything but the whole package. Jesus was quite clear that as history winds
down there is going to be hell to pay as much as heaven to gain; nobody gets a
free pass. Any alleged prophet who
claims it is all coming up roses for people of prayer is just as much a false
prophet as the people who keep running up and down California claiming the
drought is over despite the reality that reservoirs are less than half full and
snowpack almost non-existent. So what is
the reasonable and at the same time faithful approach? Just what it has always been.
John 8:1-11 is a
story of authentic repentance. Pharisees
who seemingly have nothing better to do on a weekday morning than look in
someone’s bedroom window drag a woman caught in adultery before the Lord and
ask permission to stone her. Jesus uses
the Law accurately when he says only the sinless may cast the first stone. Only the woman actually repents – she steps
across the line Jesus draws in the dust and remains by His side – while her
accusers refuse to focus on Him and slink away in shame. It doesn’t matter who has done well or
poorly; it matters only that His grace is sought and accepted by each and all.
Two apostles
stand out for rejecting a portion of pre-resurrection revelation. Thomas is chronically convinced it will all
end badly, despite what he has seen of Christ’s power to bless and heal. Yet he is loyal and devoted to the end,
saying, “Then let us all go and die with Him,” when Jesus determines to go to
Jerusalem despite being warned against it.
One might say Thomas faces the darkness while doubting the glory. Peter, on the other hand, is the first to
confess Jesus as Son of God; he gets into trouble with the boss when he refuses
to believe the Cross is coming. Jesus
rebukes Peter but lets Thomas slide. Why
is that?
Thomas’s
rejection is wrong but not problematic for his faith. He will hang in there with Jesus in the hard
times – he always does – and when it turns out exponentially better than he can
imagine it is just that – exponentially better in the Kingdom. Peter’s rejection negatively impacts his
faith; he is in for the wild ride but the plummet of Good Friday can shock him
right out of the Kingdom if he is totally unprepared. God wants us to enjoy the hurricane of signs,
wonders and decisions for Jesus – not to mention the grace that will flow in
many directions through the culture shared by the awakened Church. But if we imagine the glory is all there is
we risk missing even that when the hurricane of hard times makes landfall.
James A. Wilson is the author of Living
As Ambassadors of Relationships and The
Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by
e-mailing him at
praynorthstate@charter.net
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