The 1994 elections were the biggest repudiation of a political party in this century. They signaled the most dramatic shift in the direction of American politics since the election of Franklin Roosevelt over 60 years ago. Its effects could even exceed those of the Reagan Revolution, or at least carry it to a new level. However, the signal to strike out in a certain direction is not the completion of the trip. This is bigger than the repudiation of a political party. If we do not discern the bigger picture, the next change could just as well move even more powerfully in the other direction.
Change is itself a major force that is now sweeping across the earth in great waves. Those who are going in the right direction at the right time are being carried forward by a power beyond their comprehension. However, the next wave often comes from the opposite direction only to slap them down. Where are all of these changes taking us? Are we really making forward progress, or are we just moving back and forth but actually going nowhere?
As a jet pilot, I was taught that even if your engine instruments are staying within their safe parameters, when they begin oscillating back and forth, a catastrophic breakdown is imminent. If we portrayed the American political changes over just the last four years on such an instrument it would be frightening to any pilot. George Bush went from one of the highest approval ratings ever recorded by a president, to defeat at the hands of a man who was so far behind in the polls that almost no one gave him a chance to be elected. Now President Clinton's party has suffered one of the greatest defeats in a mid-term election in this century. Even so, the waves of change are quite capable of sweeping all the way back in the other direction by the 1996 elections.
A member of our prophetic council in Charlotte, Bruce McIsaac, recently had a dream of President Clinton riding a carousel. The operator of the ride held out a brass ring, saying that anyone who could grab it would receive another ride free. Clinton was able to reach it and received another turn. Before the ride began again however, he was given a beautiful Indian headdress. Then the Lord spoke in the dream saying, "The first time he was the people's chief. This time he will be My chief." Clinton is not called "the comeback kid" for nothing. If he is coming back, it would be in all of our interests to pray that he will be the Lord's chief. We must never forget that the primary business of the Lord on the earth today is to change men.
As with every great watershed period in history, the one we are now in has the potential to be a great advance for civilization. It also has the potential to carry us into a period of great social catastrophe. More than likely, it will result in some of each. Ephesians 4:14 has a crucial message for the church during these times:
As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming.
It is imperative that the church not be led by the different waves of change sweeping about, but by the Holy Spirit. We must not get carried away by the force of current events, but follow the path of life that will lead us through them to the right destination. Soon, those who have remained stable and consistent through the clashing changes will gain the respect of the whole world, and a great deal of influence with it.
The Power of Change
Some of the fastest and most profound changes in political power that the world has ever experienced have all come within the last few years. Many of them came with such force because communism had resisted change for so long. When a dam is built, if there is no release of water it will back up until the pressure is great enough to sweep away the dam. The waters of change had been dammed up in Eastern block nations for many decades, but that only multiplied their power when they were finally released.
The break in the dam of socialism came when just one small nation, Hungary, decided to open its border with the West. Quickly, the whole dam began to crumble as nation after nation in Eastern Europe opened its borders. Dictator after dictator fell. The first, and most powerful communist nation in the world then gave way to democracy and free enterprise. The upheaval from such profound changes coming so fast is still wreaking havoc. Russia still totters on the brink between becoming a true economic superpower, or degenerating into anarchy and one of history's great disasters.
When changes occur with such power, extraordinary leadership is required to control them. Without this leadership, extreme shifts are inevitable. Extremism will always result in some form of tyranny. When extremism conquers one problem it will inevitably open doors to even worse ones. When the rising tide of democracy swung to extremes in the French Revolution, the people first tried to kill all members of the aristocracy. Then, they swung to the other extreme and submitted themselves to another dictator even more autocratic than the king--Napoleon. The final wave of change that overthrew the last remnants of feudalism during World War I also opened the door for Hitler and made World War II inevitable.
Now the revolution which overthrew communism is also swinging back to the other extreme toward fascism. Paul Cain prophesied in the mid-eighties that communism was about to become "commu-wasim," but that what would ultimately replace it, a union between the old forces of communism and Islam, would be far more dangerous. The fall of communism was the result of many factors, but it was ignited by a people who had long been in bondage demanding their freedom. This was a very positive development, but freedom without purpose will ultimately lead to tyranny.
The enemy's ultimate strategy is to keep the forces of change swinging to extremes in order to push them beyond any responsible leader's ability to control them. He is seeking to further polarize every possible faction from every other one. The resulting chaos will require a degree of authoritarianism to regain control that will exceed even
the tyranny of communism in its worst forms.
Freedom Must Be Proclaimed
Should Christians just stand by and let this happen because it is destiny? Absolutely not! If the world falls into the deepest darkness it will be because our light went out. This is happening on our watch. We have been called for such a time as this, and regardless of how evil the times become, the Lord will raise up a standard against it. It was during the times of Israel's greatest apostasies that her greatest prophets emerged. The church that will emerge during these times will stand and prevail over the darkness.
Much of the power behind these dramatic changes is the result of people who are seeking freedom, but without real direction. II Corinthians 3:17 states, "... where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty." This could be translated, "Where the Spirit is Lord, there is liberty." There is no true freedom in this world other than that which comes from being under the Lord's authority. Just as a train may be "free" to go wherever it wants if it were able to depart from the tracks, it would not get very far without becoming mired in the ground. So it is with humanity. We may think we are more free when we depart from biblical restraints, but it is the tracks that God has provided for us that truly free us to become what we were created to be, and to move forward with unconscious ease.
We have now come to possibly the greatest opportunity for the church that walks in true authority, and true liberty, to emerge. But we must not remain duped into expecting the governments to do our job. If the church does not stand up at this time, the vacuum will be filled by a leadership that none of us want to see.
Calming the Storm
Because the people are being continually tossed about by the waves, the first order of business must be to calm the storms that are creating the instability. As Isaiah foresaw our situation in these times:
Alas, the uproar of many peoples who roar like the roaring of the seas, and the rumbling of nations who rush on like the rumbling of mighty waters!
The nations rumble on like the rumbling of many waters, but He will rebuke them and they will flee far away, and be chased like chaff in the mountains before the wind (Isaiah 17:12,13).
The miracles that the Lord performed were meant to be "signs." Signs point to something; they give us direction. When He stood up and calmed the storm that was stirring up the sea, it was prophetic of the time when He would stand up to calm the nations. The seas often speak of the nations in Scripture, such as in Revelation 17:15 that says, "...the waters which you saw where the harlot sits are the peoples."
When the nations begin to be cast about like the waves of the sea, it is the Lord's purpose to calm them. The church is not here to just stir up more waves, but to calm
those that are thrashing about without purpose or direction. This is done by giving them purpose and direction. As the church remains calm, steadfast, and moving ahead with resolution, the world that is being jostled about will take notice. Isaiah foresaw that the time of greatest darkness would be the time of the greatest glory for the Lord's people, and would cause the nations to turn to them:
Arise, 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.
And nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising (Isaiah 60:1-3).
The church is here as the Lord's representative, to do the things that He did on earth. We are here to calm the storms. First we must learn to walk on the water, above the waves that are affected by the storms. When Peter walked on the water he was not actually walking on the water, he was walking on the command of God. He asked the Lord if He could come to Him, and the Lord said, "Come." The word of God has more substance than anything in this physical world. If the Lord commands us to walk on water, or walk above riots and anarchy, we can do it because we are not walking on the elements, but on His word.
Riding Out Storms
One of the first things that a pilot is taught about weather is to stay out of thunderstorms. The most violent weather on earth can be found in a thunderhead. However, if you do get into a thunderhead, if you can remain calm and avoid panic, you will likely get through it. The key is not to overreact to the storm, but just slow down to a speed that will not over-stress the airplane during a potentially violent shock, and hold your heading. A large thunderhead is seldom over ten miles wide, so the quickest way through it is to hold your course and go straight. Turning will actually keep you in the thunderhead longer, and will add stress to the aircraft because turns automatically create extra "G" forces. Pilots who panic and try to turn around in a storm often cause just enough extra stress on the plane to go beyond its limits.
Many churches likewise over-stress their people by making the tragic mistake of trying to change their course while in the midst of a storm. There are times for all of us to make course changes, but we should not do it while in the storms. To survive the storms we should first keep calm, slow down a little, and just hold our course. You will come out the other side quicker than if you try to turn around.
Personal Responsibility and Salvation
Socialism is doomed to the same garbage heap of history upon which feudalism was cast. Civil government was given a mandate from God, but that mandate has limits (Romans 1 3:1-7). Whenever a government exceeds those limits it has moved beyond the grace of God. Governments do not have a mandate to be all things to all
people. When the people get addicted to the government to meet all of their needs and take care of all of their problems, it will ultimately destroy both the government and the people.
Much of the church, like government, has to a large degree succumbed to the spirit of socialism, trying to be all things to all people. Many Christians have likewise become addicted to the church to meet all of their needs and fix all of their problems. This usurps the responsibility meant to be the individual's for the purpose of revealing both sin and grace. Many leaders of the church are getting burned out because they are taking the people's yokes instead of the Lord's yoke, and the people are weakened because they are never allowed to grow up spiritually. This only produces those who have been called "high maintenance, low impact Christians." These are not lights in the world, they are black holes who suck up all of the light around them, consuming the ministry of the church.
Personal responsibility is fundamental to the work of redemption. The more we take personal responsibility off of people, the further from salvation they will drift. The first result of the fall was self-centeredness; Adam and Eve looked at themselves and saw their nakedness. The second result was blame-shifting; the man blamed the woman and the woman blamed the serpent. Redemption has not fully worked in our life until we have learned to quit blaming others for our condition, take responsibility for our own actions, and stop looking at ourselves and start focusing on the Lord. The mandate that the Lord has given to both to the church and to civil governments is meant to hold men accountable for their actions, not take responsibility off of them.
The mandates of God given to governments and the church are limited so that the true grace of God can reach the people. When we try to be the Holy Spirit to people we only doom them and ourselves to ultimate failure. The Lord Jesus is the answer to every human problem, but we must all go to Him individually for the grace we need. No one will be saved because they know someone who knows the Lord. We must all know the Lord for ourselves. This does not supplant the leadership of the church, but that leadership does have its limits. All true spiritual authority will lead men to Christ because, "There is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (I Timothy 2:5). Any ministry that does not promote a personal relationship to the Lord, and personal responsibility, is an enemy of the cross of Christ. The cross requires that each one of us be crucified with the Lord. This cannot be done through someone else.
Changing the Course with Wisdom
Most of the great sweeping changes in the world are swinging toward democracy and free enterprise, or are at least trying to. Both of these require a high degree of personal responsibility. Free enterprise is a reflection of the kingdom principle that every man should sit under his own tree (Micah 4:4). In spite of the increasing darkness in many areas, there are trends in the world toward true kingdom principles. However, the overly zealous helmsman who tries to turn a large ship too fast will only put it in jeopardy of capsizing. Devastating mistakes are being made by those who may have the best of intentions, but are trying to make drastic corrections to the course in the midst of the storm, instead of riding out the storm and then making the proper course corrections while in the calm.
Course corrections which are been made too fast can be dangerous even in the calm. The Reagan Tax Reform Law is a good example. It was the right thing to do, but because the changes were implemented too fast it created such havoc in the commercial real estate industry that we will be paying the tab for a long time to come. Much of the real estate boom in the seventies and eighties was the result of tax laws that were too generous, and which inflated the true value of real estate investments. The law needed to be changed, but a large sector of our economy had been playing by that set of rules for so long that they could not make the turn as fast as the new law demanded. As commercial real estate values plummeted because of the removal of tax incentives, the Savings and Loan Industry was devastated. The government slyly blamed crooks for the catastrophe, and there were some, but they were not the cause of the Savings and Loan Crisis--it was caused by a good Tax Reform Law that was implemented too fast.
The constant changes in tax laws have created a business environment like trying to play a game when someone is constantly changing the rules. Can you imagine what it would be like to play a baseball game where they decide that instead of you being safe when you are standing on the bases, you are out, and they don't tell you about this change until you're caught! Then, after you get used to that new rule, they change it back and get you again. Such a game would cause the players to be at best hesitant about everything they did. That is the business environment under which many are trying to operate. Every new administration or congress comes in and changes the rules on them. It becomes difficult, if not impossible, to form long term strategies.
There are unrealistic farm subsidies that are based on archaic laws which are half a century old, and they do need to be changed. However, they must be revised with wisdom, giving farmers the chance to adjust their strategies without being ruined. Many farmers have already been devastated by some of the recent changes. Good people were ruined because they were playing by one set of rules, and without warning the rules were changed on them.
There are also many changes that need to be made in welfare. However, if we do not make the changes with wisdom, giving people time to adjust to the new rules and plan their lives accordingly, many of our cities will pay a tragic and unnecessary price. We will then be facing a crisis much worse than the Savings and Loan debacle, and probably worse than we can now imagine.
We are also headed toward a financial catastrophe if changes are not made in entitlement programs. If we act before the problems reach crisis proportions, we can act with wisdom and strategy, giving everyone time to adjust to the new rules without being devastated by them. If we wait too long the damage will be much greater and many undeserving people will be the victims.
Democracy is the greatest form of government on earth. However, it is also inefficient. It is much better to deal with some inefficiency than the alternative, but there are waves of change that are now moving with such force that they threaten to doom democracy if they are not properly managed.
The Power of Truth
Of course, there are moral issues that require a different response. When we come to the knowledge of sin in our life, to implement a five year plan for changing our ways is not the proper response. We should make a quick and complete "U" turn. There are biblical cases where nations, and even empires, made such instantaneous moral changes. The same can happen in a nation today, but such a change will never come through legislation, or by popular vote.
Truth is stronger than any lie. When you open your shades at night, darkness does not come in, light shines out. Light is stronger than darkness. Every great and positive moral change in civilization over the last two thousand years has been the result of prophetic individuals, or groups, taking a stand for truth and refusing to compromise. The call of the church is not just to be relevant to the times, but to stand on the eternal truths that transcend time, and have the power to dictate the course of history.
In this climate of change the church has its greatest opportunity to stand for the truth that will steer modern civilization to a point of true redemption and reconciliation, with our Maker and with each other. Anything less than this will turn the great opportunity that we now have into one of civilization's greatest catastrophes. The windows to a new realm have been opened. If the light does not rise up now, the darkness will fill the void.
Martin Luther was one of the most powerful prophetic voices of the New Testament age. He was just a monk, but he shook the most powerful men and institutions of his time to their very foundations. Not since Paul and Silas compelled the leaders of the mighty Roman Empire to declare that, "Those who have turned the world upside down have now come to us!" had the world witnessed the revolutionary power that was carried by Luther. He took his stand against the greatest darkness of his times, refused to retreat, and drove the darkness back.
The tiny little church of Wittenburg, Germany was hardly as big as many garages are today. But God does not care about size when He determines to do something. When Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses to its little door, the whole earth read them and trembled. No conqueror or political leader in all of history changed the world as much as that one monk. He is one of the greatest testimonies of the power of even one humble man, who takes his stand on the truth without compromise, to make the whole world bow its knee to the truth. That is the nature of true prophetic power.
Jonah is one of the most extraordinary examples of prophetic power in the Old Testament. He was a man with significant character flaws of his own, but when he preached even the great heathen city of Nineveh repented from the king all the way down to the animals. That was prophetic preaching!
The Source of Prophetic Power
The power over the unfolding events of our times will not come from a ballot box. When the people came to make Jesus king, He fled to the mountains. If the people
make you king then the people will rule. There is a major difference between the ones who receive their authority from the people, and those who receive their authority from above. The former may ride the waves of change, but the latter starts the waves.
It is right to rejoice when righteous men come to power. It is right to support them and to vote for them. However, the church must remember that she has a higher calling. Prophetic authority does not come by popular vote, and its influence is not dictated by public opinion. True spiritual authority cannot be influenced by the whims of men. It is not encouraged when men approve, or discouraged when they disapprove. True spiritual authority only does what the Father is doing. It is therefore founded upon the pure and holy fear of God, not the approval of men.
Radicalism vs. Prophetic Truth
Prophetic truth often sets in motion the most profound changes, but it is not the voice of extremism. Prophetic truth is not just a reaction to current events; it is simply a stand for biblical truth, by the Spirit of Truth, which will always manifest the fruit of the Spirit. As James declared:
Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom.
But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth.
This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic.
For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.
And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace (James 3:13-18).
The enemy's strategy is to release division in order to perpetuate even more conflict and tossing of the waves, but "... the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet" (Romans 16:20). Note that he did not say that the Lord of hosts, or armies, would do this, but the "God of peace." It is no accident that the Christian's armor, listed in Ephesians 6, says that our feet are shod with "the gospel of peace." It is the peace of God that crushes the head of the serpent. The greatest fortress that we have today against the schemes of the devil is to abide in the peace of God. Those who abide in the peace of God will not get caught up in the conflicts of the times, they will rise above them, and overcome them by pointing to a higher way.
Jesus was the most radical man who ever walked the earth. However, His purpose
was not to be radical, but to be the Truth. His radical nature was not against the world, but for it. He boldly confronted the obstacles set up by men to block the path to life, but His vision and purpose were always motivated by His love for men. We must not fear men, but we must love them. Any other motive but love will pervert our radical nature and use it for evil. Judas was a radical too, who obviously wanted to promote Jesus, but he was also controlled by political expediency.
Certainly the church is called to the battle, but we must not be drawn into the battle on the enemy's turf. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, and if we get drawn into the fight on the earthly realm, we will lose our source of spiritual power. The church that attempts to fight on the low road will itself be swept away by the waves of change. The church that takes the high road walking above the waves will, at the proper time, have far a greater influence than any ballot box could ever give it.
