One of the great prophetic challenges in Scripture is Isaiah 6:1-3:
In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the LORD sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.
Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.”
Uzziah had been a righteous king, and Isaiah had put a lot of hope in his reign. However, when Uzziah died, Isaiah was able to see a much greater King. Likewise, many Christians, especially in America, have put their hopes in a righteous government and have seen their hopes die. It is now time to see the King sitting on His throne. His throne is far above all rule, authority, power, and dominion on the earth. We are promised that His kingdom will come, and when it does there will not only be no end to it, there will be no end to the increase of His kingdom (see Isaiah 9:7).
Does this mean that we should abandon our hope in America? Certainly not. Isaiah did not abandon his hope for his nation, Israel, but continued to speak the word of the Lord to it. However, from that point on, Isaiah’s main focus was the coming of the Messiah. Christians in America, and indeed the rest of the world, need this same focus—we must keep our main hope on the King of kings who is above all other authority. This is the only way that we will truly be able to help our country.
America has been declared a post-Christian nation, but that is the devil’s prophecy. America is actually a pre-Christian nation. A Third Great Awakening is coming to America, and it will be the greatest of all. The unprecedented and increasing hostility against Christianity in America is provoking an unparalleled resolve in an increasing number of Christians. Possibly the greatest awakening of American Christians is going on at this time, and it is increasing. This will ultimately result in revival, another Great Awakening.
A revival, by definition, is the reviving of something that is asleep or dead. Because much of Christianity in America has been either asleep, and in some cases, dead, a revival is what we need. However, is this revival going to result in a revival of America into what it was, or is there something even greater possible? Are we seeking to resurrect Uzziah, or are we going to see the Lord?
Light and Darkness
History can be as mysterious as prophecy. We see through a glass darkly in both directions. Historians can skew history just as the media does with current events. Even so, America began as a remarkable light of hope for liberty in the world, and it matured into the greatest and most benevolent nation in history. In our greatest periods, even during the times of the first two Great Awakenings, there was much darkness, evil, tyranny, and oppression—especially directed toward Native Americans and slaves.
To their credit, the leaders of the Great Awakenings boldly confronted these evils and were the primary instruments of the change that brought an end to slavery in America and better treatment of Native Americans. However, in neither case has there been the reconciliation and restoration that brought healing to the spiritual wounds of history, which are now quite infected. Even so, it seems that the history of America somewhat parallels the history of Israel in the Scriptures—alternating periods of great revival with periods of terrible debauchery—with both increasing in depth and intensity.
America and Europe have found new lows of depravity, perversion, and darkness at this time. Spiritually, Europe is now the Dark Continent, and America is following its lead. However, a turning is eminent, and with it Christianity in both America and Europe can reach to new, unprecedented heights.
For the last two decades, the center of the greatest movements in Christianity was in South and Central America, Asia, and Africa. America and Europe were largely by-passed by what has been the greatest and fastest spreading of Christianity in history. A decade ago, Christianity was spreading three times faster than any other religion, and though the pace has slowed a bit, there are fires of revival burning all over the world. The Lord said, “the harvest is the end of the age” (see Matthew 13:39), but it does not seem that anyone grasped just how huge this ingathering would be. More people have come to have faith in Jesus in the last twenty years than in the nearly two thousand years since He walked the earth.
The Lord has saved His best wine for last, and we are in the greatest time of harvest that the world has ever had. We are in the greatest time there has ever been for Christianity, and America and Europe will not be left out. Those nations that sent so many waves of missionaries to bring the message of salvation to the world will reap its own abundant harvest from the seeds sown. Waves of revival will wash over Europe and America.
The darkness that has taken root there will not go without a fight, but it cannot win. Darkness cannot win against light. Open your windows at night and see if darkness comes in, or if the light that is in your house shines out into the darkness. Light is stronger than darkness and will always prevail. All we have to do to prevail is to keep the light burning—to keep our lamps full of the oil of the Holy Spirit.
Seventy years ago, it may have seemed like the end of their world as the tiny British Isles looked at a Nazi dominated Europe after Dunkirk, but Winston Churchill declared that it would be their “finest hour,” and it was. Likewise, there is a resolve rising among Christians in both America and Europe to stand against the ultimate darkness of the times, never surrendering until the darkness is defeated. This will be our finest hour, too. We are assured victory if we do not surrender.
The End of the Beginning
The world has entered into the greatest struggle between light and darkness. It is far from over, but the conclusion was settled even before the foundation of the world. Religion, or institutional faith, is not going to survive these times, but true Christianity is going to thrive and grow until the entire earth is aflame with the fire of God. Persecution is the greatest fertilizer for true faith.
The assault on Christianity in the West has not come from other religions, but from secular humanism. This is actually the religion of man— the belief that man is supreme and that human wisdom and goodness can prevail and fix all of man’s problems. That is precisely the wrong answer. All of the problems are the result of this mindset, the rebellion by man against God, and thinking that we could run this world that He created without Him. The ultimate time of trouble at the end of this age is the result of man’s mistakes compiling until they are far beyond human remedy. We are there now, but it has not become difficult enough yet because of mankind’s extreme arrogance to acknowledge it. However, we will, and when we do He will come and save us—from ourselves.
In one way, the great struggle that the earth is entering is also the struggle of a new birth. The earth is going to be born again. The greatest age of men is yet in the future, not the past, but it will be the result of man again walking with God in His garden.
The struggles that the world is going through right now is metamorphosis, the process when a caterpillar is transformed from a worm into a butterfly. A caterpillar is a worm that must struggle along the contour of the ground, but a butterfly is a beautiful creature that can soar in the heavens. This is our calling and destiny. Man was actually created to fly—not in his former state, but in the ultimate state man was created to take, which is “a new creation” that is more spiritual than natural. The original temptation of Adam and Eve, and the one that continues to this day, is to get man to try to achieve on his own what God has all along created him for, which is to be like God, or take on the divine nature. This cannot be achieved without God.
As we come to the time of the transition of ages, we will have an increasing witness of the new creation man on the earth. The firstborn of this new creation was of course Jesus, who came to show us how the new creation lives, declaring that if we would abide in Him we could do everything He did and even greater things (see John 14:12). These greater works will be demonstrated on the earth before the end of this age as a testimony that the Lord’s Word is true. The greatest witness of the coming kingdom will be the new creation man, who walks in the authority of that kingdom now, which soars above all of the conditions on the earth.
The greatest struggle of a butterfly’s life is breaking out of its cocoon, but if it was not for that struggle, the butterfly would not have the strength to flap those great wings. The same is true with us—the greater the struggle that we go through to break free of this world’s way of thinking, the stronger we will be and the more capable we will be of soaring. Christians go through this struggle if they stay on the path of life. It is a struggle, but if we continue the struggle, one day there will be a breakthrough and we will soar.
The great struggle at the end of this age is the metamorphosis that the world is going through. The world will also be reborn into something more wonderful than we can imagine. The struggles that the world is going through are ultimately going to result in a far greater good than we ever deserve, but that is a demonstration of the greatest love and grace there is—God’s. The Father so loved this world that He would even send His Son for our redemption, reconciliation, and restoration.
Prepare the Way for the Lord
In Isaiah 40, we are told that the way we prepare the way for the Lord is to build a highway. A highway is a road that can require a great struggle to build. The mountains and hills have to be brought down, the low places filled in, and great obstacles overcome. Progress can be tedious and slow, but once a highway is completed, others can get on it and just zip along.
This highway is God’s higher-way. To build it, we are going to have to face some of the ultimate mountains and hills, as well as valleys and low places, created by the rebellion of man against God.
What is happening in America right now is a microcosm in some ways of what the whole world is going through. The speed with which it is happening is also helping to make it even more manifest. It is similar to what happened in Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century, which was remarkably grasped and recorded by two of the greatest novelists who ever lived—Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.
It has been said that the world was never seen through a more discerning eye than that of Leo Tolstoy. His comprehension of the nature of man may indeed be without precedent with the exception of Jesus. Dostoevsky would also be very close to Tolstoy in his perception of man. That two such remarkable men lived at the same time in the same country was no doubt an act of God. The Lord wanted what was happening in Russia explained, and it was by these two prophets.
Tolstoy, being a member of the aristocracy, wrote from that perspective. Dostoevsky, being a member of the lower class, wrote from that perspective. Together they articulated the forces of change taking place then in Russia that were some of the most remarkable and intense in the world. Both foresaw these changes as either a precursor to the second coming of Christ or the coming of the antichrist. The antichrist spirit won in Russia, and through it the most cruel, evil form of bondage was able to enslave hundreds of millions for seventy years, creating death and destruction on a scale never before seen in human history. In one period, it was estimated that Stalin starved as many as thirty million of his own people to death in order to be able to control his population better.
Nazism was also a form of socialism, National Socialism, and likewise resulted as being one of the biggest gates of hell for the spirit of death in world history, only second to communism. That these two evil powers would fight each other the way that they did should not be a surprise. A demon of hate hates other demons just as much as it hates people. Job described the “nether world” as a place “without order” (see Job 10:22), and James also explained “where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing” (see James 3:16). Demons going to war with each other are common in history. Men who do not understand these spiritual powers, and arrogantly think they can control them, are the biggest dupes to be used by them.
I spent years reading and studying the works of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, knowing that their revelation of their times was important, but honestly not considering that I would see such a clash of the same forces in my own country. When the West won the Cold War, it seemed like the battle against these forces was forever won, but they weren’t. These forces just decided it was easier to do an “inside job.” America is now facing the same forces that took over Russia in 1917 and Germany in the 1930s.
It was remarkable and prophetic that Putin, the true leader of Russia, rebuked Obama for not comprehending the lessons of history—that socialism does not work! The media only briefly mentioned this, but it was prophetic, and it was from the Lord.
How can we possibly win against such evil? Christ is over them all. However, if we do not have another Great Awakening in America, then the bondage we are headed for is worse than anyone can now imagine. Western Europe is actually a few steps ahead of us down this most terrible road. This does not have to happen, but it will if we do not turn to the Lord quickly.
Where We Are
Since the 1962 Supreme Court decision to remove prayer from the schools, there has been a continuous assault in America on faith and the people of faith, with a resolve to remove God from public life in every way. It is no accident that a cornerstone of the assault was against prayer. Prayer is the most powerful weapon a Christian has. The meltdown that began immediately with this Supreme Court decision has been felt across the spectrum of society. Remove prayer and the gates of hell are open.
The next assault came against the Scriptures, with an attempt to remove them from every aspect of public life in America. To just display a Bible at your workplace could open the door to lawsuits, and get you fired, or for children in schools, it could get them expelled. This is not true for the books of other faiths, or for books promoting just about any form of perversion. The first Fall began when the serpent was able to get Adam and Eve to doubt God’s Word (“Did He really say that?”). If even Jesus, who is “The Word,” would take His stand on the written Word when confronted by the devil, how much more do we need to take our stand on what is written? The Word and prayer are the two witnesses that there is an all-out assault to kill; however, they are the source of the greatest miracles and the greatest witness. They may seem to be killed and dead in the streets for a time, but they will be raised again to heaven and will strike fear in all of their enemies.
Spurgeon said that he could find ten men who would die for the Bible for every one who would actually read it. America is by far the most powerful nation on earth, militarily and economically, and we are now facing problems that are far beyond human remedy. Only prayer and the Word of God can save us. Prayer and the Word of God will have preeminence. What has preeminence over our lives now—the wisdom of men or the wisdom of God?
The antichrist spirit now has control of America by basically using the same strategy that it did to take over the great Christian universities. It has turned that which had been founded and dedicated to the purposes of Christ into a very hostile place for the followers of Christ. Satan considers this kind of victory the sweetest. This is why he seeks to take his seat in the temple of God to display himself as being God. The antichrist spirit is not just opposed to Christ but seeks to be a substitute for Christ, taking His rightful place. However, this will not be the end of the story! The Lord will consume this spirit with the breath of His mouth—His Word.
Beholding His Glory
There is another aspect to Isaiah’s experience written about in Isaiah 6 that we need to understand. How could these Seraphim say that the whole earth was filled with His glory when there are so many crises, conflicts, disease, famines, child abuse, death, as well as increasing hostility to righteousness and justice in the earth? The reason these Seraphim could say that the whole earth was filled with His glory was because they were dwelling in the presence of the Lord. If we would dwell in His presence, we too would see His glory throughout the whole earth.
This does not mean that we do not see the crises and problems, but that we would also see God’s remedy for them—which is also a form of His glory. The troubles are getting far beyond human remedy, and we have come to the fulfilling of the prophecy that even men’s hearts will fail them because of fear. This is why such a shallow message of hope could win the last election in America—any hope will have an increasing impact. We have been given the greatest hope the world will ever hear—the gospel of the kingdom. In the increasing darkness, this hope is an even greater light and has even more power.
The world is falling deeper into the black hole of cynicism, but those who are the true disciples of the King will be walking in increasing faith and light, just as we are told in Proverbs 4:18, “But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines brighter and brighter until the full day.” Our days can and should be getting brighter regardless of what is happening in the world. By this ever increasing light, we can see our paths more clearly, and therefore, be able to walk forward with ever increasing boldness and confidence.
If this is not true for us, and our lives are getting darker and more fearful, instead of brighter and fuller of faith, then we have missed a turn and are on the wrong path. Before we can be the light and proclaim the light, we need to get back on the right path and experience this ever increasing light. Christians who are walking the path of the righteous, the path of life, are going to become increasingly obvious because of this. This is our time to shine.
The crises in the world ratchets up in intensity almost daily now. There is danger and distress everywhere. Biblical prophecies make it clear that this is the way it is going to be at the end of this age. Everything that can be shaken will be shaken, and this will be the worst time of trouble the world has ever known. However, the troubles do not last but a brief time before a glorious new day will dawn in which there is no trouble at all. Our calling is to begin to see and live in that new day now and to proclaim the good news that it is near.
The prayer that the Lord gave His people to pray for nearly two thousand years is now about to be answered. His kingdom is going to come, and His will is going to be done, right here on earth as it is in heaven. He also told us that the gospel of that kingdom had to be preached throughout the earth before the end of this age could come. Of all the signs at the end of this age, this may be the one we need to understand the most and give ourselves to proclaiming. To proclaim it, we must see it, understand it, and then live in it. So let’s begin with seeing.
Seeing the Kingdom
In John 3, the Lord explained that we must be born again to see the kingdom. However, this does not mean that everyone who is born again sees the kingdom. Many who are born again by His Spirit go on living according to the principles of this world and never see the kingdom, or if they do, only see brief glimpses of it. Those who truly see it walk by what they see, and they begin to live in the kingdom now.
The reason so many Christians fail to see the kingdom is explained in Romans 12:2, where we are exhorted to “not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
We must go through a transforming of our minds, which begins with not being conformed to the world or have the mindset, mentality, or perspective of the world. If we are a born-again Christian, but go to schools that are dominated by secular humanism, and our education, or the forming of our minds, is from a humanist perspective, how can we expect to see the kingdom? Likewise, how can we get most of our information and perspectives from secular news or other secular sources and expect to see the kingdom? What is forming our mind? Is our thinking conforming to the world, or are we having our minds transformed and made new?
The Greek word for “transformed” in this verse is metamorpha, from which we derive our English word metamorphosis. This is the struggle every believer goes through, or should go through, to break through having our minds conformed to this world’s way of thinking, to soar high above the world like a butterfly.
A butterfly sees the world very differently than a caterpillar. When you are crawling along the ground, you can only see as far as the next obstacle, but when you are soaring, your vision is only limited by your altitude. When flying you have a whole new perspective on the earth, and what previously were obstacles are no longer in your way, and may not even be seen. You simply live in a different world than you did before—the sky is your home. That is normal life for a mature Christian.
The result of having our minds transformed, or going through this metamorphosis, is to be able to “prove what the will of God is.” This is also the key to soaring above the things of this world—there is no greater freedom than knowing we are doing God’s will. If our minds have been truly transformed, then we can actually prove what His will is. When we are living in His will, we begin to see with His eyes, hear with His ears, and comprehend with His heart. By this we can live by His power.
Biologists will tell that the greatest struggle of a butterfly’s life is breaking out of its cocoon. How do we get out of the cocoon of the old creation man into the new creation? By reading the Word and praying. These will transform our minds and give us renewed ones. With renewed minds, we will see the same things that others see, but we will see them differently. As we learn to soar higher and higher, we will be able to see further and further. As we begin to soar, we will begin to live like Jesus did and do the works that He did. Everyone who does this will lead many more to the highway that leads to the kingdom of God. When this highway is finished, and the way of the Lord has been prepared, the King will come.
It is important to know the schemes of the devil, and to understand the way that the antichrist subverts and deceives the nations, but if we truly want to understand these times, we should give far more attention to what Christ is doing than what the antichrist is doing. As we are told in II Corinthians 3:16-18, what we are beholding will change us. Those who spend more time studying the devil and what he is doing than they do God, start to behave and do the works of the devil even though they may claim to be Christians. Behold the glor y of the Lord, it is everywhere for those who have eyes to see. As Elizabeth Barrett Browning once said, “Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God; and only he who sees takes off his shoes; the rest sit around it and pluck blackberries.”
Those who see are not deceived by the spirit of this world, but they see a new world and are preparing the way for it.
