If you have been reading this Word For The Week for long, you have likely noticed my style is to develop a theme, and then from time to time go back to review it before going on. I may say things a little differently, but it is purposeful repetition. Repetition is required for retention, and the more something is repeated, the more it will be retained. What we do not retain we have little possibility of actually doing, and it is by doing that we bear fruit. Our goal is not just to know the will of God, but to do His will.
In the unfolding of the last-day purposes of God, we are in a lull between two great waves of the harvest. The first wave began in the late 1980s and continued for almost two decades. More people came to Christ during that time than in the history of the church up until that time. It was estimated that around the world about 375,000 people per day came to the Lord. In this present lull, this number is down to around a little over 200,000 coming to Him per day. Even in this quiet pause between the waves of harvest, Christianity is the fastest growing religion in the world. Even so, the greatest harvest of all is yet to come.
The last wave of ingathering was the greatest the world had ever seen, but what is coming will greatly eclipse it. The Great Commission will be fulfilled. The preaching of the gospel of the kingdom will be accomplished all over the earth. The bride of Christ will make herself ready and become the pure, spotless, and beautiful queen she is called to be. The messengers of God will walk in unprecedented power and authority because of how they will abide in the Lord.
I was shown that what is coming will be like a tsunami. I was told that, like a tsunami, the waters of Christianity will begin to recede before this great wave strikes. It will seem like, for a time, Christianity is in retreat all over the world just before the greatest move of God the earth has ever had sweeps the earth. If you think Christianity is receding now, it is not time to chase what is receding, but it is time to get to the high ground!
The high ground is being seated with Jesus on His throne in the heavenly places. Like all truth, this cannot merely be a doctrine, but literal. We must abide in the Lord in all that we do, all of the time. The foundation of this is experienced and entered into in local church life as it is called to be.
A key word here is “as it is called to be.” A great transformation is coming to the church, but it will only include about 10% of those that are now Christians. It is not that the other 90% will be lost, but they will have to start over again on a right foundation, or join those who have been built on a right foundation. Many Christians will likewise have their lives turned upside down, when as much as 90% of the things they now give themselves to will be removed. This is so they can fulfill their purpose in the last great move of God before He returns.
I was shown all of this in a two and a half day open vision in 1987. Most of what I was shown in that vision has already come to pass, and the rest is unfolding now. We can make this transition much easier by giving ourselves to what is eternal and not being so consumed by the things that are temporary. We were bought with a price. We are not our own. We are His, and we are on this earth for His purposes. We must find that purpose and focus our lives on accomplishing it.
The “key to the kingdom,” or the truth that opens the door to the kingdom for us so that we can live and abide in it, is the exhortation to “seek first the kingdom.” The Lord promised that if we would seek His kingdom first, He would take care of everything else for us. This is the ultimate call at this time—to put the interests of the kingdom above any other interest we have.
