As I have mentioned before in the Vision of the Harvest that I was given twenty-five years ago, I saw two waves of revival coming upon the earth. The first was the greatest move of God in history for gathering people to the Lord. That wave of revival began just a couple of years after I received this vision. More people came to Christ during that move than had come to Him before in all of history. I was also shown a period of relative spiritual quiet before an even bigger wave of the Holy Spirit swept across the earth. That wave is now approaching, and it will be the biggest move of God on the earth of all time.
I saw this second wave of revival coming like a tsunami. When a tsunami approaches land, the water first starts to recede. Many were killed in the last great tsunami because they marveled at the water going out and began to walk out on the ocean floor. Then they were caught by the wave. I interpreted this that it would appear that Christianity would seem to be in retreat around the world just before the greatest move of God of all time would break upon us. Don’t follow the water receding, but get to the high ground!
The high ground I am addressing here is to trust in the Lord as your Provider, your Healer, your King, and your Judge, and do not fall to putting increasing trust in human governments. The most powerful, stable governments in the world are very shaky, and they are crumbling. All who put their trust in them will be shaken, terrified, and desperate. All that has not been built upon the Lord’s ways will soon crumble. Even so, at this time, the kingdom of God is growing. Build your life on His kingdom and His ways. Trust in Him, not man, and you will never be shaken.
The kingdom of God is coming, and it cannot be stopped or slowed, but it can be hastened! In II Peter 3:12, we are told that we should be “looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God.” What could we do to help bring His kingdom faster? We can do this by building our lives on His kingdom now and preaching the good news of His kingdom everywhere we go.
As we’ve referenced Daniel 2 a number of times, we need to understand the statue that represents man’s empires, which are now crumbling, and the little stone that represents God’s kingdom. The feet of this statue was made out of iron and clay. Virtually all teachers and theologians agree that the iron legs in this stature represent the Roman Empire, and the clay represents the church. This mixture in the feet was a mixture of church and state, especially as this happened in the Roman Catholic Church, but it happened in many Protestant churches too and virtually any church that became a “state church.”
It was the understanding that such a mixture was unholy that caused the Founding Fathers to prohibit the Congress of the United States from establishing religion. This was very wise, and because so many of the first colonists had fled the religious persecution by state religious institutions in Europe, the consequences were still very fresh in their memory.
It should be noted that the Constitution of the U.S. forbids Congress from establishing religion but not the states. The Constitution clearly states that all authority not specifically given to the Federal Government is reserved to the states, so the states have authority to do this. This also makes it clear that it is not the Federal Government’s place to do things such as prohibit prayer in schools, or any other religious activity, as this authority is obviously reserved to the states and is their place to do this or not do it.
There are many ways that our Federal Government has overreached and has brazenly done what the Constitution forbids. In most of these, you can see an obvious agenda of suppressing Christianity. The same Constitution that forbids Congress from establishing religion also prohibits it from hindering its free exercise. I’m often asked if I think Christians in America will suffer persecution, and my response is that it has been happening for a long time. If our present trajectory is not changed, we can expect it to soon become official state policy. Right now it is unofficial state policy.
Under the present administration, there have been a number of ways that the ground is being laid for a far more serious persecution against Christians in America. Some of this is coming through legislation such as the “Hate Crimes” legislation that specifically targets Christians. Some is coming through attempts to subject Americans to international laws and the U.N. resolutions, another very blatant violation of the Constitution. Article 6 declares that the Constitution will be “the supreme law of the land.” To subject Americans to any law other than our Constitution would therefore be a basic attack on the Constitution.
Because every elected or appointed official of our government has to take a vow to defend the Constitution from enemies both foreign and domestic, those who are promoting these agendas are leading us to a very serious constitutional crisis and could even be considered treason.
So, how will this affect the church in America? How should the church in America react to these issues? First, we have a higher constitution than that of the U.S., which is to obey God’s ways that are clearly taught in the Scriptures. If there is ever a conflict between God’s ways and man’s ways, we must obey God rather than man. Even under the threat of death, we must never compromise the truth that we have been entrusted with—that Jesus is the Savior of mankind, and there is no other way to be reconciled to God except through Him.
Now weren’t we just talking about revival coming to America? So how is this persecution coming if revival is too? The fact is that throughout church history, they have almost always come at the same time, and persecution has often fanned the flames of revival, as will be the case here. Persecution will cause many of the great issues of our times to become much clearer, and the lukewarm will be forced to make a choice. This will cause many to return to their first love, and become burning fires for the Lord. It will cause others to shrink back, but this needs to happen too.
If we are living under kingdom authority, then this righteousness, which is doing what is right in the sight of the Lord, will result in a peace and joy that is the most basic identification of the citizens of the kingdom. Only from this position can we be the salt and light we are called to be in these increasingly dark and confusing times. To those who remain true, His glory is promised, and eventually the nations will come to His glory.
