We are presently witnessing deeply challenging days. When the Lord reveals the future in advance, that is known as prophecy. Often, when we hear prophecy, we do not take it to heart at the time of hearing until the reality is upon us. The Lord has clearly shown that there will be a physical battle on American soil. We don’t want that to happen as war is horrific and affects our entire nation, especially those who are serving in the war. In this urgent and encouraging conversation join us as we revisit the prophetic compilation that has been played on the program that consists of multiple prophetic words regarding the coming days as well as the hopeful words the Lord has made known. There are difficult days ahead, but the Lord is going to bring about a great and mighty harvest of souls. You don’t want to miss this!
Revival
Full Program: The Jesus Revolution, Part 9
HUMOR MOMENT: Marine Defeated by Box of Cereal
We are so incredibly grateful for our men and women servicemembers who lay down their lives to fight for and defend our nation. They selflessly stand in the gap against our nation’s enemies. But what about a box of cereal? In this humorous moment, Greg reminds Steve of the humbling moment of how he began one fateful morning, like every other morning, preparing breakfast and eating his breakfast at his kitchen table. As Steve recounts it, he recalls making his bowl of cereal and setting it on his high-top kitchen table, and attempting to sit in a high top barstool type chair. “I just went to sit down, and I twerked just the wrong way… and AHHH UHHHH…I like pulled a muscle or something in my lower back”, and that was it. He was down for the count. Who would have thought? Attempting to enjoy a bowl a cereal, and now he’s on the floor, in the fetal position, in excruciating pain. What has the training of our military forces come to? Is this really America’s finest fighting force! The good news though, he had eggs for breakfast this morning, and he got rid of the high-top barstool chairs.
HUMOR MOMENT: The Dangers of Changing Your Eye Contact While Driving
Have you ever had the luxury of enjoying a casual cruise in a travel destination part of the world? Every part of the cruise, from the food to the sights and entertainment is top notch. The interesting part of the living quarters on the cruise is that every time you leave your room someone is there to tidy up your room and place another interestingly folded towel in the shape of some random animal. This random folded and contorted towel-animal is exactly what Greg felt like when he was driving down the road and one of his contacts suddenly decided to contort itself into a folded towel-animal while it was still IN HIS EYE. Not exactly the best of scenarios to find yourself in while driving. Even after pulling off on the side of the side of the road to adjust his contact, he kept having problems with his contact lens! What’s the point of contact lenses anyways? Greg decides to simply take it out of his eye and flick it to the floor. NOW HE CAN’T SEE OUT OF ONE EYE! The realization suddenly dawns on Greg, I NEED THAT TO SEE! Now he’s driving on the freeway with one eye squinted shut. All of this was taking place as he was headed towards a barbeque at the local sheriff’s office, as Greg was a former Escambia County Sherriff’s Deputy. Arriving at the barbeque, he is talking with the chief deputy exchanging a phone number. Suddenly Greg is reminded again of the importance of having BOTH contact lenses because he couldn’t even read his own phone to put the number in. He was so grateful that his nephew, Patrick McGlothren, was able to be there at this crucial hilarious moment!
IT WAS A SOVEREIGN MOVE OF GOD! The Jesus Movement Part 8
In the 1970’s, The Lord powerfully poured out His Spirit across the nation of America in such a mighty way that it was known as The Jesus Movement to many who witnessed it. This mighty move of God had such a tremendous impact that its effects are still being felt in America and across the nations of the world to this day. Charles Simpson was one of those who not only witnessed The Jesus Movement, but he was a part of it. Those who were in the world knew it was The Jesus Movement, but those who were in the Lord at that time, knew it as The Charismatic Renewal Movement. It’s one thing to have an opinion about something that happened, but it’s another reality to sit down and listen to those who actually experienced it. Greg was so incredibly grateful to be able to sit down with Charles Simpson and hear his perspective of what the Lord did during those unforgettable moments. As a spiritual father to Greg, Ken Sumrall talks about those moments when he was “compelled by the Lord” as when “God grabs you by the scruff of the neck and says, ‘you better do this thing’”. That’s exactly how Greg felt to have that meeting with Charles Simpson. It was so crucially important. After Greg was able have this incredibly interview with Charles Simpson, the Lord spoke to Greg in a dream and said, “It’s going to be the 1970’s again”. Initially he was very sad about that reality because many of the events that transpired in the 1970’s were horrific. But, amidst those moments, it was a powerful, sovereign move of God.
So what does it look like when a sovereign move of God begins to manifest in your nation? God begins to get a hold of people in all walks of life, even professional baseball players. When Albie Pearson was young, he went to Aimee Semple McPherson’s Four Square Church. As he got older, he was a professional baseball player for three different teams. During that time he was the short MLB player. While on an active MLB roster, the Lord speaks to Albie, “you can never play another game for another team, you’re on My Team”. When recalling the tremendous testimonies of the Jesus Movement, Bill Johnson and Lou Engle recount this incredible story. Albie didn’t realize just how significant that moment was as he still decided to play the next game. As Lou Engle shares, “he slides into third base and breaks his back.” You can imagine the excruciating pain that Albie Pearson is experiencing at this moment. The Lord speaks to Albie again, “they’re going to come to your door, sovereignly, to pray”. Hippies just started coming to Albie’s door to pray over and over. As Lou Engle describes it, “it was sovereign evangelism by God”. This is what a sovereign move of God looks at. All these years later Albie Pearson is still ministering for the Lord with the Father’s Heart Ranch. So many people are used to toting heavy water in their daily routine of drudgery. Sometimes you have to do that, but not when a sovereign move of God.
As the story goes, Bob Weiner was one of those young men who was sovereignly led by the Spirit of God to show up at Albie Pearson’s door to pray for him. Just as how the Lord moved in Albie Pearson’s life, the Lord did the same in Bob Weiner’s life as he is still ministering for the Lord today. Bob Weiner founded Maranatha Campus Ministries, with over 150 campuses, and has trained over 50,000 youth in Russia for ministry. He is known for a rapid church planting movement. When people were coming to the Lord so incredibly, he would point people to be water baptized in bathtubs! When God moves suddenly, and powerfully, like He did in the Jesus Movement, the “way church was done” just goes out the window. What God did and what God is about to do again isn’t going to fit into a building.
The stunning reality about this sovereign move of God is how easy it was to share the Gospel. This is not the time to write a book about one’s ministry’s efforts. Instead, you’re just trying to survive it. Bill Johnson and Lou Engle recount the testimonies of The Jesus Movement and describe it with these words; “The most stunning result, or manifestation in the Jesus People Movement was the conversions and how easy it was to get people saved. You could almost, you know, “Mary had a little lamb or something, and people would just want to know Jesus.” Bill Johnson continues to describe the tangible atmosphere of this move of the Lord. “It was in the air. It was people just had an awareness of their need for God.” It doesn’t matter how well intentional our efforts to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We always have to remember that it’s only by the Spirit of the Lord that God draws people to Himself. When God’s Spirit is poured out upon the entire land, people can easily get saved. This is so powerful!
In those days, people would stand on the side of the road, sticking out their thumbs looking for someone to pick them up and give them a ride to wherever they wanted to go. It was called hitchhiking. It was commonplace. Bill Johnson continues to talk about how hitchhikers would encounter the Gospel everywhere they went. “There was this presence where they knew they needed God.” After Bill Johnson shared the Gospel to one hitchhiker, he left and went an hour North only to hear someone else share the same encouraging message of Jesus to him. “Everywhere I go people want to tell me about Jesus. So, he got saved, you know, an hour North of here. It was just that era. It was just an amazing period of time.” This is incredibly powerful. Can you imagine an atmosphere that is so tangibly impregnated with the presence of the Lord, that any mention of Him causes people to immediately recognize their desperate eternal need to have Him in their hearts and lives? It’s important to remember that we also cannot fall to the religious lie that we’re the one doing it. It’s only by the Holy Spirit.
Founder of International House of Prayer-Kansas City, Mike Bickle, went through a time in his younger years while at University of Missouri, where he felt it was his duty to minister to 10 people every day. One particular night while laying in bed, he realized that he only witnessed to 9, so he stomped out his dorm room and told one more person before heading back to bed. It’s not like that. It’s God Himself that draws people to Himself. On the flip side, we can also see how a culture is affected when there is a lack of the Spirit of God moving upon an entire generation. Looking around today, where is the Presence of God? Where is the oil? When the Holy Spirit is not moving, we can clearly see the results of not having a Sovereign Move of God. Across all areas of culture, there is an increasingly noticeable presence of darkness in the land. There’s a demonic move of darkness moving over the globe. If you don’t think is effecting the Church, think again. In a recent Barna Group Study, nearly 50% of pastors said they would leave pastoring if they could find another vocation. Truth of the matter is, the ministry is not a vocation. These are God’s people. We cannot simply leave them when things get difficult and trying.
This is exactly how it was in the 1960’s and approaching the 1970’s. It was a real difficult environment. There was immense tragedy taking place in our nation. Suddenly, God began to pour out His presence and that was the only thing that people were looking for! During the days of The Jesus Movement, Kathryn Kuhlman was a woman who was anointed mightily by the Spirit of the Lord to share the Gospel. She was so committed to share the Gospel to as many as she could encounter, that she would sleep in chicken coups in order to do whatever it took to be where she needed to be. She recognized that she was witnessing and a part of a sovereign move of God.
During those days, Kathryn Kuhlman also had her own television show where she would share the Gospel and interview people. On one particular episode, she was talking with Chuck Smith, founder of Calvary Chapel, and a spiritual father to many thousands of young people who were coming to Christ in the Jesus Movement. While many across the nation were witnessing this sudden presence of God was taking the nation of America by surprise, people thought it was a “fad”. It was this particular opinion that Kathryn Kulman asks Chuck Smith about, “and millions are wondering whether it’s just a fad, or whether they’re just on another kick.” As Chuck Smith replies, “If it is a fad, it began, like I said, 2,000 years ago you know.” Chuck Smith continues to talk about the indescribable testimony of what the Lord was doing in their midst.
“The beauty, the glory of the whole experience as the beaches just lined with thousands of people singing the choruses and praising the Lord, then walking out into the water and bearing the pass, and then when they realize that all of the past is gone; that it’s all been buried, that God has absolutely nothing against them. The slate is clean. It’s a brand-new life now with Jesus. Not only that, even as the Spirit descended upon Jesus after His baptism, their hearts are open and they just receive the power of God’s Spirit to live that new life that the Lord wants them to live. And it’s indescribable.”
If we have any question about the fruit of Chuck Smith’s life, all we have to do is look at the many who are still faithfully serving the Lord today. Chuck Smith was a man that loved people and he loved the Word of God. It was the Word of God that strictly taught from when sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with people. This was definitely not a fad! Isnt’ it amazing how quickly people can become critical of a precious move of God!
We cannot be caught up in being critical of such a mighty move of God. People who were hippies one day, burning their draft cards and throwing Molotov cocktails at police one day, were being radically saved by the power of the Holy Spirit and following Jesus Christ in the Kingdom of God the next day. God is still the same, yesterday, today, and forever. “It’s going to be the 1970’s again”. When we look at America, and the nations of the world, do we not see the same spirit of rebellion marching in the streets today burning down buildings? If God did it then, He is fully able to do the same thing again in our generation. Those in Antifa today, can be walking with Jesus Christ in the Kingdom of God tomorrow! Can you see it! Do you believe God for it? God can do these miraculous things IN A DAY!
Chuck Smith was a spiritual father to so many in this generation. This is what Paul was writing about in 1 Corinthians 4:15-17, “Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me. For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.” When Kathryn Kuhlman interview Chuck Smith on her show, she highlights how so many people waste their lives on insignificant things. But, for Chuck, he poured himself into an entire generation, “literally thousands and thousands of teenagers call you Daddy Chuck”. This is so beautiful! Chuck Smith was such a beautiful man to imitate. You want to live your life under someone that continually teaches the Word of God.
Chuck Smith talks about his journey in The Jesus Movement by recalling the days when they had to move to a new building due to the increasing size of the crowds, and while preaching the Gospel hippies just started to come in and sit on the floor, listening to his message. “I was there teaching and suddenly things got real quiet and I looked up, and here were all of these young hippies coming in and sitting on the floor”. What was so beautiful about these moments is how these new incoming hippies started showing up to help with whatever building project was taking place under Chuck Smith’s leadership. At first, he didn’t have the best perspective of these hippies. As he describes it, “my attitude was, dirty hippies, why don’t get a bath, go out and get a job and make something of their lives… you’d see them stoned, on drugs, and so forth and I had a very negative reaction towards all of that”. Interestingly enough, it was his wife, Kay Smith, whose heart was soft and broken towards these hippies. It was her brokenness towards these hippies that started to soften Chuck Smith’s heart towards them as well. You see, Chuck and Kay had their own kids who were the same ages as these hippies in their community. If they didn’t reach them for Christ, their kids could easily end up in the crowds of hippies that they were seeing in their streets.
Kay Smith would insist on driving to the beach with Chuck so that they could reach these hippies. Upon arriving at the beach, Chuck would be grumbling, sitting in the car next to his wife. “I would be mumbling about, ‘why don’t they make something of their lives, dirty kids and all’, and I’d turn over, and she’d be weeping”. Their daughter was reminded of her mother’s desire to want to know why these hippies were living the way that they were. One instance, she headed to the Laguna Beach Hotel, to leave their children in the car, in order to share the Gospel with some hippies. “It was the Holy Spirit that put this on my mom’s heart. She began to pray and God began to answer her prayer, and started bringing these hippies into the Church”. Chuck Smith began to notice what the Lord was doing in their midst and he made up his mind to follow the Lord in whatever he was doing. As their daughter recalls Chuck’s words, “I didn’t want to direct the Holy Spirit. I just wanted to find out how the Holy Spirit was moving and get in the boat, and move with Him.” This is what it’s all about. There was such a brokenness for these young people to know the love of Jesus, and to reach them with the Gospel. Chuck Smith began to understand what these young people were looking for, and he had the answer. “Their search was for love and their search was for peace, and what better message than the message of Christ. It’s a message of love. It’s a message of peace. And so they just took to it, you know like ducks taking to water…” In order for the lost to come to Jesus, we have to go out and be amongst those who don’t know Him so that they can hear and know of the One who does love them. Maybe the Lord is going to move in such a sovereign, and powerful way, that is going to remove the veil of darkness that is over their eyes so that they can see and understand their need for Jesus!
Can you imagine how many souls would have been lost in that generation if Kay Smith had not cried out to the Lord for His burden for the young people in their own hometown? Because she cried out, thousands upon thousands of souls came to Christ, and are still walking with the Lord today. We have to have God’s heart for the lost in our generation. Imagine how many souls can be impacted in our generation if we cry out to God, and ask Him to break our hearts and give us His burden for today’s generation. If we have to lean in and push through the wounds that we may have experienced in this life.
Greg recalls being at a unity meeting where pastors were talking about coming together in unity. While the meeting was taking place, Greg asked the question, “wasn’t it your church that didn’t accept his church?” Interestingly enough, after asking that simple question, it shut down the entire conversation. The reality was, unity really wasn’t the topic. What was going on at that time was that people who professed to be Christians were saying ‘you can’t come in my church’. 1 John 4:20 clearly states, “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.” Think about it. During World War II, people professing to be Christians were saying that about the Jews, and today people are saying that about African Americans. The exciting reality is that, when the Holy Spirit began to move in the Jesus Movement, He fixed all of that. When Charles Simpson was pastoring a Church in Mobile, Alabama, his congregation was primarily white people. But when the Lord began to pour out His Spirit, the Church began to be mostly African Americans, and he was totally okay with it. “This is what God wants to do”. God breaks down the color walls that we put up in our minds because He loves everybody! This was not God’s plan. Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr once said that the most segregated hour in America is Sunday morning at 11 o’clock in the morning. There is segregation in America because there is segregation in the Church. The Church is supposed to be the ones letting everyone know that everyone can come to Jesus! Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated for standing up for truth! We cannot overlook the pain and brokenness that was taking place during these moments in history. But God! God moved amidst all this pain and brokenness, and poured out His Spirit, sweeping across the entire nation! It was a sovereign move of God!
When we look around at the events taking place in America, there is constant division and pain. This is the working of the adversary. This is the devil’s plan because he knows his days are coming to an end, and Jesus is coming back soon! We are in the last days. That is for certain! In past moves of God, they may have carried on for decades at a time. With the way things are looking today, this last move of God’s Spirit may be a suddenly! A rapid explosion of God’s Sovereign presence to bring in as many souls as possible before the Second Coming of Christ. If you feel so bogged and overtaken in your daily life, just looking for another opportunity to escape into the myriad of insignificant entertainment that is easily accessible at your fingertips. The engineers decide these technologies KNOW THIS! God is OUTSIDE of media. Think about it! In the Jesus Movement, people were all over the streets, on the beach, and God was moving! That’s where Chuck Smith would go. He would go to the beach and preach for hours, and people would listen, for hours.
You don’t have to be distracted or find escape in media. You can press through all the distractions and heaviness, and seek after the face of the Lord. God has clearly said, “it’s going to be the 1970’s again”, and He confirmed it. We can either focus on the devastating things that took place in the 1970’s, or we can focus on the miraculous movement of God, and decide in our hearts that we will be a part of this great coming move of God’s Spirit! As Tommy Tenney says in his book The God Chasers, “God has this idea that Church is about Him”. Think about that. Is your experience of church about, programs and organizations, or is about Him? The enemy is doing everything he can to cause people to walk away form God. This is a purging that is taking place. The same thing happened to Jesus when He simply preached the truth to all of those who were listening. As John 6:66 reveals, “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.” After the people turned and left, Jesus didn’t move. Instead He turned to His disciples and asked them the following question in John 6:67, “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.” They knew there was nowhere else to God. Jesus is the answer! This is not a religious experience. Understand the Creator of the Universe loves YOU and He wants a relationship with YOU! If God has called you to Himself, and called you to connect and relate to His body, don’t be surprised when the devil attacks with every imaginable attack to get you to leave your place. Hold on to God! You need to stay there! Yes, this is a very difficult season right now. Many people are leaving the Church right now. It may be smaller compared to previous days, but the Church is going to be stronger. Be encouraged today knowing that the Lord loves you. He has an awesome and mighty plan for your life. He wants YOU to be a part of this mighty coming move of His presence.
120721 TGLS
God has things right where He wants them to be, right before He does what only He can do, as He so clearly demonstrated in the 1970’s which we’ll share in detail. In today’s landscape, it appears that the ways of godliness, and our nation’s moral compass, has all but been lost. While people are leaving God, and others are choosing atheism and agnosticism, many are losing hope. 50 years ago, it was a similar story in America. Leading up to the 1970’s, America was experiencing what many perceived to be some of its bleakest and darkest days. What many were not aware of was the greatest move of God’s Spirit was about to be poured out upon the nation. Men had their thoughts, BUT GOD!
At the same time, on the campus of Asbury College, the Lord began to deal with the heart of one man to share his testimony of what the Lord had done in his life, and confessing his sin publicly, calling sin as sin. As young man began to confess his sins, SUDDENLY! It seemed to catch everyone by surprise. The Holy Spirit took over a gathering of young people on the campus of Asbury College. It was 1970, and this was the spark that began to ignite the whole nation on fire for a passion and hunger for Jesus Christ. Young people openly shared testimony after testimony of what the Lord was doing and had done in their lives. One woman shares, “I’m thankful that this afternoon, I know, that the Lord saved me. I didn’t think that I could really know or be assured as I feel right now. And I thank the Lord because it’s only Him that could do this for me.” This is so incredibly powerful how God moves in those suddenly moments! It’s so vitally important that this was taking place amidst horrific atrocities taking place in the world and the nation. It’s so important that we not judge things based on what we see or what we think. The Lord is so incredibly outside of our minds and our expectations.
Looking at the realities of present day, we can see that we are not so far removed from the darkened and bleak days that were being experienced in the 1960’s and 1970’s. According to Pew Research, what young people believe today, is drastically different than their elders. “While roughly two-thirds of older adults say they believe in the biblical God, just 49% of those in their 30s and 40s – and just 43% of adults under 30 – say the same. Even with this age gap, an overwhelming majority of the youngest adults continue to believe in God or a higher power…” Now we can get an understanding of why things are happening the way that they are in our nation. When young people are not even wanting to go to church, to learn about true godly authority in Jesus Christ, we cannot be surprised when there is all-out rebellion against all forms of authority. Remember, God is the one that establishes authority and all authority comes through him, as Romans 13:1-5 reveals,
Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.
When satan wants to stir people up, he causes people to buy into rebellion. Amidst this horrific rebellion and difficult times, Time Magazine dedicated the front cover of their April 8, 1966 magazine asking the question, “Is God Dead?” Hopelessness seemed to cover the nation. 5 years later, God had his own plan in mind. God’s Spirit began touching hundreds of thousands of people across America. It was so powerful, and so suddenly, that Time Magazine dedicated the front cover of their June 21, 1971 Magazine. IT WAS A JESUS REVOLUTION! Days prior, rebellion lined the streets, as every establishment of authority was the enemy. Suddenly, young people lined the front pews of church services. “While the rest of the congregation mumble their amens, the kids punctuate Bisagno’s sermons with yells of “Outta sight, man, bee-yoo-ti-ful.”Almost overnight, after hating the police and throwing rocks at them, some of these same people were declaring their love and support for the police. “Chicago police, we love you!…Jesus loves you!” The drug addicts and drug dealers weren’t selling and taking the drugs, there were passing around boxes to put their drugs INTO to give them to the police. What? They passed a bucket and the young people, at the leading of Jesus, put their drugs in the bucket!!! They were getting free from drug addiction. Their faith in Jesus empowered them to trust Him and His leadership in their lives, trusting Him enough to give up all the drugs they used to distract them from life and life’s responsibilities. THIS IS WHAT GOD DOES! The answer is not legislation. The answer is JESUS!
Young people share mighty and encouraging testimonies of the power of the Holy Ghost in their lives. Young people share their transformational stories of how the Lord delivered them from their sins, addictions, loneliness, and anger. “I was a heroin addict. I prayed to Jesus and I was taken away from my drugs without any withdrawal.” This is so powerful. This young man had been so hurt by life, which we all are. The question is, will we turn to the world’s answers for relief, or will we find refuge and life in Jesus Christ? It’s relieving and helpful when the reality that we all have sinned and fallen short of God’s desire for our lives, becomes your reality, because we understand nothing in this life can wash away our sins like the Blood of Jesus can. It’s so surprising to someone who comes to Jesus that their sin is what caused most of their problems and issues they’ve had in their life and that Jesus can forgive them and restore them.
Where there had been divisions in families, the Lord miraculously brought families together, through healed hearts, instantly after being water baptized. “A freshly dunked teenager, water streaming from her tie-dyed shirt, threw her arms around a woman and cried, “Mother, I love you!” A teen-age drug user who had been suffering from recurring unscheduled trips suddenly screamed, “My flashbacks are gone!” For anyone, who are parents, you deeply understand the pain of watching your children living their lives outside of God’s plan for them, watching them walking blindly into the dark consequences of their own choices. As parents, you can wrap your faith and your heart around this reality, that whatever the problem might be involving your children, God can fix it.
What is so immensely powerful is how people that were living “successful” lives by the world’s standards were aware that it was in vain. They knew that outside of Jesus Christ, it was still empty. As one young woman shares, “right before I had been saved it was better than it had ever been before. Outwardly, everything was together. I had realized all of my dreams and it was then realizing that I realized they were vein, they were empty, there was no satisfaction in them. And I knew it was nothing without God”. You make think your life is going great until the moment that you see Jesus and realize whatever you thought you had, is nothing without Him. She also recognizes how different the atmosphere is when God’s children gather, compared to the intellectuals of the world. “There was no joy when philosophers got together. There was nothing but contention and strife. When the children of God get together it’s gonna be beautiful.” God doesn’t want one person to be lost and spend eternity without Him. Each and everyone of us have to choose whether we want to spend life with Jesus.
The Time Magazine article continued to recount how many drug addicts of the day were witnessed to and reached for Jesus. “You can use drugs after Jesus, but you won’t need them. If you become Christians, this is what has to happen.” Others testified how the Lord empowered them to say no to the devil’s temptations to return to drugs and addiction but decided to flush it all down the toilet! Be encouraged as you realize that much of this movement took place in San Francisco, California and the West Coast. What is taking place in today’s headlines is nothing that is outside the mighty hand of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Don’t be discouraged, depressed, or hopeless when you see the things that are taking place in our world. Completely sane and filled with common sense, bright leaders are being told that they are the ones that are crazy. This is what the devil does. He brings division and accusation. One man, who shared his testimony thought the problem with the world were people who were working, not him. “I thought it was their fault because they were paying taxes and the war [Vietnam War] was going on because everyone was insane in society. And they were accusing me of being insane, and I thought they were insane.” After coming to Jesus, he understood the reality of insanity and that the only answer was Jesus Christ. He continues to share, “I went into Berkely, and when there was a riot there, and I saw long haired people throwing bricks at the police. And I love the police now. I love this country. I love the people in the country.” Just as things are dark today, they were dark and looked hopeless 50 years ago. Truth of the matter is, deception is when you think what you are doing is right, you’re actually wrong. Sounds equally similar to the people with ANTIFA filling the streets today, rioting against the police. Be stirred for a greater hunger to know this same Jesus Christ that touched millions historically, for He is about to do it again in a way that will make past moves of His Spirit look like an appetizer. MORE LORD!
According to Barna.com, since 2000 there has been a catastrophic decline in the number of Christians in America. “In 2000, 45 percent of all those sampled qualified as practicing Christians. That share has consistently declined over the last 19 years. Now, just one in four Americans (25%) is a practicing Christian.” Obviously, when the light is turned off, the darkness is experienced. Instead of screaming at the darkness, light a candle, for as a believer, are the Light of the World. This is why you’re reading this right now, we are shining the light of Jesus upon you. The Barna Research continues to reveal how this decline in Christianity in America has caused an equally proportionate increase in those not acknowledging God, writing, “This shift also contributed to the growth of the atheist / agnostic / none segment, which has nearly doubled in size during this same amount of time (2003: 11% vs. 2018: 21%).” This is staggering. This explains the realities that we are experiencing in our nation today!
While God is pouring out His Spirit upon the nation, people in all areas of society were being touched and transformed by God. One man who was powerfully touched by God, in the 1970’s, was Bill Bright, who was a successful businessman. Time Magazine reported, “The biggest of the straight groups is Campus Crusade for Christ, 20-year-old soul child of former Businessman Bill Bright. He still means business: this year’s budget is $12 million, and by next month he will have 3,000 full-time staffers on 450 campuses”. This is such a powerful reality to understand. Many people who are “in ministry” never got the proper training of how to manage a budget of that size. Imagine how someone with business experience can bless and serve in the ministry! Many people feel defeated thinking that in order to serve the Lord, they have to be standing behind a pulpit on Sunday morning. This is simply not true. The gifts that you have in your life are given to you from the Lord. You can submit those gifts to the Lord for His glory and for His Kingdom!
At the same time, one young Assemblies of God minister, David Wilkerson, was powerfully touched by God. The Lord had moved on his heart to reach gangs in the downtown area of New York. One particular gang member, Nicky Cruz, beat Wilkerson multiple times for sharing the gospel to him. Cruz ended up surrendering his life to the Lord, because of Wilkerson’s persistence, and their story was written in the book, “Cross and the Switchblade”, which has sold 6 million copies. Be encouraged knowing that there is no limit to what God can do. The book would later be turned into a movie starting Pat Boone, Erik Estrada and Jacqueline Giroux.
God sees you right now. It’s no accident or coincidence that you are reading this right now. You are on the heart and mind of God. If you don’t think that you are valuable or that your life has any worth, those are lies from the devil. It’s no surprise that all of Hell may be coming against you. That’s because God has a mighty plan for your life, and the adversary, satan and his demonic forces, who has set himself against God, is wanting to stop it. You can reach out to God, and call out to Him through His Son Jesus Christ right at this very moment and ask Him into your heart as your Lord and Savior. We have to acknowledge that we are sinners, and we need a Savior. Somehow, by His grace and mercies, He does a mighty work in our lives by the power of His transformation. It’s all for His glory. Jesus is not dead. HE’S ALIVE!
There was a mighty move of God that started in the small Gulf Coast city of Pensacola FL that ended up reaching the world, The Brownsville Revival. This was the moment that was such a significant shift for so many people. It was as if there was a line drawn in the sand signifying the moment before Father’s Day 1995, and the moment after. Everything was different. Everything. Steve Hill was the evangelist that preached the Gospel every night with Pastor John Kilpatrick. Steve ended up bringing his wife, Jeri, and their three children in response to what the Lord was doing. Steve knew it wasn’t just about those who were present that particular day. He would tell everyone, “GO TELL SOMEBODY!” He did everything he could to get the message out. Both Steve and Jeri lived their lives with other people in mind, always. Greg recently had the privilege of sitting down with Jeri Hill and remembering these beginning days as well as their time evangelizing the world for Jesus Christ.
In the West, In America, it appears that the only thing that ever really matters, is self. We are inundated with every imaginable comfort and convenience known to man. This is not so in the rest of the world. Steve and Jeri and been evangelists for many years leading up to this moment in many areas throughout the world, and they witnessed firsthand the stark contrasts of lifestyles in the rest of the world. Jeri recalls looking back on her life as she has traveled to 60 different countries, how the Lord wants us to respond to people, no matter what country we’re in.
“What God is wanting us to be as Christians, is that every single one of us operate in the gift of …Evangelism, sharing their faith with people.” Jeri highlights how much the importance of the Love of Christ, just like people talk about the love of their life, “we are supposed to have our First Love and that First Love makes you want to talk about Him, and share Him with others, especially if you’ve been rescued from a life of sin and bondage”. The beauty of Jesus, as Jeri continues to share is, “we don’t have to keep Him to ourselves, we can share Him with everybody”. Could it be that the very absence of the Love of Christ keeps people from sharing the Gospel with others?
It was this devoted love for Christ that drove each and everyday that Steve and Jeri Hill lived for Jesus. As Jeri shares, “when Steve and I got saved, we knew from the very beginning that our lives would not be our own anymore. It was God’s. We didn’t want to rule our lives. We didn’t want comfort to rule our lives”. That begs the question for all of us, how do we get out of our selfishness? When presented this sobering reality, Jeri reminds us of Galatians 2:20, “I have been with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” The crucified life is a direct assault on the selfish life. If Jesus calls us to live dead to ourselves, you can basically say that we shouldn’t be getting our feelings hurt all the time. As Greg reminds us, “dead feelings don’t hurt”.
Jeri highlights how the reality of Eternity drives her everyday decisions, “one day I am going to be held accountable to God and actually I live today like I’m accountable to Him”. Unfortunately, there are many people who don’t live their lives this way, even after professing to have a relationship with Jesus. As Steve Hill said many times, “religion is hanging around the Cross, but Christianity is getting on the Cross”. Jesus made a decision to pay the price to demonstrate His love for us by being crucified for our sake, how could we not make a decision and pay the price to live out the crucified life everyday to demonstrate our life for Him? As Greg highlights, “this is our opportunity…this is our moment”. Jeri also shares about the mandate the Lord has called her to carry out even after Steve has gone on to be with the Lord and continue sharing about the Lord’s goodness and His glory.
Image courtesy of Dean Drobot/Shutterstock.com