The art and science of asking questions is the source of all knowledge.
- Thomas Berger
There are many important questions. Sadly, some of the most crucial fall through the cracks. Even among those honestly asking life’s ultimate questions and convinced of the reasonableness of faith, glaring problems arise.
Why should such a glorious Creator and Savior seem so silent and distant? Why does prayer routinely go unanswered? Why is society, not to mention modern Christianity, descending into unprecedented entitlement and worldliness? Last but not least, in the face of such ubiquitous need, why little or no appropriate response from the people of God?
Y = D (darkness) > L (light)
We learn a surprising number of life’s most important lessons as children. Research reveals that from before birth and throughout childhood the human brain does exhaustive investigative work worthy of a team of scientists. Necessarily and naturally curious we relentlessly observe and experiment, continually quantifying and qualifying who and where we are.
Building on such research, we are designed to develop mentally and physically, spiritually and socially. Unfortunately for billions, nature (fallen) and nurture (or lack thereof) can obstruct if not derail our Designer’s plans and purposes for individuals and whole societies.
Regrettably, such concerns fall within the purview of an ever decreasing subset. By definition the expanding ranks of atheist and agnostics have no vested interest in spiritual matters. Among the world’s religious, opinions vary to such a degree as to make constructive dialogue all but impossible. A sad state of affairs that by extension effects Christianity’s many sects and denominations, offering various Christs and versions of the gospel.
Fallen “nature abhors a vacuum.” Opportunistic, spiritual darkness takes full advantage of our ignorance and apathy, bickering and worse. Shades of black and grey, instant and tenacious, employ temptation and deception, entitlement and sin to fill every nook and cranny left void of the light of genuine faith and godliness. Often with serious if not eternal ramifications.
Today’s masses are tempest tossed by the concerns and distractions of modern life up to an including it’s devastating impact on Churchianity. The faith of billions has and continues to be battered and beaten by hurricane force doctrinal errors including unconditional love and eternal security, Biblical illiteracy and prayerlessness, sloppy agape and inappropriate worship, disdain for Christ’s harsher sayings and judgment of His Church, disregard of the approaching Great Tribulation and an unscriptural pre-tribulation rapture. This diabolical and devilish conspiracy of apathy and deception has served to lull clergy and laity alike into a false sense of “peace, peace when there is no peace.”
- “Knowing the correct password—saying ‘Master, Master,’ for instance—isn’t going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience—doing what my Father wills. I can see it now—at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, ‘Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking.’ And do you know what I am going to say? ‘You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don’t impress me one bit. You’re out of here.’” Matthew 7:21-23 MSG
Such a scenario relegates honest and diligent spiritual inquiry to an ever shrinking remnant of caring and capable believers. Within modern Christianity, only a tiny percentage of what might be called Prophetic Christians have the potential and wherewithal to appropriately address mankind’s greatest challenge. Such men and women are uniquely qualified to wait on and approach, plead and wrestle with the awesome and awful God for answers to the many intractable and inscrutable questions of “Why?” Tragically, the vast majority of even these find the rigors of “judging with righteous judgment” so repellent as to shy from full admitting and adequately responding to the deplorable state of Churchianity. Including our own record of failure to have long ago taken appropriate action. And this while indicators of growing apathy, if not apostasy, are as easily discerned as they are damning:
1. Unbelief: Atheists and agnostics comprise up to 33% of the world’s population.
2. Misbelief: Religious non Christian’s number 4,000,000,000 globally
3. Immorality: Since the 1960’s the onslaught of the “sexual revolution” has literally inverted morality.
4. Abortion: Within a single generation over 1,500,000,000 babies have been clinically, not to mention contraceptively aborted. The premeditated murder of the equivalent of over 10 times the entire population of the world in Christ’s day has turned the womb into the most dangerous place on Earth.
5. Decimated Families: As a targeted casualty, traditional families and values are being destroyed as never before.
6. Worldliness: Given unprecedented wealth and blessings, rather than thankfulness and generosity, our generation’s entitled response is all the above as well as clamoring to accumulate ever more riches and pleasure.
7. Sectarianism: Apathy and worse has fractured modern Christianity into a variety of denominations offering various Christs and versions of the gospel.
Of course, these seven areas of defeat are only the tip of the spear and indictment facing our generation. Making matters worse, if that were possible, is our acceptance by compliance or default of most if not all the above as pin pointed by the great reformer Martin Luther:
- “If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Wherever the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved and to be steady on all the battlefield besides is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that one point.”
Somewhat understandably, most are reluctant to even honestly discuss, much less combat the situation as described above. Such a quest would be formidable to say the least. While ascending the Mountain of the Lord to more fully come before His throne in realistic expectation of affecting such a unmitigated spiritual and social disaster is hardly for the timid, neither is it impossible. In reality it’s the spiritual equivalent of childlike learning. Inquisitive and diligent, honest and hopeful:
- “At about the same time, the disciples came to Jesus asking, “Who gets the highest rank in God’s kingdom?” For an answer Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room, and said, “I’m telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you’re not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God’s kingdom. What’s more, when you receive the childlike on my account, it’s the same as receiving me.” Matthew 18:1-5 MSG
Solve For Why
When it comes to modern Christianity in general, much less vital and controversial issues such as renewal, revival and/or reformation there are a variety of questions that beg asking. Some we aught to ask ourselves. Others our brothers and sisters in the faith. Still others seem best reserved for Omnity. While lines may blur, this is all the more reason to begin asking in earnest, ever mindful of the promise and condition of Scripture such as seen in the following:
- “Ask and keep on asking and it will be given to you; seek and keep on seeking and you will find; knock and keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who keeps on asking receives, and he who keeps on seeking finds, and to him who keeps on knocking, it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will [instead] give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will [instead] give him a snake? If you then, evil (sinful by nature) as you are, know how to give good and advantageous gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven [perfect as He is] give what is good and advantageous to those who keep on asking Him.” Matthew 7:7-11 AMP
- “If any of you lacks wisdom [to guide him through a decision or circumstance], he is to ask of [our benevolent] God, who gives to everyone generously and without rebuke or blame, and it will be given to him. But he must ask [for wisdom] in faith, without doubting [God’s willingness to help], for the one who doubts is like a billowing surge of the sea that is blown about and tossed by the wind. For such a person ought not to think or expect that he will receive anything [at all] from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable and restless in all his ways [in everything he thinks, feels, or decides].” James 1:5-8 AMP
- “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6 NKJV
Only a fraction of a percent of today's believers might qualify as Prophetic Christians. Godly men and women differentiated by a willingness to embrace the rising challenges set before us. Such men and women honestly admit that we’ve long crossed the line of demarcation, of needing mere renewal or revival, to the point of desperately requiring reformation. It's high time we begin to fear and seek God for the kind of holiness and power to be the Church, rather than simply attend. Let us cry out for the gift of unprecedented repentance to soften our hard hearts in hopes of receiving our own Pentecost. Let us endeavor to understand the signs and the times, heeding Scripture’s prophetic advice to the point of preparing to call for a national and global sacred assembly.
Together, let us tarry until we are transformed into the kind of Kingdom soldiers who can fulfill Christ's Great Commission. As those commanded, not to make converts, but disciples. Let us commit, individually and collectively, to waiting and wrestling with God until filled with all the fruit and gifts of the Spirit. Particularly that of healing the sick. Demonstrating the veracity of Biblical faith by routinely performing the kind of signs and wonders Jesus certified would accompany those who truly believe!
Prophetic Christians are willing to admit that for all the blessings and wonders of life, Earth remains a spiritually besieged planet. If not kill zone. Thus, our primary objective is to get to Heaven and take as many with us as we can. In light of the sin above, about and within, success in this all important pursuit is completely dependent on growing in sensitivity to the Holy Spirit.
There are many relatively recent examples of such men and women. For our purpose the following three should suffice:
1. Charles Finney: According to accounts, Charles Grandison Finney was one of the most spiritually powerful men to walk the Earth since the apostles. Born in 1792, he became an American Presbyterian minister and leader in the Second Great Awakening in the United States. He would later be credited as the “Father of American revivalism,” and was said to have paved the way for such notables as Dwight L. Moody, Billy Sunday, and Billy Graham.
George Williams was converted by Finney’s writings and inspired to found the YMCA. William and Katherine Booth, founders of the Salvation Army, were also said to be heavily influenced by Finney:
“Charles Grandison Finney wrote Lectures on Revival, which greatly influenced Catherine and William Booth. Their approach to revivalism copied Finney’s ‘American’ methods…. The Booths and hundreds of others committed to memory his manual for successful evangelism.”
“The writer is inclined to regard Charles G. Finney as the greatest evangelist and theologian since the days of the apostles. It is estimated that during the year 1857-58 over a hundred thousand persons were led to Christ as the direct or indirect result of Finney's labours, while five hundred thousand persons professed conversion to Christ in the great revival which began in his meetings. Another remarkable fact is that it was found by actual research that over eighty-five in every hundred persons professing conversion to Christ in Finney's meetings remained true to God, whereas seventy per cent of those professing conversion in the meetings of even so great an evangelist as Moody afterwards became backsliders. Finney seems to have had the power of impressing the consciences of men with the necessity of holy living in such a manner as to procure the most lasting results. It is said that at Governeur, New York, not a dance or theatrical play could be held in the place for six years after Finney held meetings there.” - Emphasis QC's
“He continued to preach the gospel, with increasing power and results, visiting many of the leading cities of America and Great Britain. Sometimes the power of God was so manifest in his meetings that almost the entire audience fell on their knees in prayer or were prostrated on the floor. When in the pulpit he sometimes felt almost lifted off his feet by the power of the Spirit of God. Some persons believe that the moral work of the Holy Spirit is not accompanied by any physical manifestations; but both in Bible times and in Finney's meetings remarkable physical manifestations seemed to accompany the moral work of the Holy Spirit when the moral work was deep and powerful. At times, when Finney was speaking, the power of the Spirit seemed to descend like a cloud of glory upon him. Often a hallowed calm, noticeable even to the unsaved, seemed to settle down upon cities where he was holding meetings. Sinners were often brought under conviction of sin almost as soon as they entered these cities.” - Emphasis QC's
“There were many things wrong with the United States then, and Charles Finney, among others, became convinced that the gospel was meant by God to do more than just get people saved. It was also to clean up society, and one instrument for doing this in the 19th century was called the Benevolent Empire. This was a great network of volunteer societies organized to attack social problems… Since the late 1820s, Finney had been moving to include social reform in his program for awakening, and he felt very seriously that converts should immediately be put to urgent work in the battle against sin. “Every member must work or quit. No honorary members” in the Kingdom of God, he wrote. During the first three decades of the 1800s, Lewis Tappan and many other influential Christian laypeople organized thousands of societies that touched every phase of American life. Slavery, temperance, vice, world peace, women’s rights, Sabbath observance, prison reform, profanity, education—all these and more had specific societies devoted to their betterment… By 1834 the total annual income of the “Benevolent Empire” was about today’s equivalent of one hundred thirty million dollars, which rivaled the entire budget of the federal government in those days!”
Charles Finney preached and wrote extensively, often regarding various aspects of sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. This included “Power From On High” were Finney lists 27 conditions for walking in the power of the Spirit. QC highly recommends this and all of Finney’s work. That being said, most may find such radical discipleship overwhelming, and Finney’s fine tuned minutia too much too soon.
2. George Müller: Considered by many as an icon of faith and miracles, George Müller was “a Christian evangelist and the director of the Ashley Down orphanage in Bristol, England. He cared for 10,024 orphans during his lifetime, and provided educational opportunities for the orphans to the point that he was even accused by some of raising the poor above their natural station in British life. He established 117 schools which offered Christian education to more than 120,000 children.”
Some of the highlights of Müller's well documented ministry include:
"Preaching three times a week from 1830 to 1898, at least 10,000 times. And when he turned 70 he fulfilled a life-long dream of missionary work for the next 17 years until he was 87. He traveled to 42 countries, preaching on average of once a day, and addressing some three million people.”
“He had read his Bible from end to end almost 200 times. He had prayed in millions of dollars (in today's currency) for the Orphans and never asked anyone directly for money. He never took a salary in the last 68 years of his ministry, but trusted God to put in people's hearts to send him what he needed. He never took out a loan or went into debt.”
I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter. Nine-tenths of the trouble with people is just here. Nine-tenths of the difficulties are overcome when our hearts are ready to do the Lord's Will, whatever it may be. When one is truly in this state, it is usually but a little way to the knowledge of what His will is. - Emphasis QC's
Having done this, I do not leave the result to feeling or simple impression. If so, I make myself liable to great delusions.
I seek the Will of the Spirit of God through, or in connection with, the Word of God. The Spirit and the Word must be combined. If I look to the Spirit alone without the Word, I lay myself open to great delusions also. If the Holy Ghost guides us at all, He will do it according to the Scriptures and never contrary to them. - Emphasis QC's
Next I take into account providential circumstances. These often plainly indicate God's Will in connection with His Word and Spirit. I ask God in prayer to reveal His Will to me aright.
In reflection on the reliability of relinquishing his decisions to the leading of the Holy Spirit, George Müller explained, “Thus, through prayer to God, the study of the Word, and reflection, I come to a deliberate judgment according to the best of my ability and knowledge, and if my mind is thus at peace, and continues so after two or three more petitions, I proceed accordingly. In trivial matters, and in transactions involving most important issues, I have found this method always effective.”
3. Evan Roberts: Perhaps the simplest and most Scripturally astute advice for developing and maintaining sensitivity to the Spirit of God was developed by Evan Roberts, the leading figure of the 1904-1905 Welsh Revival.
“The revival lasted less than a year, but in that time 100,000 people were converted. Begun as an effort to kindle non-denominational, non-sectarian spirituality, the Welsh revival of 1904-05 coincided with the rise of the labour movement, socialism, and a general disaffection with religion among the working class and youths. Placed in context, the short-lived revival appears as both a climax for Nonconformism and a flashpoint of change in Welsh religious life. The movement spread to Scotland and England, with estimates that a million people were converted in Britain. Missionaries subsequently carried the movement abroad; it was especially influential on the Pentecostal movement emerging in California."
Confess any known sin to God and put any wrong done to others right.
Put away any doubtful habit.
Obey the Spirit promptly.
Confess your faith in Christ publicly.
Whoever and wherever we are, it behoves each of us to do our best. Preferably in groups of two or more. The correlation between connectivity and causation are quantum truths. In both the physical and spiritual world. In regards to the unity of diversity, the New Testament likens Christ’s Kingdom to a single body comprised of a myriad of parts functioning as a cohesive whole. Thus we all have vital roles to play. Ones in which we are far stronger together. As Scripture attests:
“I’ll make the country a place of peace—you’ll be able to go to sleep at night without fear; I’ll get rid of the wild beasts; I’ll eliminate war. You’ll chase out your enemies and defeat them: Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand and do away with them. I’ll give you my full attention: I’ll make sure you prosper, make sure you grow in numbers, and keep my covenant with you in good working order.” Leviticus 26:8-10 The Message - Emphasis QC's
Rise up O men of God
Have done with lesser things
Give heart and soul and mind and strength
To serve the King of Kings
To serve the King of Kings
Rise up O men of God
His Kingdom tarries long
Bring in the day of brotherhood
And end the night of wrong
And end the night of wrong
Rise up O men of God
The Church for you doth wait
Send forth to serve the needs of men
In Christ our strength is great
In Christ our strength is great
Lift high the Cross of Christ
Tread where His feet have trod
As brothers of the Son of Man
Rise up O men of God
Rise up O men of God
Our response, or lack thereof, to the cause of Christ and humanity, holds equally great and grave potential. In both time and eternity. Through chains of causation, the rise or fall of friends and family, society and entire generations rests in our hands. As exemplified in the old proverb, For Want of a Nail:
For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the message was lost.
For want of a message the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
While partial visible today, only eternity will reveal the full extent of all that has been forever lost for want of honest and vigorous prayer and Bible study, discipleship and evangelism. Again, “May God grant us the wisdom to discover the right, the will to choose it and the strength to make it endure.”
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