Author Archives: Dr. Mike

-National Day of Prayer 2018

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Today is the National Day of Prayer. Every day is a good time to pray for our nation particularly today. Join thousands across America in prayer for our nation and people, Unity is the theme for this year. Something we really need right now. Here’s a link to the National Day of Prayer website.

2018 NATIONAL PRAYER FOR AMERICA:

Our Dear Heavenly Father, while we come to You in complete humility, we also come to You with boldness in the authoritative name of Your One and Only Son, Jesus Christ, who is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. In Jesus’ name, fill us now with Your Holy Spirit and lead us as we pray in Jesus’ name for America.

Oh God, we are burdened for our nation today. We turn from the sins that we have committed against your Word and your Name. We turn away from our contentious words and ways toward one another that has led us to division and polarization. We turn away from our disrespect and lack of dignity toward each other, and we turn away from our continual devaluation of all human life from the womb until death in this world. We also turn away from and refuse to participate in skepticism, criticism, and cynicism in our nation. We turn away from anything that divides us, and we run toward the gospel of Jesus Christ that is the only thing that has the power to unite us together.

Lord, in this critical hour in our nation, we pray for unity in America. Only You can bring unity, harmony, and oneness in America. As your Word calls us in Ephesians 4:3clip_image002, “Making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace”, we ask You to empower us to make every effort to live in unity, to call for unity, and to forward unity in America continually.

We pray for the churches in America to unify in Jesus Christ and to pray as one unified spiritual family for America. May Your Church pray for America passionately, perpetually, privately, and publicly.

We pray for God’s power to unify families, workplaces, communities, and cities in America. By Your Spirit, lead us to forgiveness, reconciliation, healing, and unity.

We pray for people of all ethnicities and races in America to come together as one, living in peace and unity together. Oh Lord, because each of us is created in Your image, please give us the courage to stand against all racial and ethnic division, denouncing it as evil and sinful, while simultaneously coming together in unity with all persons knowing this is God’s will for us.

We pray in unity for the security of our nation. We ask You to preserve the United States of America from the forces of evil that are threatening our lives and our future. God, please guard all persons in public and private settings from anyone or anything that desires to harm us or take our lives. Our future is in Your hands.

We agree clearly, unite visibly, and pray extraordinarily for the next Great Spiritual Awakening in America. Oh Lord, wake up Your church spiritually and convict Your people to agree clearly, unite visibly, and pray extraordinarily until the next Great Spiritual Awakening occurs in our generation.

Oh God, we stand together upon Your words in Psalm 133:1clip_image002[1], “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony.” Through Jesus’ name and by the Holy Spirit’s power, we pray for all Americans to unify and to live together in unity.

In the mighty and majestic name of Jesus Christ who is the Only Savior and the Only Hope in this world, we pray. Amen.

Dr. Ronnie Floyd

President, National Day of Prayer Task Force
Senior Pastor, Cross Church

-Revival Reports: 5 Churches

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Here are reports of five very different American churches where revival is ongoing or has recently happened. From Charisma News:

“5 Revivals Breaking Out Across America in This Hour”

We have already posted on most of these but it gives us hope to see them all on the same page. Now if more churches around America can get on the same page with the Holy Spirit maybe we will see this list expanded before the year is over. I would like to see it spread like popcorn popping.

Notice that all of these are scattered around in different places. Not only that but across different denominational streams and affiliations.               

-The American Church Needs to be Resurrected

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Yesterday we celebrated the Resurrection of  our Lord Jesus Christ. Today I submit that the entire American church needs to be resurrected.

Some church leaders are looking for a new awakening and others are calling for a new reformation—that too. But the  American Church that was so popular a ‘Palm’ generation ago is now being assailed in this culture and some are demanding its submission and ‘crucifixion’ while others are saying that it is already over for the church as we to knew it.

Meanwhile, many mainline church leaders are caving in and turning in the ‘unpopular’ parts of their Bibles to maintain ‘cultural relevance’ and respectability. Other conservative Christian voices are claiming that this culture is only going to get worse and the only thing left for the church is to be  ‘raptured.’

I believe that ‘a New Day’ is about to dawn upon the America church. Some will call it revival, others a new reformation, but the new move of God will resurrect the American Church and it will rise up and fulfill its calling and destiny while there is yet day.

I posted the following last year at the beginning of the new Biblical  (Jewish) year. I believe that it is still poignant and for today:

(Posted on September 30, 2017)

It is a new day and a new Biblical year and we are still looking forward to revival. But sometimes there is stuff that must come first or may come along with it that we would rather avoid. But the word ‘Revival’ only brings to our minds the ‘good stuff’ and all of the ‘not so good’ that came along with former moves of God is usually forgotten or disregarded. 

500 years ago on October 31, 1517 Martin Luther tacked 95 theses to a door in Wittenberg, Germany. Luther wanted to bring revival and reform to the church but schism came instead and a few years later he was excommunicated and then the wars followed for several hundred years. But the church was reformed and change came to all of the church regardless. One wonders if he would have proceeded differently if he had known all the stuff that was going to follow.

One thing for sure, the Reformation was a Move of God. More than anything else the most important result was access to the Bible and real knowledge of the written Word of God- the Logos. Before 1517 The Word was only available to the Priests, Monks, and scholars and very little of it was allowed to ever trickle on down to the regular folks. Not only that but ‘worship’ services were in Latin which only the educated could understand.

Coming out of the Reformation, services started being conducted in the vernacular and an exposition and teaching of the Scriptures became an important part of worship. Later the Bible was translated into the languages of the people and with the invention of the printing press it became available for regular folks. The church was changed by the Logos of God.

Most of us in Charismatic and Pentecostal churches look back on Azusa Street in 1906 as the beginning of another Move of God that changed the church. This time it was the Rhema Word of God that was restored along with all of the Spiritual gifts. A good historical case can be made that the ‘gifts’ never really departed entirely from the church but few regular folks in the church had the opportunity to experience them.

Now we are at a new crossroad where a significant part of the church is questioning whether the Bible is still even relevant and whether certain plain teachings in the Word should be disregarded or ignored. Ironically it is the old ‘Reformation’ mainline churches that are in the midst of rejecting their own foundations which were rooted in ’solo scriptura.’

The point is, major change and a new move of God including some kind of new ‘reformation’ is ahead for the church and we can expect that the revival we are hoping for may be far different than our romanticized expectations. Fact is, the church is always ‘looking forward’ to the past revivals and is never fully prepared to receive the new one.

To demonstrate what I am talking about let’s take a look at Acts. Before all of the good stuff in Acts 2 we find in chapter 1 that all the church devoted themselves to prayer. Since Pentecost came 50 days after the Passover they could have been praying solid for at least a month or so. Not only that, but for only this one time in history the entire church and everyone in it was actually prepared to receive a move from God.

Now for the scary part that may be relevant for us now or in the very least for the church some time in the future. We all like the ‘good stuff’ in Peter’s quote of Joel 2:

17 “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,and your young men shall see visions,and your old men shall dream dreams;

18 even on my male servants and female servants
in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. …

21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

Here’s the part of Acts 2 / Joel 2 we would rather ignore. The verses between 18 and 21 (19 & 20):

19 And I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;

20 the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.

In light of all of the major disasters lately, these verses might be far more relevant to a coming revival than we want to admit. Also, a falling away and major persecution might well come along with it.

It is time for the church to pray. It is always time for us to pray but especially now.              

-South Korea: One of the Largest Exporters of The Gospel

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South Korea has been the host and the exporter the 2018 Winter Olympics for the last two weeks. What many American and Western Christians do not realize, besides electronics and automobiles, South Korea is also one of the largest exporters of the Gospel with 27,436 Korean Christian missionaries serving in 170 countries. Some in places where Americans cannot legally go.

Also, at least 25% of the population in this Asian nation are Christians and even a greater percentage in the capital city of Seoul. From CBN News:

Today, Seoul, the capital of South Korea, has more megachurches than any other city in the world. In fact, six of the ten largest churches in the world are in South Korea.

In 2012, official government statistics put the number of Protestant churches at 77,000, more than three times the number of convenience stores in the country at that time.

The 1907 revival also gave birth to a powerful prayer and repentance movement that is still being felt to this day in the country.

<Read the whole article>

Christianity received its biggest initial boost in Korea from one of the greatest revivals ever in 1907 in the city of Pyongyang which is now the capitol of North Korea. A prayer and repentance movement started with the revival still continues today with thousands of South Koreans going to church for early morning worship and prayer before going to work.

Unfortunately in Pyongyang today and in all of North Korea Christianity is outlawed. Nevertheless, The church continues underground in the North and missionaries from the Chinese Christian community and from South Korea continue to sneak their way into the North through China.

In contrast with all of the pageantry and the celebration of the media over the North Korean athletes joining with those from the South is the reality of Christians being killed, jailed, and tortured for their faith nearly every day in the North. In fact, North Korea heads nearly everyone’s list as the worst abuser of civil rights and religious freedom.  Regardless, unification continues to be in the hearts. dreams, and hopes of all Koreans in both the South and among their literal relatives in the North.  

-Sweden: Iranian Christian Convert Leads 1,500 Muslims to Christ

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Nearly every week we read reports from Europe about the problems and outright terrorism being perpetrated by the thousands of Muslim refugees. It is not too difficult for discerning believers to see our enemy’s hand in all this. Even worse, the demographers claim that if the current trend continue, Europe will eventually be dominated by Muslims. Some even talk about the Vatican being surrounded by mosques in a generation.

Yet in the midst of it all we receive reports of Muslims coming to Christ  This  recent account from the Christian Post should be encouraging. A former Iranian Muslim convert has led over 1,500 Muslims to Christ in Sweden:

An Iranian convert to Christianity who is now an ordained minister in the Church of Sweden says she has helped bring nearly 1,500 Muslims to Christ over the past five years.

Annahita Parsan told Fox News in a report on Wednesday that her life, which has undergone huge tribulations, is “completely different since coming to Jesus.”

<Read the whole article>

Read her story in the article, it will give you hope. The fact is, in the midst of all of the bad news about Islam and the radical terrorists, more Muslims have actually converted to Christianity in the last ten years than ever before since the founding of Islam. The enemy has his plans but our God is more powerful and every knee shall eventually bow at the name of Jesus.

-Acts 2/ Joel 2: Looking Forward

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It is a new day and a new Biblical year and we are still looking forward to revival. But sometimes there is stuff that must come first or may come along with it that we would rather avoid. But the word ‘Revival’ only brings to our minds the ‘good stuff’ and all of the ‘not so good’ that came along with former moves of God is usually forgotten or disregarded. 

500 years ago on October 31, 1517 Martin Luther tacked 95 theses to a door in Wittenberg, Germany. Luther wanted to bring revival and reform to the church but schism came instead and a few years later he was excommunicated and then the wars followed for several hundred years. But the church was reformed and change came to all of the church regardless. One wonders if he would have proceeded differently if he had known all the stuff that was going to follow.

One thing for sure, the Reformation was a Move of God. More than anything else the most important result was access to the Bible and real knowledge of the written Word of God- the Logos. Before 1517 The Word was only available to the Priests, Monks, and scholars and very little of it was allowed to ever trickle on down to the regular folks. Not only that but ‘worship’ services were in Latin which only the educated could understand.

Coming out of the Reformation, services started being conducted in the vernacular and an exposition and teaching of the Scriptures became an important part of worship. Later the Bible was translated into the languages of the people and with the invention of the printing press it became available for regular folks. The church was changed by the Logos of God.

Most of us in Charismatic and Pentecostal churches look back on Azusa Street in 1906 as the beginning of another Move of God that changed the church. This time it was the Rhema Word of God that was restored along with all of the Spiritual gifts. A good historical case can be made that the ‘gifts’ never really departed entirely from the church but few regular folks in the church had the opportunity to experience them.

Now we are at a new crossroad where a significant part of the church is questioning whether the Bible is still even relevant and whether certain plain teachings in the Word should be disregarded or ignored. Ironically it is the old ‘Reformation’ mainline churches that are in the midst of rejecting their own foundations which were rooted in ’solo scriptura.’

The point is, major change and a new move of God including some kind of new ‘reformation’ is ahead for the church and we can expect that the revival we are hoping for may be far different than our romanticized expectations. Fact is, the church is always ‘looking forward’ to the past revivals and is never fully prepared to receive the new one.

To demonstrate what I am talking about let’s take a look at Acts. Before all of the good stuff in Acts 2 we find in chapter 1 that all the church devoted themselves to prayer. Since Pentecost came 50 days after the Passover they could have been praying solid for at least a month or so. Not only that, but for only this one time in history the entire church and everyone in it was actually prepared to receive a move from God.

Now for the scary part that may be relevant for us now or in the very least for the church some time in the future. We all like the ‘good stuff’ in Peter’s quote of Joel 2:

17 “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,and your young men shall see visions,and your old men shall dream dreams;

18 even on my male servants and female servants
in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. …

21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

Here’s the part of Acts 2 / Joel 2 we would rather ignore. The verses between 18 and 21 (19 & 20):

19 And I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;

20 the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.

In light of all of the major disasters lately, these verses might be far more relevant to a coming revival than we want to admit. Also, a falling away and major persecution might well come along with it.

It is time for the church to pray. It is always time for us to pray but especially now.              

-Total Solar Eclipse and Times to Come

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On August 21, 2017 millions of Americans viewed a total solar eclipse that started in Oregon and cut a 70 mile wide swath across our nation west to east all the way to South Carolina. It had a unique trajectory that was exclusive to only the U.S. for the first time since the nation’s founding in 1776.

There will be signs in the heavens and on the earth in the last days and one is persuaded to look for some kind of deeper meaning in this natural event. In Biblical times eclipses were looked upon as signs of impending judgment or change. I can remember years ago watching the movie- Apocalypto that featured an eclipse while Mayan priests were sacrificing folks on their pyramid. It was a show stopper as fear gripped the crowd. The closing scenes showed armored Spanish conquistadores in the distance landing on a beach nearby as a chilling portend of coming change. An Actual line in the sands of time.

Nevertheless as our family took in the event on a relative’s farm in Sedalia MO, where we experienced a minute and a half of totality, we found ourselves in awe of God’s creation. In fact everyone we know who saw the total eclipse has remarked about how it was far more of a ‘spiritual’ experience than they had expected.

So was the event a portend of judgment or change in the future for the USA? Nearly all of the prophetic stuff I read looked upon it as a sign of change and almost all positive. Yet when I considered it, all I ever got was that it was a ‘line of demarcation’ – one that we will remember as dividing the time after from that before. Sort of like we Charismatics and Pentecostals look back upon Azusa Street in 1906 as a beginning. But those in San Francisco look upon 1906 in an entirely different light.

Now this week as Houston TX is under water and suffering maybe the worst natural disaster in US history some are coming out of the shadows and calling it judgment. We need to be careful about making such proclamations. What we really need to do is pray for the folks in the midst of that disaster and contribute to the non-profit groups helping the victims.

It will be a time of change for maybe millions of people in Texas and we should pray that it will bring many closer to God and result in positive changes for those who are now suffering some of the worst days of their lives. Lord, inspire your children to rise up in love and unity blessing others in the worst of conditions as a testimony of your love.

There is another solar eclipse coming to America in 2024, this time from north to south. I wonder if we will come to look upon those nearly 7 intervening years as the ‘time between the eclipses’ if we are still around? The words that keep coming to my mind are ‘Hope and Grace.’

-Hungary: ‘Greatest Revival of Our Time’?

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Here’s a link to an article by Ted Baehr who claims that the ‘greatest revival of our time’ is breaking out in Hungary:

Recently, I returned from speaking and teaching in Hungary with my son Robby, … Hungary was a wonderful, definitive, different experience because Hungary is in the midst of revival. More than 60 percent of the members of Parliament there are Christian. The prime minister, who was once a typical European leftist, who started out a Communist Youth leader, came to Christ and is on fire for God. Members of the cabinet are pastors and leaders in Reformed and other Hungarian churches.

Besides speaking at the conference that brought me to Hungary, World Congress of Families, I got the chance to speak in the largest Christian church, 60,000 people, one of the largest churches in the world. That church owns the biggest news network in Hungary, reaching 2 million people.

What makes all of this so exceptional is the history of Hungary.

<Read the whole article>

Response: This is really good news.  Most of the time when we read about Europe it is all about how Muslims are taking over significant parts of Germany, UK, Sweden, and causing trouble in France. We forget about what is happening in the former communist countries in the East where Christianity seems to be flourishing more than in the West which is seemingly becoming more secular.

Add this to the on-going secret revivals taking place among Muslims and in China and North Korea. Meanwhile in this country we have a prominent senator and former presidential candidate questioning whether conservative Christians should be allowed to even serve in the government.                

-Some Revival Implications For The Church

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26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27 This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire. –Heb. 12:26-29

While I was reading the 12th chapter of Hebrews this morning the 26-29 verses leaped off the page and the Following word came to me:

This is the revival you have been praying for. 

As I read the verses again some of the implications and dangers for the church in midst of revival and afterwards began to come to mind. It may not be as rosy and cozy as most of us expect. For sure the church will be changed in ways we do not  see now. We have been praying for the Kingdom to come down in our midst and have not fully comprehended how that will change the church as we know it.

The church and the leaders will be refined by God’s own fire and that which can be shaken will. It will be glorious but also painful. The church that remains will stand up and more accurately represent the Kingdom of God on earth, fulfill its calling, and finally become the worthy Body and Bride of Christ.

Unfortunately part of the church as we know it will not endure. Look for whole denominations and movements to go into apostasy afterwards. We can already see it happening as some of the mainline churches are turning their backs upon the Word of God. Look for some to turn their backs upon the Word himself and deny his divinity for the sake of world peace.

Revival will come to every church and signs and wonders will follow and many will be saved but the response of the leaders and the aftermath will not be the same.                

-Tent Revival in North Carolina

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(YouTube capture)

There’s an old fashion tent revival going on in North Carolina. From Charisma News:

A remarkable move of God that began last May in Burlington, North Carolina, stirred many hearts through July. Pastor Randy Hobbs had only scheduled evangelist C.T. Townsend to spend a week in his church, but as the power of God fell, many were saved and the revival stretched on in a borrowed tent for weeks—filled to capacity every night.

“The only reason the (revival) meeting shut down (in July) is because we couldn’t keep the tent any longer. The man needed the tent back,” recounts D.R. Harrison, one of those saved during the revival.

Remarkably the revival started all over again this year with another tent:

No one knew what would happen when Townsend and his team re-launched their crusade two weeks ago under a newly constructed tent holding 5,000 people.

“It’s been incredible,” Harrison exclaims. “This last Friday night was our biggest night with over 4,000 people, and there were 78 saved.

During the first two weeks of the crusade, 130-140 made professions of faith, and crowds averaged about 2,000 a night. The momentum seems to be building, according to Harrison.

Some of the services have been viewed over 100,000 times on the internet, and their livestream crashed May 12 due to traffic that overwhelmed server capacity.

<Read the whole report>

Response: I believe we are in a season when similar revivals can happen all around North America. The character of each might be considerably different in every place but one of the major themes is going to be the unity of the American church. This move of God across America is destined to go beyond denominations, affiliations, or any of the designations that we are familiar with including race. Look for Mainliners, Catholics, non-denominational evangelicals, Baptists, black and white and Latino churches and all colors to participate along with the Charismatics and Pentecostals that you would expect.

Pastors and leaders, It is time to pray for guidance on what you can do to facilitate a unique move of God in your community. It might be among the youth in your neighborhood, city or town. Now is the time. It might not be in a tent, it might be in an auditorium or field, on in the street. It is time for a new awakening.