Category Archives: Awakening

-Is it too Late to Pray for Another Great Awakening?

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              (Photo credit: sadler0)

This week Americans celebrate the 238 birthday of our country. It began with a document that declared that all human rights were derived from our Creator and not from human governments and kings.

If the Declaration of Independence was written today it might be declared as ‘unconstitutional’ for mentioning the Supreme Being. Meanwhile our current governmental system is defining ‘rights’ and revisions to the natural order of things that were never intended at the dawn of creation.

There are currently two major conflicting visions for the future of America. One would like to take this nation which has been ‘under God’ for hundreds of years and replace it with autocratic  secular rule which no longer officially recognizes God or allows his name and his Word to be spoken of in the public square.The other would like for God to continue to bless America and bring forth another great revival and awakening. Lately the secular vision seems to be winning.   

The American culture is changing so fast and it seems like what used to be considered as evil is constantly being referred to as moral in the dominant media and that which is based upon Biblical teaching is now being portrayed as bigoted, evil, and on ‘the wrong side of history.’

Among Christians, a week does not go by when I don’t hear someone say that it is too late for America that a line has been crossed that cannot be reversed. Is that the case? Should we just give up and stop praying for revival and another Great Awakening? I don’t think so. Meanwhile the whole world is in the midst of the greatest harvest there ever was with more people coming to Christ than ever before except in America and the West.

Here’s a quote from an article by Franklin Graham giving hope and encouraging Christians to continue to pray for another revival and Great Awakening:

While doomsday appears to be knocking at our door, let me take you back to the early 1800s. Many think of it as “the good old days,” but history tells us that society, even then, was as bad as it could get at that time. John Marshall, chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, wrote to President James Madison and said, “The church is too far gone ever to be redeemed.” When we examine why, we find that preachers had stopped preaching the whole Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the people were not hearing God’s Word.

What changed? Christians began to diligently pray for revival—and the result was the Second Great Awakening. When people’s prayers stormed the heavens, and when the Bible was opened in the pulpits and the Word of God proclaimed by passionate preachers, the church was awakened from slumber by the Holy Spirit, who moved in hearts, spreading revival throughout the heartland of America.

<Read the whole article>

Also here’s an prophetic article which also finds hope in our history and calls forth and sees prayer warriors and intercessors rising up once more to take back America for God: “Prophetic Intercessors, Don’t Give Up on the Great Awakening!”

In our area here in South OC California we see Christians rising up in prayer as never before. Pastors of all denominations who just a few short years ago seem to be competing for members are now gathering together supporting each other in prayer for our area, our churches, our economy, and our government. Last year our head pastor Mike Hudgins at VCC Laguna Niguel had a vision of 100 men meeting once a month to pray for our families, our area, and our country. Last month nearly 90 showed up and there is a real hope that the vision will soon be realized.

God has not given up on us yet and His Spirit is calling forth intercessors and prayer warriors to rise up all over America. May God continue to bless America.           

-America Needs a Third Great Awakening or It’s Over?

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(united states currency seal: kevindean)

This is not a popular message among Christians in America but many leaders are beginning to sense a turn in history that America may not be able to recover from unless God brings on a Third Great Awakening in our nation.

Many see the economic problems that face our country and hope that they will be solved by merely electing a new president with exceptional business experience. Unfortunately, the choice before us is between a professing liberal Christian with a secular world view and a Mormon that shares our values but maybe not the Holy Spirit that is so needed in these trying times.

But what about the decline in our culture and the headlong charge towards same-sex marriage and the continuing secularization and the increasing demonization of Christianity in the public square? What about the very real decline in religious freedom in our nation? Pastors being arrested for holding Bible studies in their homes. Social change trumping the Constitutional guarantees of religious freedom. Secularists claiming that conservative Christians that stand up for traditional marriage and hold to Biblical teaching when it comes to homosexuality are ‘immoral’ unethical discriminatory bigots that need to be silenced and controlled. Liberal church leaders claiming that homosexuality is ordained by God and evangelicals who oppose it are actually opposing the teaching of Jesus to love one’s neighbor?

What about the upheavals in nature and changes in climate? Are they just happenstance or has God lifted some of his protection from our nation? The fact is that the problems facing America are greater than any one person or group of people will be able to solve. Without a new download from heaven I fear that America is headed for the dust bin of history along with other great world powers of the past that have seen their day and lost their power. Does this sound overly pessimistic? I hope it’s just that.

For a long time I have been convinced that a major revival in America was just around the corner and now I am really concerned that we may miss it at the very time when we need it the most. I am still convinced that revival will come to some areas, some churches, and some communities in our nation regardless. But it is a Third Great Awakening from coast to coast that is really needed to bring our nation back from the brink.              

-What I’m Looking For: A ‘Red Letter’ Awakening

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What I’m looking for is a new ‘red letter’ awakening to spread across our land.

In the 70’s we had the ‘Jesus people’ move out here in California that spread across the whole country particularly among the young people. The emphasis was on salvation and Jesus coming back soon for his church.

In the 90’s in Toronto and at Brownsville in Florida it was the ‘Fathers Love’ which flowed into the churches and touched the lives of millions.

For nearly the entire 20th century beginning with Azusa Street in LA the emphasis was on reviving the work of the Holy Spirit and brings back all of the gifts and offices to the church. That one is still ongoing.

Nearly 500 years ago the Reformation began with Luther posting 95 Theses on a church door. That move was directed towards getting back to the Bible and making it available to everyone. There was an emphasis on Salvation by Grace, right theology, and the Letters of Paul.

Each one of these revivals brought back something that was missing in the church at the time.

Now I believe that we are soon going to experience a new ‘Jesus’ revival.

The Holy Spirit, the Father, and The Word has been brought back to the church. Even an expectation for Jesus coming back for his church is alive and well.

Now it is time for the Church to stand up and be the ‘Body of Christ’ to the world.

I believe that a new awakening is coming when the very words and teachings of Jesus in the Bible will be enlivened in a special way and leap right off of the page into the lives of Millions across our land. A move when Jesus will come to his church in a special intimate way and cause the church to stand up and be the representative of Christ and His Kingdom in the world.

The prophets said that The Messiah would bring justice and good news for the sick, the poor, the oppressed, and the enslaved in this life. That is the calling of the church also—to be the Body of the Messiah in the world.

For too long the church has relegated the good news of the Kingdom to the hereafter and the future. Now it is time for the church to stand up and bring The Kingdom to bare in this world just as Jesus taught us to pray: ”Thy Kingdom come thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven”.

The Church is called to be agents of justice in this world and ambassadors or practitioners of the Kingdom of God in this life and the life to come.

-A Word for 2010 From ACPE: ‘Third Great Awakening’

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Here’s a link to a prophetic Word for 2010 from the Apostolic Council of Prophetic Elders (ACPE) distributed by Cindy Jacobs. It a compilation of the prophetic releases from that group.

The preamble makes some good points in regard to present era prophecy:

There are differing variables that can affect the timing and/or coming to pass of these words:

  1. All prophecy not contained in scripture is conditional.
  2. The timing of when the prophecy comes to pass may occur over a longer period of time than one calendar year.  Some take many years to fulfill.
  3. It is possible that prophetic warnings will cause either the person or nation to repent and so turn away the judgment prophesied.  Biblically, this happened when Jonah prophesied to Nineveh and the city repented, causing God to relent.

There are a number of points in the document that hit home and confirm some of the stuff that I believe that the Lord has been saying to me. Particularly poignant is word that a new wind of the Holy Spirit is coming that touches a number of different nations in a special way.

The sections-  ‘Third Great Awakening’ and ‘Evangelism’ leaped out at me in particular:

Third Great Awakening

We believe that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that came on November 11, 2009, in Kansas City signaled the beginning of a Third Great Awakening that we prophesied would come to America and the world. November 11th was the day the Pilgrims made covenant with God in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Many intercessors across the nation are crying out to God for the nation to once again become “a city set on a hill.” If we continue to pray and call out to God, the nation will shift.

Evangelism

Many churches will wake up and evangelize the lost in their cities and nations. Thousands will be swept into the kingdom of God through new “power evangelism” movements in which people [will be] shown by supernatural means that God is real.

Churches who haven’t baptized in years will begin to see many people come to Christ. Dead churches will become resurrected under the fire and power of the Holy Spirit’s working, and many [who are] lost will be swept into the kingdom of God.

I really do believe that there is another ‘Great Awakening’ coming to North America that will touch hundreds of churches and cities in a special way across all of North America.

One of the keys to the new awakening will revolve around the Kingdom of God (that is the rule of God) invading into the marketplace where we all spend a majority of our lives. An expansion the Kingdom into the workplace and businesses where we spent our daylight hours.

It is in that process that God the Father will help his children to overcome their debts and become economically secure even in the midst of major recession. Not only that, but find spiritual blessing, purpose, and fulfillment at work and in businesses.

We’ll look at more of this message in later posts.