Eyewitnesses told me they were some of the last words my brother ever spoke. "God is going to do something big on this trip." Some readers of this blog know that shortly after uttering those words my brother, Donald Eugene Enzor, drowned while trying to rescue two other boys. I have recalled that time because yesterday I heard similar words. "God is about to do the greatest works since the Church began." That is not an exact quote but it comes close. Since they were spoken on a Christian program that interviews people about miracles, visions and prophecies some would dismiss them without hesitation. I, however, am bound by I Thessalonians 5:20 & 21: "Do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good."
Since that program tries to exalt Christ and the Scriptures I would be wise to give the Holy Spirit time to witness to my spirit about the accuracy of that prediction. I am inclined to take that prophetic word seriously because it is far superior to the pessimism that Christians are uttering on every hand. Great advances of the Kingdom of God and growth of the Church are happening in China, Muslim lands, sub Sahara Africa, Central America and South America. God's people in those lands have cried out to Him and He is pouring water on thirsty ground. God does not love any less His people in the U.S. who are crying out to Him with right motives.
"Right motives" -- that is it! I doubt that God is impressed with our pleading for changes in America when the hidden motives are for an easier life free of persecution. It is a matter of record that believers in other lands have prayed for "difficult times" for us here in the U.S. Those believers see that as the only way the Church in America will be cleansed and purified. Large segments of the Church here have embrace a "gospel" of comfort and prosperity; pagan standards of music and clothing; and a casual acceptance of just about anything the culture says and does. The most conservative churches are, in their own way, as badly in need of change. Mean spirited criticism of other believers and unnecessary church divisions are just the beginning of their problems.
I am most thankful at this moment for all the Churches that are exceptions to the examples just given. From their ranks rise the prayers with pure motives that God most surely hears; the prayers that may very well lead to the unprecedented move of the Spirit of God that some are predicting.
In just one church in Seoul, South Korea hundreds - yes hundreds - regularly come out at 6:00 a.m. to . . . PRAY. The powerful motivation that propels them is what saints of years past called "the burning heart". The worst thing I could do in a blog like this is to throw ice cold criticisms on American Christians who do not seem to have the "burning heart". As an 11 year old Boy Scout one of the first things I learned and loved to practice was the art and science of fire starting: making dry wood shavings, standing the twigs around the shavings like a teepee, striking the match, and gradually adding larger and larger twigs and branches to the fire teepee. If a fire is nearly out blow gently of the embers.
That is what the wise among us will do with our fellow believers. We will gently and carefully stoke the fires and blow gently on the dying embers. We will not throw the cold water of denunciation on them nor will we try to use too often the blow torch of sharp exhortation. "Stir up that inner fire which God gave you . . . for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power and love and a sound mind." (II Tim. 1:6 ff. from Phillips New Testament In Modern English)
I think that Paul added the "no fear" words because he, and (more importantly) the Holy Spirit, knew that in our time some would try to "work up" spiritual enthusiasm and thus the rest of us would be afraid of the whole idea. In many churches the danger of "wild fire" in spiritual things is about as much to be feared as the inhabitants of a cemetery staging a riot! I should much rather have to "rein in" an overly exuberant brother than to ignite fire in total spiritual coldness. So, let's see now, where are the kindling and the matches? Where are the dying embers? But first, "Breathe on me Breath of God".
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