The Crisis Point Of the Modern American Church
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Israel was in a kairous moment. It was the time appointed by Heavenly Father.
It was a fitting and the specific time God had appointed for their visitation. Yet, they failed to grasp the opportunity set before them.
Indeed, most seemed completely blind to what was happening. They continued to run their shops, curse the government, meet their buddies at the bar, bet on the games, and take care of their families.
History has proven that mankind has often missed God’s visitations.
He is visiting us again.
Will you miss God’s visitation?
The religious and political leaders continued their game of politics; pushing and shoving for a better position and a bigger slice of the pie.
Serious threats were straining the tenuous relationship with the Roman Prefect because of the zealots; particularly the zealot out of Galilee.
He was a Nazarene portraying himself to be a prophet of God.
The very thought was offensive!
But large crowds were following him and he seemed to be persuading them with his new doctrine and his stunning ability to make them think miracles were happening.
They seemed oblivious that the man standing before them, teaching on the temple steps and on the mountainside was the same one who had astounded them when He was twelve years of age.
His grasp of Scripture and His ability to open the understanding of the common man, combined with the authority of His spirit and word, astonished the crowds but angered the spiritual leaders and the politicians.
They had no idea this man was not the ordinary zealot or self-proclaimed prophet.
He was God in the flesh.
Even more curious was the inability of the Pharisees, Sadducees and priests to grasp the moment and to know the true identity of the man with the level of knowledge they possessed about the promise of Messiah and His coming.
How is it possible for them to miss the timing and fail to see the Son of God when He stood in their very presence?
The answer to that conundrum is the great danger being faced at this very moment by the church in the United States of America.
The Pharisees, Sadducees, lawyers and priests of Jesus’s day were blinded by their preconceived notions, messianic charts, and political rhetoric.
Their spiritual senses had been dulled by their secret sins, their form of godliness with a calloused spirit, their personal ambition, and their spiritual snobbery.
The general populace was too busy trying to survive.
They loved seeing the miracles and hearing the messages of hope spoken by this new prophet.
It was great fun talking in the market place about his criticism of the Pharisees and Sadducees and their hypocrisy.
But who had time to take seriously his call to lay down your life and follow him?
It was the very few religious leaders, like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, who dared humble themselves and truly grasp the moment.
Although thousands ate His miracle meals and saw the blind eyes open and the dead raised to life only one hundred and twenty faithfully waited in prayer for the “promise of the Father.”
I wonder how many in America today will get past the political rhetoric and hear the voice of the Holy Spirit?
I wonder how many pastors, professors and denominational leaders will turn off the “talking heads” and silence the news anchors to hear what God speaking?
How many Christians will turn away from the riot scenes on their television and stop listening to the anger of their family members, co-workers and neighbors and let God show them what He is doing in America right now?
It is not about Democrat or Republican.
It is not about the haves and the have nots.
It is not about the popular vote and the Electoral College.
As significant as those things are… and they do hold significance, their great importance will only be realized if we can see how God is working at this critical juncture of American history.
Three of the most politically charged times in modern U.S. history were seasons God was doing something far greater.
The Crisis Point Of the Modern American Church
The turn of the century was politically charged with progressivism, woman suffrage and racial inequality.
God was about to address all of these social ills and political issues by pouring out His Holy Spirit.
It all began in 1896 at the Schearer Schoolhouse near Camp Creek in Cherokee County, North Carolina.
A congregation, led by a holiness preacher began to experience the baptism of the Holy Spirit with speaking in other tongues.
This stunning work of God was also ignited on the west coast of the United States ten years later in Los Angeles, California.
A humble African-American preacher, William Seymour, began holding meetings teaching the biblical experience of receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the initial evidence of speaking in other tongues.
The crowds grew until private homes could no longer hold them.
They rented an abandoned building on Azuza Street that was only 2400 square feet in size.
God was seeking to resolve the racial issues of America by the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Blacks, whites, Hispanics all came to hear this former slave preach the Word of God and to seek the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
The Pentecostal movement swept across America like a great tidal wave.
America and the world were healing from the wounds of World War II in the late 1940’s when God stepped in with a miraculous healing ministry and a fresh out pouring of His Holy Spirit.
Jack Coe, a tent evangelist who began preaching while he was still serving in the army during World War II.
Oral Roberts with his “Canvas Cathedral” that would seat three thousand and more.
Gordon Lindsay, T. L. Osborn, and others began crossing the United States with their tent meetings and faith healing.
While controversy surrounded their work, America was experiencing spiritual healing by a fresh out pour of the Holy Spirit and truly amazing physical healings.
Dr. Billy Graham was invited to Los Angeles, California in September 1949.
A large tent that seated six thousand people was set up in a parking lot. It was later enlarged to seat nine thousand. As the crowds grew and overflowed the tent the three week meeting was extended.
Thousands came to Christ including several celebrates.
This was the national-wide launching of the Billy Graham crusades. God was healing what man and politics could not heal.
The 1960’s saw America was being torn and divided.
The ravages of an “unpopular war”, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, college “sit ins”, Haight Ashbury love in, hippies, flower children, LSD, the killing of Bobby Kennedy, and the Watts riots shook our nation.
Into this cauldron of anger, hate, free sex, and “turning on and dropping out”, the Jesus People and the Charismatic Renewal came transforming lives.
Thousands of teenagers and college students were delivered from drugs and immoral lifestyles as they came to Christ on the beaches of California, in coffee houses of the Pacific Northwest, on the college campus in Berkley, and in home Bible studies.
Businessmen and business women were finding salvation and the baptism of the Holy Spirit through Full Gospel Businessmen and Women’s Aglow.0
The Episcopal and Catholic churches were coming alive through Sunday night charismatic renewal Bible studies and hundreds of lukewarm Pentecostal churches experienced a fresh out pouring of the Holy Spirit.
God was doing what the social engineering of the “Great Society” could not.
America has reached another crisis point.
Progressivism and the New World Order are seeking to change culture with political correctness and tolerance, demanding the Christian church embrace women’s rights, same-sex marriage and the LGBTQ+ agenda.
Our cities are being divided blue and red, minorities are feeling disenfranchised, and our first responders are serving at great risk.
As the world hurdles headlong into the last days with Lucifer setting up his one-world agenda many in the church are moving apostate participating in same-sex marriages, welcoming transgender members, and preaching a compromised Gospel.
God has His agenda.
And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.
Joel 2:28-32 KJV
And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call
Can you hear the voice of God calling His church to a new outpouring of His Spirit?
While the culture grows dark with evil and the streets are filled with looters and angry voices; while men and women burn with lustful passions and every thought of their imagination is only evil, God’s eyes are searching across the nation looking for the righteous ones through whom He can show Himself mighty.
America is not lost, not yet.
This is the hour of our visitation.
The greatest spiritual awakening of this generation, maybe the greatest in all of history, is before us right now.
God desires to pour out His Spirit on our nation one more time, healing our damaged emotions; bring peace to the war zones of our inner cities; uniting the blacks, whites, Hispanics and Asians in the divine love that can only come from Holy Spirit.
This is day of our visitation.
The question remains.
Will we seize the moment or will we be like the Pharisees and Sadducees?
More Articles Like This:
It Is Not a Political Problem – Part One
It Is Not a Political Problem – A Double Tragedy
This Is What Will Change Our Culture
How the Church Should Respond When the Foundations Are Shaken
The Crisis Point of the Modern American Church
America is Filled With Idols and False Worship
How the Church Should Respond When It’s Under Attack
How the Church Should Respond When There is Violence
How the Church Should Respond to Racial Division
How God is Using Blood Moons to Speak To the Church
The Greatest Danger Facing the Church
4 Ways the Church Can Seize This Moment in History
The Relevant Message Being Missed By the Church Today
Why the Term “Forever President” Is a Dangerous Trend
The Danger In Destroying Our Monuments
