The Growing Darkness

In the midst of my joy which I find in the Lord Jesus, I feel a profound sense of sadness and spiritual grief as I watch what is happening to the church, His body. When I was a boy I would be playing a game of baseball with my friends when we might hear the voices of some of their mothers calling them to come. I remember seeing my friends as they one by one started to leave the game. I was sad. I now see many of the preachers who once bellowed out the Word with authority and anointing walking away to seek new and relevant approaches. To them the Word is no longer relevant.

I cannot believe how fast things are changing all around us. The core of the written revelation that came through the pen of man straight from the heart of God that was meant to enlighten, guide, and teach, is now being treated as a self help book that contains some good advice but is not the authentic and inerrant Word of the Living God. And even those who on paper claim to believe the Word of God teach it as a lunch pail/tackle box literary series rather than the powerful, Spiritual food that convicts, corrects, teaches, edifies, and exalts the Person of Jesus Christ. And worst of all the deviations from the truths of the gospel have now become widening caverns, and the guides to these falsehoods wear their altered truths as medallions of honor.

And as the majority of evangelicals turn their hearts from a consuming passion for the Word and unto a consuming passion for money and entertainment, the discernment between false and true teaching diminishes. Have you ever been outside and suddenly it becomes darker and darker and then in a few minutes a storm arrives with rain and violent wind? Well the spiritual atmosphere today is not only growing darker with each day, it is ripe with wide and varied forms of deception. This deception is not just from false religions such as Islam, Buddhism, and others, no, many deceptions are coming from within the Christian church, even from evangelicalism itself.

Does your spirit grieve over the transformation about everything from the Bible to the Lord Jesus Himself. When I fell in love with the Lord Jesus in 1975 I never dreamed that we would come to such a time as this, and now the darkness accelerates at an incredible rate masquerading as a search for truth. Lots of excitement, many wonderful conferences, and a plethora of books and tapes that line the pockets of preachers from every doctrinal perspective are the norm. Conferences about how to improve your life or getting the power to succeed attract the American believer. And even in orthodox conferences, with the church immobilized by powerlessness and sin, a preacher gives a series about “Why I am a Calvinist”. Absolute worthlessness and designed to garner the applause of the choir while absent what God would say to the most hedonistic, deaf church in the world.

The darkness continues to overtake us, ever so slowly yet simultaneously at an alarming rate, it has enveloped the western church and with a sweet song that appeals to the flesh it has piped and we are dancing. Our children live in front of television while never even realizing that there is something called the power of God in revival much less ever seeing it first hand. If you want to teach the little ones or the teenagers about revival you will have to go to the history books because we have not seen one in our lifetime. Incredibly, we are not even thirsty for one.

Is.41:17-18 - When the poor and needy seek water and there is none, and their tongue fails for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers in high places and fountains in the midst of the valleys, I will make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land springs of water.
Is.44:3 - For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thine offspring.

In 1986 I had gall bladder surgery. When they wheel you to the recovery room they watch the clock and begin to attempt to wake you up from the anesthesia. At first you can hear a distant voice calling your name, and then the voice gets a little clearer but no matter how you try and wake up you cannot. And so it is with the church today, some can hear the voice of the Spirit calling for the church to…

“Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light”.

The time is short, the situation is desperate, but are we? The devil sleeps with your children, he has vicious plans to destroy them in the future, are you desperate? Your marriage is under attack, seminars are only a band aid, are you desperate? While we sleep the Bible is being carefully and quietly slipped out from under our arms, are you desperate? There are children being molested and abused within walking distance from your home, are you desperate? Men are laying with men in your general neighborhood, are you desperate? The days are evil, they tick by and every morning we are left with one day less to serve our wonderful Lord and Savior, are you desperate for Him? The whole world lies in the Wicked One and the events scream out that the end is near, are you desperate?

The darkness is now palpable, but this dense darkness is only a prophetic sentry telling those who would listen that a divine storm of eternal destruction and judgment is rapidly approaching this very planet and in God’s eternal providence we are alive now. We are being called to an unusual ministry of reconciliation and to spread and exhibit the awesome power of the everlasting gospel and its Author.

But where is the power to awaken from this earthly slumber and not only confront the darkness but spread the incandescent Word of the Living God? Where is the revival we need to violently wrest us away from the things of this world that hold such sway in our hearts and lives? We can barely keep Christian men away from pornography and lust, how can we possibly find the power to accomplish the apostolic mandate to flood the earth with God’s glorious gospel? The prayer lives of Christians and the churches they attend are an embarrassment to the cause of Christ and an affront to His Majesty’s Name, so how will we continue to pretend we have His power? With every new strategy, new relevancy, new worldly method, and new translation designed to appeal to sinners not convict them, why have we not realized we are powerless, void of the power of the Spirit that fell upon dirty, uneducated, common, and insignificant followers who turned the world upside down two thousand years ago? And they had nothing but the fullness of God’s Spirit and the desire to preach Christ and Him crucified.

We are left with this, either Christianity is a lie or we are living one. Can you imagine a man like Christopher Hitchins debating the Apostle Paul and winning the debate? Can you imagine Wesley sitting in a round table discussion on Larry King and blending in? Can you imagine Finney coming to a church and preaching a little series about finances? If you and I were the apostles called on the Day of Pentecost, would the gospel have spread around the world? It is impossible to list and catalogue all the signs of worldliness and death so evident in the church today. We are all asleep and happy to be so. Until we allow the Spirit of God to awaken us from this slumber and fill us with divine desperation, all things will remain the same since the fathers slept.

The darkness grows…the storm is upon us.

But the tigers come at night, with their voices soft as thunder,
As they tear your hope apart , as they turn your dream to shame…