SWORD & SPIRIT WRITER

I want to talk about prayer and talk about revival. Because right now there’s a spirit of lethargy over the nation.

Now the attitude is relax and be raptured.

You see we’ll do just about anything in the world except obey God.

-Leonard Ravenhill, 1980’s

Second verse, same as the first.

That quote was written in the 80’s. Imagine decades worth of apathy from a significant number of the body of Christ, the evidence of their prayerlessness all around us as proof.

The enemy has weaponized the hope of His coming, the rapture, against the church causing relaxation and lethargy by twisting scripture out of context. One-track-minding many into not doing the Father’s business.

We can love Christ’s coming yet passionately occupy with fire until He comes!

Set the church on FIRE, Lord! FIRE for souls, FIRE for setting captives free from the oppression of the devil (sickness, demons), FIRE for intercession for the church, the lost, our children! FIRE for justice for the wicked! Let the enemy NOT rob us of even one of our eternal crowns through deception.

(See Matthew 4:1-11 below as an example of how the father of lies uses scripture – good – then twists it to turn it into a weapon of deception aiming to trap and lead astray. Of course, it didn’t work on Jesus but has on the church).

Another Leonard Ravenhill quote, 1989 Revival Forum…

Ravenhill was asked, “How do you address the people who say that we are living in a day and age where everything is getting worse and worse and worse. There is no way God’s gonna send revival.

Let’s hang on for dear life and pray for the rapture.

That you have no right to believe and storm the throne room of heaven in faith believing God is going to send revival. He tells us in the Bible things are going to get worse and worse.

He answered, “God still loves the world. It’s still His will that not any should perish.”

And as a child of God, contrary to that thinking in the question posed, we have every blood-bought right in Christ to come boldly to His throne of grace. Those in Christ are the very righteousness of God, made so by His precious blood, called to pray and use that priceless purchased authority over all the power of the enemy. Our entire walk with God, as the just, is to live by faith, to believe in His Word.

And we know the persecution of believers for His namesake/doing His will is not equal to the judgment of God which is on the wicked/unrighteous.

We ought to pray and never give up…Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth? – Luke 18:1; 8.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His MERCY towards those who fear Him – Psalm 103:11.

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith – 2 Timothy 4:7.

Yes, discerning the times and the light of the Word shined onto the current state of the world, we can see the rapture is closer than ever. Yet, in obedience to God, pray for the church to wake up and glorify the name of the Lord Jesus. To preach Christ, heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead, pray like it’s life or death for the sake of our children and for the church, up until the moment Christ catches us up.

Matthew 4:1-11, Satan Tempts Jesus

4 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. ² And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. ³ Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

⁴ But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ”

⁵ Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, ⁶ and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written:

‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’

and,

‘In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ”

⁷ Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ ”

⁸ Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. ⁹ And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”

¹⁰ Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ”

¹¹ Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.