How to Seek Revival

 Rather surprised to find myself so avidly pursuing the possibility of revival, even with some optimism for a change.   Even if the Rapture is right around the corner and the Tribulation when the Wrath of God will fall on those remaining.  Surely this is the best thing we should be doing, to bring as many as possible into the Kingdom so they won't have to endure all that. 

The pessimism I've had about revival over the years has been due to the false revivals that have come through the Charismatic Movement, and the unwelcome idea that the same thing would happen if we started having real revivals.  Most revivals get some of the strange phenomena anyway but they don't usually take over the whole revival.  Real revival is a serious deepening of the love of God and the life of God in us, of conviction of sin that leads to repentance, of the practice of holiness, and its power is for that sort of purpose, not little supernatural tricks.   But with charismatics still believing they had real revivials that sort of fleshly and demonic interference would try to piggyback on the real thing,   Toronto, Brownsville, Lakeland, all bogus revivals.  For some reason it's not bothering me as much now, maybe we can pray it down.

But the pessimism is also due to the simple fact that when strong Christians like Leonard Ravenhill and Kay Arthur have fervently sought revival it hasn't come.  That is very discouraging.   I've thought it may be because of systemic sins in the churches that are unrecognized, so this time I'm aware of how seriously we need to ask God to show us such a possibility and seek reprentance for it.   The uncritical acceptance of the Charismatic Movement is one such possible systemic sin, also the uncritical acceptance of the Roman Catholic Church as just another Christian denomination.  And the rejection of Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 11 about the need for women to cover our heads in church.  

Forewarned about all that and reforming along those lines we should be able to seek a genuine revival.   That's what I'm personally praying for anyway.

Googling for some inspiration on the subject I found a blog by a pastor in Missouri -- How to Get the Unction (Power) of the Spirit, by Geoffrey R. Kirkland at Vassal of the King blog: *- http://vassaloftheking.com/home/180007755/180007755/Images/How%20to%20get%20the%20unction%20of%20the%20Spirit.pdf 

He writes about the necessity of Holy Spirit power for preaching the gospel.  He's talking to pastors about preaching, not about revival, but the principle applies to the purpose of revival too.  

I like many of his expressions, such as "mighty weakness" as what the preacher needs, a complete dependence on God for the supernatural result of his peaching.  It's not natural ability but this dependence that is necessary for the unction that establishes  the gospel in the souls of hearers for their salvation.  Good pastors know this anyway, but what I like most about this essay is his call to fervency and even desperation, a strong increase in the normal patterns.

To answer the question how one gets this unction he gives four ways.  The first is Earnest Prayer which he describes in another inspiring phrase:  "earnest, fervent, relentless, believing, and desperate prayers."   Living holy lives is another prerequisite for the unction. 

This is also what we need for revival.   Pastors must be above reproach but if I had to have a consistently holy life in order to seek revival I'd have to give up.  Repentance is the key for me and for most of us sinners if we want God to respond to us.  It's essential.  God won't give us revival if we are holding on to unrepented sins, and we should ask Him to reveal our sins to us since we may be unaware of them.

With repentance as our foundation, and it needs to keep being renewed, then what we need is that "earnest, fervent, relentless, believing and desperate prayer" that God would rend the heavens and come down to us in great power so that our Christian lives would be strengthened and purified, and the gospel preached in power, and a huge number of souls saved.  The more we pray the better, and the more of us who are praying the better.  

And fasting also helps.  Somehow fasting opens up the spirit to hear from God and receive spiritual strength.   It doesn't have to be a complete fast, just avoiding foods we particularly like while eating the simplest most unadorned fare is very effective.

Posting this much for now but may be back to continue it.

What We Need is a Great Plea Party Movement if God is to Heal Our Land

 So tempting to make like an ostrich and tune it all out.   The big problem is the feeling of helplessness.  No matter how bad it gets, it just goes on getting worse, there are so few in politics who even speak against it let alone have a plan to do something about it.   They seem intimidated.  They've copped out.

A Christian knows, or should know, the only real answer is a supernatural return to God, but we're about as far from that as we are from a political solution.  We need revival, or reformation first and then revival, but where is the will for that?  In isolated doctrinally sound churches led by a few bold pastors the right motives are there, the true gospel is preached, but clearly that's not enough to turn back the tide of evil we are seeing.   Well, really it doesn't have to take great numbers, as the story of Gideon is there to inform us, but surely it does take the right mindset and the right motives and a deep commitment to the purposes of God.  

If preaching the gospel is our weapon but we aren't having an impact what then?   If you tell people the gospel and nothing happens, they roll their eyes and change the subject, what then?   Since our citizenship is not of this world why spend any time concerned about the world anyway?   Is that our job?  Why don't we just sit still and let it roll over us, be content with a few converts here and there, and growing under good preaching?  We're called to persecution aren't we?  The ostrich reaction gets more appealing the more hopeless the situation looks.  But the consequences of doing nothing are pretty dire, for us, for family and friends, for the nation, even for the world.

We need to know from God what we aren't doing and what we need to do, if there is anything at all we can do.  What do we need to repent of?  If the church appears to be doctrinally sound and the gospel is preached, still isn't something missing, and what is it?   If we don't know then God needs to show us.  We can preach against worldly attempts to deal with what is a supernatural and spiritual problem, but if preaching the gospel isn't accomplishing much, and the culture is continuing to grow as this gigantic dunghill, we need God to tell us how to get the supernatural power which alone affects the human spirit and changes the world.   Maybe the doctrinally sound churches are too content with the status quo to look for more from God.

So again I come back to the need for reformation and revival, a supernatural work of God by which God Himself comes to us in unusual power, sends us falling on our faces in trembling fear as His holiness becomes palpable, with a heavy sense of our own sins and failures, and an acute awareness of His sovereign right to rule in the affairs of humanity.  When He comes and breaks us like that then He also comes and draws unbelievers into His Kingdom as the gospel is preached with power.  And that is the only hope for the culture.  

Seems to me the first thing we need is a deep yearning for such a visitation from God and a deep faith that it is possible.  If we're complacent and satisfied with our level of spirituality and doctrinal correctness we just won't be seeking more from God.  But it's more we need.  A great outpouring of Himself by which we would know how inadequate we are, that's where we need Him to start to revive us.   We can preach the gospel quite correctly but with such little Holy Spirit power it can't change people.  We need that Holy Spirit power and that's why we need revival.   In other words even if we preach the truth and preach it well we can be missing the spiritual power that drives it home to other souls.

There must be sins that impede us that we need to repent of, and there is certainly too little seeking of God.  How do we get that power we need?  By humbling ourselves and praying and seeking His face and turning from our wicked ways, as the most famous biblical formula for revival tells us.  Then He will answer from Heaven and heal our land.  Revivals have come from churches, or even just a group of individuals, getting together for frequent and protracted periods of prayer.   With a yearning for revival and faith that it is possible and a sense of our own inadequacy for the things of God, and the humility to know we may not be fully meeting his requirements of us, God may give it.  

Chris Pinto Finds the Jesuits Behind it All and Closer We Get Every Day.

 Long time since I listened to Chris Pinto's Noise of Thunder Radio Show.  It got so depressing hearing about so much evil brewing behind the scenes in this world that nobody is effectively putting down I had to stop listening.  But now everything is depressing in that same way anyway.  The rioting is just going on without any effective countermeasures.  BLM is still getting away with calling itself a civil rights movement for blacks when it is nothing of the sort, it's revolution to destroy America.  

Well I listened to one of Chris Pinto's latest shows and that's what he's saying.  Nice to know I'm on the same page with him in general although as usual he's collected tons of evidence for it.  The one I just heard is The Jesuits, the BLM and the Gunpowder Plot Against America;

Here's the link to the page:

http://www.noiseofthunderradio.com/show-downloads/2020/7/23/notr-jesuits-blm-the-american-gunpowder-plot-72320.html

And here's the link to the radio show:

http://s3.media.squarespace.com/production/827989/9727427/JESUITS.GUNPOWDER.PLOT_07.23.020.mp3?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIGASFZJDTI4L3CAA&Signature=YzEEt9PoJ2rQNHJNSHwGts%2FN4I4%3D&Expires=1596781034

What Chris Pinto brings to the fore that nobody else I know does is the role of the Jesuits and the Catholic Church in general behind Marxist movements like BLM.    The Marxist Plot to Overthrow America is another recent radio show.  That much I say myself, but he tracks it to the Jesuits.  I do have some posts on the Jesuits scattered through this blog and on the Catholicism blog but Pinto is the one to go to for the whole picture.  

It's all about the neverending plot to take down Protestantism and reinstate Catholic dominance in the world such as they had before the Reformation.  

I don't think he says anyhthing specifically related to the Pre-Tribulation Rapture scenario, in fact I think he rejects that idea.  He's called himself a historicist at times.  

UPDATE:   At the end of this paragraph I post a link to this page of recent Noise of Thunder programs covers quite a long ist and I see I have some catching-up to do.  Just reading through the program descriptions I see he's particularly up on the political implications of the Coronavirus and the idea of mass vaccinations.   I had to laugh when I saw that he identifies Fauci as educated by Jesuits -- because that's what he's so good at, that very sort of connection that isn't obvious on the surface or even reported in biographies.  Them Jesuits they got their fingers in every political and social and educational treason.   He also refers to the Pope as the Antichrist, based on the Reformers' biblical understanding, which he always does (I got that view from him as I've said), and he puts it all in the prophetic perspective, but nevertheless he doesn't seem to see it quite in the Pre-Tribulation framework as I've come to see it.  He's on top of the political meaning of the rioting as a Communist takeover, and earlier in the list he has a show all about the curse of Liberalism.  

http://www.noiseofthunderradio.com/   /UPDATE

Though I'm not sure how he sees the end times shaping up, i take his information as another confirmation and contribution to my own view that it's very very close, the Rapture followed by the Day of the LORD or the Great Tribulation by which God will judge the world, and that Pope Francis is to be the final Antichrist who presides over the global political and religious empire that will rise to power in that time, though it is already in nascent form.  Francis is already acting like the ruler of the world going around telling nations what to do and making agreements with them, the Vatican is a political entity, a nation state, and the Roman Catholic Church is spread throughout the world.  With the disappearance of the true Church it wouldn't take much for him to be elevated to world Potentate and for all the RCC dreams to come true.

Hello Inquisition on Steroids. 

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Later:  Listening to the one titled "The Radical Leftist Agenda.."  Oh you poor naive liberals.  What you don't know about the political position you hold. 

Here's the one titled The Marxist Takeover of America:

http://s3.media.squarespace.com/production/827989/9727427/MARXIST.TAKEOVER.AMERICA_07.09.2020.mp3?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIGASFZJDTI4L3CAA&Signature=HeiBI3hlVZ0fiyzWuscNn7WiXGQ%3D&Expires=1596886909

Another Gospel Post

I needed to hear this.  Periodically I need to hear this kind of message.  This is John MacArthur on the true gospel, the perseverance of the saints:

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<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RZ_IfFyF_wk" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Don't know why it won't embed.  But here's the URL: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ_IfFyF_wk

Bringing it all Together for the Grand Finale of Planet Earth

Still enjoying Jay's rundown of world events in his July 20th Watchdog video I put up a couople of posts down.  My eyes are getting worse all the time and I can't read any of the information on the video screen, and he reads fast so it's sometimes hard to follow that too.  Also hard to read much I find online.   In order to read comfortably I seem to require a pretty strong contrast between the letters and the background and the right size:  if the letters are too big I can't read them any better than if they are too small, hard to explain, and I guess I'm sayhing all this as a sort of excuse, but that's why I'm particularly happy that Jay is covering the specifics involving the Pope.  That's all information that supports my arguments but I can't collect myself.  I did do a little research yesterday and found a Wikipedia account of the negotiations between the "Holy See" and Israel which looks interesting but it's not much about Francis, more a historical rundown.   And my own posts are getting hard to read.  If I make a typo even when I reread what I wrote I may miss it.  I can more or less get things typed, but rereading is becomming difficult.

I can't reread my last post for instance but I think I may have got something wrong about the Vatican's role in the peace plans for Israel.  Their plan in 1999 gave them custodianship of the part of Jerusalem with the Temple Mount, and that will probably be a part of any future plan but I don't think it's on the table at the moment.  Sorry, I just can't do more with this right now.

A little over an hour into the video Jay mentions ongoing Muslim persecutions and says it seems to him we're seeing "an awawkening of evil" in the world.  Nice phrase, seems to me to be the case too.  Certainly true here in the US.

I get the impression that Jay may be approaching the same view of things as my own but from a different angle.  I'm focusing on biblical prophecy and he's focusing on world events.  Or something like that.   I'm following the Reformers' view of the papacy which leads me to the idea of Francis' likely role as the final Antichrist, while Jay is following Francis around the globe and coming to a similar conclusion.  

He's also tracking the WCC's efforts toward a one-world religion through the UN and the aim of consolidating global power in a ew hands, and all these things are shared by the WCC, the Vatican and the UN..  

Interesting:  around 1:12: 00 he mentions  encountering internet censorship of some of his information he wants to send to a friend.  Facebook says he can't.  Nothing terribly controversial or so it seems to me:  just the fact that the WCC has a publication at the UN called "Voices of Faith" -- 

I already knew we were close but all this brings it closer still.  

I can't report on the whole video so I hope others will listen to it.  At least watch his finale from about 1:22:30.where he sums up the material he's covered in this video.   He's answering people who would say all this could only be believed by a tin foil hat wearer or a conspiracy theorist, and very amusingly says "to be fair I happen to be both" but his point is that he's based it all on actual reported facts.  And he has.  He sees this global religious and political behemoth coming together under the Pope and says we need to know about it.  We do.  

Watch.  Pray.  Stand.  

I'm beginning to think Francis' moves might tell us when the Rapture is about to happen

Continuing to listen to my great-nephew's podcast about the Pope and the World Council of Churches and happy am i to find him so consistently on the side of the angels.  My Millennial great-nephew, son of my Gen X nephew (who, by the way, is the one who almost thirty years ago first told me about the meaning of the "666" I've presented here many times), and grandson of my Boomer brother.   Fun stuff to find a family member whose study of world events helps me with my own view of what's happening and how it's all leading up to the Grand Finale.  A happy discovery but of course I hasten to say that the actual outcome of all these things is not going to be happy at all for those who have to go through it, it's just happy in the sense that it's thrilling to see prophecy fall into place and especially when it comes by unexpected connections such as this one.  .

I just got to the part of Jay's talk that's about Israel and how the WCC wants the EU to put sanctions on them for continuing to claim the land that is theirs.  (By the way, a few minutes later, about 49:40 he apparently misspoke, saying the WCC and the Vatican came out "against" sanctions, which was confusing.)_+_ Well, it's all in keeping with biblical prophecy but it's sad.  God will rescue Israel in the end but meanwhile one cringes at the thought of what they are going to have to go through, known as "the time of Jacob's trouble" or the Great Tribulation or The Day of the LORD, the seven-year period of Hell on Earth that's coming soon.     

Jay has shown that the WCC and the Vatican, and the UN as well, are linked in their global aspirations, the "unholy trinity" as he called them.   I have to see all this as confirming my own feeling that it's all so very close you can almost feel the breath of the Beast on the back of your neck.   And it gives strength to the view that the Roman Church is in fact the revived Roman Empire and the seat of the World Religion, sitting on the seven hills of Rome.  Francis is already acting as if he's king of the world, as the Popes do tend to do anyway, making speeches about peace, agreeing with the UN ceasefire resolution, making agreemens such as with China that put the Vatican over other religions (those who will take the Mark of the Beast in the end.  And the Mark of the Beast may be something that ties a person to the Roman Church.)  Then he's quoting the Bible as if he's on the right side when the reality is the opposite.   

So Francis is already doing what the first horseman of the Apocalypse is to do when Jesus removes the first seal of what John MacArthur calls "the Title Deed to the Earth."  All this begins in Revelation 6.  The first horseman rides a white horse carrying a bow without arrows, and is said to go out to conquer.    This would be the kind of conquest, perhaps, that Francis accomplished by making an agreement with China to give the RCC dominance over the other religions there.   And of coruse it would also be the kind of conquest that makes a covenant with Israel.  Jay goes on to talk about the power that would be gained by anyone who could bring peace to that region.  At about 44 on the video counter he first mentions the eschatalogical context of all of this, saying what power anyone would have who could bring about, say, the itnernationalization of jerusalem, the partitioning of the land, and the building of the third temple, which has been in the works behind the scenes for decades by now.  perhaps some or all of this would be in the covenant the Antichrist is to make with Israel, which will mark the official beginning of the Great Tribulation with the opening of the first seal.

What is going on between Francis and the WCC and the UN is all in line with biblical prophecy and especially the role of the Pope and the RCC that I've been arguing here.   The WCC's designs against Israel just pulls it all together.  

The WCC is a group of apostate Protestant Churches, mostly "liberal" and focused on this world more than the next, so that it makes sense for them to align with the RCC whose pagan doctrines the Reformers identified as the Great Apostasy itself.  The RC Church/ neo Roman Empire is both "iron and clay" one could say, in keeping with the description of the Roman Empire as represented by the feet of Nebuchadnezzar's statue in the Book of Daniel, because it also has members who are genuine followers of Jesus Christ -- the "clay" -- while the institution itself is not Christian but pagan and  political and in some important sense taking the place of the Roman Empire since 606 AD.  Various Roman Catholic kings of Europe called themselves "Caesar"  -- "Kaiser," "Czar" and Hitler put himself in charge of the third Roman Empire or the Third Reich.  This suggests it could be a political leader alone who would be the Antichrist.  BUT it must be remembered that the Vatican is also a sovereign political state so the Pope is both a political and religious leader in any case.  

Folloing on after 44 on the counter Jay gets into a Vatican document that shows just how involved the RCC already is in the peace negotiations with Israel.  There are similarities with former peace plans including the itnernationalization of part of Jerusalem, the part where the temple used to sit and where now the Muslim Dome of the Rock sits, and the peace proposition beting discussed would put that part of the city under the control of the Vatican.  Hm.    Rebuilt temple, abomination of desolation as the Antichrist presents himself in the place of God.   (The Reformers saw the claim to be vicar of Christ and the claim that makes the Pope "the head of the Church" as already usurping the seat of God in the temple, which the New Testament defines as the people of God, but there could still be a second fulfillment in a literal seating in a literal temple.  If so the Vatican is apparently setting the stage for such an event.   Be that as it may, it is certainly setting the stage for the making of a covenant of peace with Israel.   

Anyway...  When it looks like things are turning toward the actual signing of such an agreement between the Pope and Israel, maybe we can take that as our cue  to "look up for your redemption draws near."

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By the way, some draw a rather sharp distinction between the Rapture and the Second Coming, saying that the signs given in, say, the olivet discource of Matthew 24, are meant for the Second Coming and that there won't be any signs for the Rapture.  However, the seven years timing between the events does in some sense tie them together as a unit it seems to me.  Once the Rapture occurs the countdown to Jesus return begins with the Antichrist's coveant with Israel.  It makes sense to me that we are right now seeing many of the signs already in the world, the pestilence in the form of the COVID virus, wars and rumors of wars, the abounding of inquity or lawlessness, and now even the Pope's going around making agreements to consolidate the power of the RCC.  Although for believers the Rapture divides time into normal time and Tribulation time, those who go through the Tribulation will probably not notice any major changes.for a while.  For one thing it is to start with a false peace brought about my the rider of the first horse.  Otherwise, what is already going on will resume and then intensify with the opening of the seals and by the sixth seal they're going to know the Wrath of God has come.  But again, otherwise there's probably not going to be a dramatic change between pre-Rapture events and those that follow.  So if we are already seeing signs, they pertain to the Rapture as well as to the Second Coming, though they'll no doubt be a lot sharper toward the end of the Great Tribulation.  Just my, hopefully sanctified and biblically consistent, opinion.

The Pope and the WCC Coming Together

I'd sort of known one of my great-nephews was doing some videos at You Tube on Christian subjects, but I'm not in touch with him and don't really know much about his point of view.  My brother sent me a link to this one and the first few minutes of it are right in line with some of my own recent blogs so I thought I'd post it here.

Maybe I'll get to talk to him about these things eventually and see how far we may agree or disagree.  It looks like he's into doing a lot of research which is good since I'm not up to doing much research  myself with my bad eyes, and in this case he's discovered that the apostate World Council of Churches and Pope Francis are teaming up in interesting ways. 

The RCC alone could be the basis for the final One World Religion but it's got to be able to pull in all the other religions for the Grand Finale of the Tribulation period.  The Popes have been working on this for years, making all kinds of concessions to all the world's religions.  Pulling in apostate Protestantism must bring them close to filling up their collection.

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Added Later:  Oh I'm really enjoying this as I keep listening.  C Jay notes that the UN Secretary General is a Jesuit, as is Pope Francis, and that tghey seem to be operating in synch for peace among nations, which is exactly what the first horse of the Apocalypse represents, peace on earth, of course the peace that isn't a real peace.  And Jay goes on to identify the Jesuits as the "CounterReformation Arm of the RCC" which they are. 

 The Jesuits have been notorious for their efforts to undermine and topple Protestant nations over the centuries since the Reformation and if you look deeply enough you can often find them at the very root of many political uprisings.  It was a Jesuit who invented the term "Social Justice" for instance,  one Luigi Tapparelli.  I wouldn't be at all surprised to find them firmly ensconsed at the base of all the Marxist destruction we are seeing in America right now, but just getting across that it IS Marxist has been a big enough project for the moment.    It turns out there has been Jesuit influence behind many historic bad guys such as Marx himself, and Stalin and others.  Chris Pinto has looked into this and I should check out his recent messages.   I don't know if my greatnephie puts any of this in the context of the Last Days scenario I've been pursuing but maybe that can be my contribution to his thinking.   

Back to his very interesting video.

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Still later:  Great stuff Jay.  You've done your homework.  You're doing a great job of showing how the Vatican is already working hard to put together the One World Religion that must be in place during the period of the Great Tribulation, which you may not be studying yet so I'll just point that out to you.  I think it is very close.  The Rapture comes first and then the Tribulation over which the Antichrist reigns both politically and spiritually.  Which history shows they already did in the Middle Ages, which the Reformation took away from them.  They've been waiting all this time to reinstate the power they had then, only now over the entire world, not just Europe.   Separation of church and state by the way is a uniquely American concept which was a reaction to exactly what the RCC did in Europe.

Fascinating to hear that Francis has an agreement with China that gives the RCC power over all the other religions.  So very jesuitical of him, or maybe just papal.  According to the current understanding of end times biblical prophecy which I've come to accept, the first act of the false Messiah/ Antichrist will be to make a covenant with Israel for seven years, terms unspecified in scripture.  This comes from the Book of Daniel which is foundational to much that is to unfold during the Tribulation which is spelled out in Revelation 6 to 18.  Some may think the idea pretty far-fetched that Francis could be the final Antichrist, but the more I know the more sure I am of it, and your information gives a lot of support to the idea.

I'd quibble with your remark about Trump but I'll keep it brief:  I don't like his schmoozing with the dictators either, especially since he was schmoozing the Chinese when he should have been defending Hong Kong against them.  But I give him the benefit of the doubt that he thinks you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar as it were, and he thinks it better to treat people as friends for the purpose of getting their cooperation.    You could argue whether that is a good strategy or whether it is working, but don't suspect him of  bad motives.  Trump is a businessman and a sort of chess player.   He might lose the game, but it may not be quite the same game you seem to think he's playing.