I write this with some fear and trepidation. Whom am I to even venture out to say, ‘What is God Doing?” However, it is critical that the Church restores its prophetic voice, especially as the Day of the Lord draws near. For some this is uncomfortable language, but it shouldn’t be because God at Pentecost fulfilled His desire that all His children would prophesy to some extent. Amos 3:7 states, “For the Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.” And Jesus commands us to be watchful (Matt. 24) and to tune in our ears to the Spirit. Revelation 2:7 states, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” 

So, with much prayer and listening I offer this to you – what I see God doing now. 

Birth Pains Are Increasing

All throughout the N.T. the idea of birth pains is used to illustrate the increase in signs that the end is near. Just like a mother’s pains increase the closer she is in giving birth, so will be the case with increased signs and events as the time draws closer. I believe we have entered deeper into the “prophetic funnel” where we are going to see more happen at a quicker pace. 

Even secular futurists are seeing a quickening of time and events. 

“For thousands of years, culture reinvented itself around the rate of each new generation, which is roughly every 20 to 30 years. People now experience the same quantity of significant generational events, that used to occur over a period of 30 years, every eighteen months.”

Re-establsihing Offline Church

Online Church is an oxymoron. Online services are a good supplement to the gathered Church but can never be a substitute. Contrary to what some people have been saying online, God absolutely commands His people to gather together. It is the only context the O.T. and N.T. give for Christian fellowship. I believe God is restoring biblical understanding of what Church is and that Church by biblical definition is the physically gathered Body of believers as family. Christian faith cannot be sustained nor matured without the physical gathering of the Church. Hebrews 10:24-25 makes this clear and that the following verses reveal that apostasy results from not obeying this command to gather. 

I would also issue a warning, especially in times like these. Watch out for online prophets that are not grounded in a local church where there is accountability. This gift needs to be refined within the local church before it should go trans-local. We all should be hearing from God primarily through our local Church not online! 

The Church is Not Ready

Simply put, the Church in America’s response over the last several months has revealed we are not ready to enter and stand with faith in the end times. 1 Peter 4:17, makes clear that judgment will begin with the house of God. The Church in America is far from united and far from understanding the importance of gathering and being the Church rather than casually attending and being spiritual consumers. The sad reality is that most American Christians never really missed “breaking bread” together during the shutdown – what does this say about Jesus’ Body? 

It has been interesting to see Churches take sides over the application of Romans 13. Let me say what I think  everyone agrees with – of course – we are to support reasonable rules for curbing the pandemic.  But, the situation is much more complex now that we are 7 months into this with no end in sight. 

“Too many pastors hide behind a contorted reading of Romans 13 to give their capitulation the veneer of scriptural respectability. Such a rejection of facts, history, and theology is gross. As a free people living in a republic, Americans do not kneel before a human king – we are the sovereigns. Laws are not imposed on us; we determine the laws – and we have the absolute right to protest laws with which we disagree. Our nation was founded not on the divine right of benevolent rulers, but on citizens’ right to rule themselves.” – The Texas Record

“No government authority has a right to say that the church isn’t essential…No government authority has the right to tell us how we are to order our worship services and no government has the authority to say that Christian churches or other religious gatherings can be uniquely discriminated against.” -Albert Mohler Jr. President Southern Baptist Seminary 

No Longer Restraining Lawlessness

The spirit of lawlessness has been unleashed in our country. Not for the first time, but at a larger scale and it is even being condoned by some. 

“For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction…And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way.” (2 Thessalonians 2:3, 6-7)

The spirit of lawlessness is a mystery and we know it is demonic in nature because of how our society is responding to it in disbelief or in trying to justify it. The spirit of lawlessness is being unleashed, it is being defined as mob justice, and those two words do not go together. So has the Restrainer been pulled back? We need to watch and see. 

Communion Back at the Center 

I believe God is serious about His people simply gathering about a table for fellowship and breaking bread together. This is the essence of Church. We see in Acts that the early Church both gathered as a larger body in Solomon’s portico and then broke up into homes to break bread together, pray, worship, teach the Word and minister to each other through the spiritual gifts. 

Much of the Church in America has watered down biblical community to more of an affinity group circled up around personal “felt needs” rather than Christ at the center. Affinity groups, felt need groups, etc. will never build a faith and unity strong enough to stand strong in the end times. People’s hearts are longing for deep community and I believe God is restoring this. 

God “is” Judging America

Yikes – that’s a big statement. Christian culture in American has so watered down the seriousness of sin and the reality of judgment that we can’t see clearly. If we don’t take sin seriously we cannot embrace grace seriously.   -2 Chronicles 7:14 has been one of the main passages used to call God’s people back to Him and to prayer for our nation. However, rarely if ever is the context and previous verse quoted. 

“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:13-14) 

Throughout history God has been extremely patient, but with Israel and with all nations there comes a time where He brings judgment, a wake up call as such. And some will say, “if God were a loving God why would He let COVID happen?” It is because He is a loving God that He lets COVID and much worse happen so as to wake people up to their sin and need for a Savior! 

Exposing the Deficit in Biblical Worldview

The Church needs a shift from being consumed with American renewal to Kingdom perspective, shedding politics as the lens for Christianity. We need to learn how we can have both affluence without attachment and influence without attachment when it comes to politics. 

“Although 61% of American Millennials consider themselves to be Christian, just 2% of them were found to hold a biblical worldview, according to a recent study released by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University” – CP 

Restoring the Primacy of Growing Small

Jesus never was concerned about building a crowd. He “always” preached the crowd down. He was about calling people out of the crowd and into the core or discipleship. For a church to grow large it must put a priority of growing small first. The health index for a church is how strong it is when it is broken into smaller pieces. We need both large church and small church, but in the midst of pandemics and persecutions sometimes large church is not possible. 

Restoring Intentional Transformational Multiplying Discipleship

Jesus left His followers a commission and it was to make disciples, immerse them into the intimacy of the Trinity and to teach them “all” that He taught His disciples. Discipleship desperately needs restoring to the center of the Church’s culture today.