Monday Sermon for LJUSC as of Sept 10, 2012
"THE GREATEST REVIVAL IN THE LAST DAYS BEFORE THE RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH” – Joel 2:28-32 & Acts 2:17-21
Dear Precious Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
We all know that there are reports coming in from around the world that indicate that there is revival breaking out everywhere – even in Muslim countries where it is against the law to be a Christian. It is an exciting time to be a Christian even though in America, Christianity seems to be on the downhill slide. It may look good on the surface but the truth is that the churches that are growing in America seem to be churches that demand nothing from its adherents. If you trust Christ you can go on living how you want.
There are no demands, no holiness, and no sanctification and there is definitely no power. Plus, it seems that those churches are not reaching the lost souls they are simply attracting previously churched people who were looking for an easy gospel.
But I believe that it is not too late for revival in America and the rest of the world. I believe that the greatest end times revival may be right here at our doorstep. In this revival I believe that God is going to draw a line in the sand so that people will have to make a decision, either for Him or against Him – no more fence riding. And I believe that revival will come shortly before the Rapture of the Church according to the Bible Prophecy.
In our passage today I want to show you three things that are going to be a part of the Greatest Revival in the Last Days that it is already starting all over the world until the climax of the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit as stated in Joel 2:28-32.
FIRST – There will be a call to total repentance – not by me or any other preacher – but by the Holy Spirit.
SECOND – There will be intensified great spiritual warfare in the heavenlies. The enemy’s strongholds are coming down.
THIRD – There will be great manifestations of God’s Glory and Holy Spirit’s Fire will be displayed everywhere all over the world as the signs of the Greatest Outpouring of the Holy Spirit falling down from the Throne of God.
Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.(James 5:7)
"Where is the promise of His coming?" cries the scoffer of 2 Peter. "Be patient," says James, "the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." But it may be some time yet, he warns. You will need the patience of an Israeli farmer, waiting for both the early and latter rains before he can harvest the fruit of the earth
God is the Israeli farmer of James 5:7, just as He is the farmer, or husbandman, of so many other parables in the Bible. He has done a stint as the sower gone forth to sow, and now He is waiting for the harvest. Don't worry, He will not turn His attention elsewhere until the full harvest is in. He will surely come back to His field.
Are you now ready for the Revival to end all revivals?
I. A GLOBAL CALL TO REPENTANCE
In His great and jealous love for His people, the Lord our God has prepared a season for each of us to look deeply into our hearts and willingly remove those things that will not cohabit with His Holiness. A time to repent deeply -- to remember and consider that in our flesh dwells no good thing -- and our lives on this earth are in every way temporary and fleeting.
His warning then as now: "But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall come about that those whom you let remain of them will become as pricks in your eyes and as thorns in your sides." (Numbers 33:55) What a clear description of traps hiding in our souls!
Many will say that this prophecy is specifically written for the time when the Jews would return from captivity in Babylon and that it has no real meaning for the church. Let me tell you something – the church is in the midst of the “Babylonian spirit” right now. The world system of economic greed and power struggle is as much Babylon as the ancient city itself. And that is what the Lord is calling the church away from.
1But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—5having a form of godliness but denying its power… (2 Timothy 3:1-5). But today God is calling the church back to Himself. “Return to Me” He is saying to each of us. And don’t let it be some unauthentic kind of repentance marked by “all show” and no “go”! In other words you can go to the altar as many times as you want, but if your heart is not turned toward God it doesn’t count. See how far from God you have drifted and it has happened so gradually that you don’t even realize it. Turn back to the One who saved you!
When you do you’ll see a different side of when you repent and get back into God’s good graces He will once again be inclined to pour out blessing on you. Now the purpose of the blessing is seen. What God blesses you with He waits to see if you will give it back to Him. A grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God?
The condition of your heart is always revealed by your relationship with things – money, possessions, and treasures. All God asks is for you to give some of it back to Him. He doesn’t even ask for all even thought it is all His. He just wants ten percent and He doesn’t need any of it. He just wants to see a pure heart develop in you. Once the church turns back to the Lord it is time to celebrate.
II. THE EXTREME INTENSITY OF GREAT WARFARE BETWEEN THE KINGDOM OF GOD AGAINST THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS
I believe we are in the time period immediately before the Great Tribulation Period. The Church and the individual Christian is not to be passive and fatalistic, but “to occupy until I come.” Among activities such as faithful Bible teaching and evangelism, we are to occupy through prayer. There are endless commandments and exhortations throughout scripture to pray always!
Dr. Francis Schaeffer, the greatest Evangelical Theologian in the last 100 years, understood the Biblical mandate for spiritual warfare.
Unfortunately, the majority of the Church today does not understand their call to spiritual warfare and the results of that failure are everywhere. We are one crisis away from global economic collapse, world government and technological terrorism that is so pervasive that there will be nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.
“Do we really believe that we are engaged in this cosmic battle? Do we really believe that there are "powers of this dark world" which rule our age? Or as the Apostle John says, do we really believe that "the whole world is under the control of the evil one" (1 John 5:19)? If we do not believe these things (and we must say that much of the evangelical world acts as if it does not believe these things), we certainly cannot expect to have much success in fighting the battle. Why has the Christian ethos in our culture been squandered?
Why do we have so little impact upon the world today? Is it not because we have failed to take the primary battle seriously?” Schaeffer was an intellectual and a fundamentalist. It is one of the greatest tragedies of our time that his work is not mandatory reading in Christian High Schools, Christian Universities and among pastors.
There are two primary mistakes the Christian Church makes today regarding Spiritual Warfare.
First, if they engage in it, they often go way beyond what the Bible teaches and enter a kind of extra Biblical fantasy land prayer that is powerless.
Second, there are many believers who in over reacting to the obvious excesses of much of what is done in the name of spiritual warfare, disobey the Lord by not entering spiritual warfare as He commanded the Bible and render the Church powerless!
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:12)
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes”.
Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints”. (Ephesians 6:10,11, 13-18)
There is no way to miss the fact that God is calling us to become spiritual warriors adept at using spiritual weapons, in spiritual warfare. Bible prophecy teaches us very clearly that the Church is here for a reason, before the Return of Christ and that the Holy Spirit or Restrainer lives in the Church.
III. THE GREATEST OUTPOURING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE LAST DAYS
Real quickly let’s look at how God is going to do all these things to fulfill the Bible Prophecy in Joel 2:28-32 and Acts 2:17-21 :
1. SUPERNATURAL POWER AMONG THE PEOPLE OF GOD
“And it shall come to pass afterward
That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your old men shall dream dreams,
Your young men shall see visions.
29 And also on My menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days”.
This is the same outpouring that Peter recognized as coming on the day of Pentecost. Acts 2: 4 “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance”. God’s intention for the outpouring was for His power to be manifested in His people.
2. SUPERNATURAL SIGNS IN GOD’S CREATION
“30 And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth:
Blood and fire and pillars of smoke.
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD”(Joel 2:30-31)
3.SUPRNATURAL TRANSFORMATION OF PEOPLE’S LIVES
“32 And it shall come to pass
That whoever calls on the name of the LORD
Shall be saved.
For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance,
As the LORD has said,
Among the remnant whom the LORD calls”.(Joel 2:32)
Repentance, Spiritual Warfare, and a Supernatural Outpouring of God’s Spirit. I believe revival has come.
1. A Global Call to Repentance.
2. A Global Call to Spiritual Battle – Be filled with His fullness.
3. A Global Call to receive the Outpouring of The Holy Spirit’s
Fire.
Dear Precious Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
As I close this message, let me give the conclusion for the key to understanding many of the mysteries of the end-times is the greatest harvest of souls all over the world to fulfill the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20 and Mark 16:16-18. Jesus will not return until the harvest is completely in. He declared in Matthew 24:14 that the Gospel must be preached in all the world before the end can come. Peter tells us that the Lord, who is willing that none should perish, is only tarrying until more people be brought to salvation in Christ Jesus, (2 Peter 3:9,15). Jesus will not come again, the Heavenly Husbandman will not call for the reapers, until the crop is fully ripe and ready. He is not willing to miss even one ear of corn by beginning the harvest even a few days early.
But James is telling us even more than this. He is prophesying of the Greatest Revival which is to come upon the earth in the last days. This, to me, is the most exciting aspect of end-time prophecy. Let others wail and whine about the Antichrist, and the ominous growth of the occult, and even its entrance into the ranks of the believers. So what's new? The professing church has always been full of the doctrines of devils. Apostasy, Nicolaitanism, Jezebelism, Laodiceanism, have all been around since the First Century. The church, except for the remnant involved in the :atest Revival, has always been in the process of backsliding. I'm looking forward to this tremendous revival!
JOEL’S PROPHECY
James says it's going to be exciting. He reminds us of Joel's prophecy of the early and latter rain. You see, the rainy cycle of Israel is a prophetic type of the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the Harvest of Souls associated with true revivals. In late October, the early rain comes. It is called "yoreh," or "the pourer." It gives the young seedlings their first spurt of growth to really start them on the way to maturity. The rainy season follows, a time of relatively steady, but not heavy rains. Finally, in late March or April, the latter rain comes. The Hebrews called it "malqoesh" or the "harvest rain." It was much heavier than the early rain, and compared to the rainy season, it was a veritable deluge. The crops grew by leaps and bounds during this time, and the harvest immediately followed.
Prophetically speaking, the early rain corresponds to Pentecost and the First Century Church. The Apostle Peter stood up in Acts chapter two and declared that "this is that" which was spoken of in Joel chapter two, the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all flesh, the throwing wide of Heaven's gates, and the invitation for all humankind to call upon the name of the Lord, be saved, and partake of the powers of the world to come soon.
Now look a little closer at Joel chapter two. Verse twenty-three says, "Be glad then... rejoice in the Lord your God; for He hath given you the former rain moderately, and He will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month." He has promised both the former rain and the latter rain to us. In order to understand the prophetic implication of these spiritual downpours, let's compare the history of the church since Pentecost with Israel's rainy cycle.
THE INTERPRETATION EXPLAINED
Pentecost was the early rain, the "pourer," at the beginning of the last age of the world, the church age. The rainy season followed, the church grew and spread, revivals (showers) came now and again, but they were nothing like the original Outpouring of Pentecost. At times, pests multiplied (the palmerworms, locusts, cankerworms, etc. mentioned in Joel chapter one) and the crop languished, dried up, and nearly perished. But in more recent times God has been restoring the years that the devourers have eaten (Joel 2:25), by gradually returning us to a more biblical understanding of the church and its role.
What's next on the calendar? The latter rain, Hallelujah! What's it going to be like? Joel says it's going to make Pentecost and the Book of Acts look "moderate," or tame, by comparison! And compared to the Revivals of Church history... well, there just is no comparison between the light showers of the rainy season and the tremendous downpour of the harvest rain. The Wesleyan Revival, the Great Awakening, the ministry of Charles Finney, will seem as nothing compared to the scope and magnitude of the Latter Rain Revival. We have yet to see the Greatest Outpouring of the Holy Spirit the world has ever experienced.
Joel goes on to say, "and the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil," (verse 24). Can there be any mistake as to the interpretation? The wheat is the church, souls saved, as in the parables of the sower; the wine and oil represent the joy and healing of the Holy Spirit, as they always do in scripture.
Is it any wonder why I'm not upset about the devil's doings in the last days? I'm too excited about God's doings! Oh, I know that the enemy has unleashed his deceiving spirits as never before; I'm not blinding myself to the facts with some kind of silly positivism. Joel mentions the cankerworm and the palmerworm, too, but their effect will be greatly overshadowed by the powerful effects of the latter rain. And those sincere believers who were momentarily lured away by the enemy's counterfeits, may very well be drawn back into the fold by the Great Shepherd in that day when He puts forth His final, mighty effort to draw this erring world to Himself. The floors will be full of wheat, and the oil and wine shall flow freely in that day!
THE TESTOMONIES OF OTHER BIBLICAL WRITERS AND APOSTLES AND PROPHETS
Is this mentioned elsewhere in the Bible? Of course. It is a recurring theme in Isaiah. Read chapters forty-nine and sixty, especially. Just when things are looking their bleakest and when it seems the church has labored in vain just when the darkness is deepest upon the face of the earth then the Glory of the Lord will arise upon His remnant. The nations shall come by the droves to be saved, multitudes shall flock to the light of Jesus Christ. The saints of God will fear and tremble as they see the magnitude of it. Even those long familiar with Him never expected anything like this as a fresh sense of awe shall grip their hearts.
Daniel saw it, too. In the last days, when the very abomination of desolation is on the scene, he spoke of the people that know their God performing great exploits, (Dan. 11:32). The Latter Rain Revival is the major theme of Habakkuk. "Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously; for I will work a work in your days which you will not believe, though it be told you," "though it tarry, wait for it... for the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea," (Hab 1:5, 2:3,14).
Zechariah chapter four and Revelation chapter ten speak of the two anointed ones that turn the world upside-down in the end-times. They are two literal men, and perhaps symbolic men, too, representing the twofold composition of God's army in those days, Jew and Gentile. The theme and rallying cry of this people is, "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts!"
Then there is Matthew 24, which we've already referenced--the Lord's discourse to His disciples on the subject of the last days. False prophets and teachers will arise, He says, and persecutions will take place, iniquity will abound, and Christians will be hated of all nations, but, nevertheless, "this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come," (Matt 24:14).
This Gospel shall be preached! Every nation, every tongue, and every tribe will have opportunity to hear the Good News before the end comes, before Jesus returns to this earth. No longer will there be a vast multitude of some two or more billion who have not heard, as is the case today. They shall hear, and they shall respond as well, and that multitude shall soon be found standing before the Throne of God, clothed in white robes as they lift up their voices in praise.
After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.(Revelation 7:9))
In addition to this, we may also hear the true testimonies proclaimed by other Great Apostles and Prophets like Smith Swigglesworth, Tommy Hicks, Swimmy Swaggart, Morris Cerullo, Benny Hinn, Dr.David Ouwor that there will be a Greatest Outpouring of the Holy Spirit will be manifested in the Last Days before the Rapture will take place.
Dear Precious Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
At last, I believe the latter rain or the beginning of the Greatest of the Holy Spirit around the world has already begun on this earth. In the last decade we have seen a greater influx of new people into the Kingdom of God than ever before. The Holy Spirit has been poured out in different places worldwide that once seemed totally impossible, from staid, old denominations that have resisted Him for centuries to darkest Africa, from tribal areas to the slums of the world's darkest cities. The harvest rain has started to fall. God is beginning to equip and send out a mighty army of laborers to go into the fields in this hour.
Even as the many missionary doors of the world seem to be closing, the Lord is opening a few of His own--doors that no man can shut. A fire has been kindled, and is even now spreading across the fields of the world. Every nation will be shaken to its very roots, no matter how successfully it has resisted in times past. Godless governments will fuss and fume, instituting persecutions of various kinds, but they will be unable to stop the Greatest Movement of the Holy Spirit. You may as well try to stop the fury of a hurricane, as lift up your hand against the Latter Rain.
Hallelujah! This is what the apostles and prophets and revivalists of the past have been looking forward to since the days of the Old Testament! And it's upon us today! Let's make sure we are completely involved in this movement, that we don't miss a thing. Let's get out there and get good and wet in the Latter Rain Revival!
I want to challenge all of you to read this message carefully to determine and to believe after all that we are now living in the beginning of the Greatest Outpouring of the Holy Spirit following the Rapture of the Church as the fulfillment of the Bible Prophecy as stated by the Prophet Joel in Joel 2:28-32. We all need to be filled with the Word of God. We all need to be protected by the Holy Spirit’s Fire in the Battle of Spiritual Warfare. We all need to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. We all need to win the lost souls into the Kingdom of God to accomplish the Great Commission in the Greatest Harvest of Souls while we all witness the Last Outpouring of the Holy Spirit prior to the soon coming of the Rapture of the Church.
To God Be All The Glory And Honor, A m e n .
Daniel Pasaribu
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