I can tend to go a little old school with my CCM selection. It\’s kind of funny to think that what we called contemporary Christian music when we created the genre is now considered old school. But when you are flying from Phoenix to Chicago—having spent the weekend witnessing Christian leaders trying to determine what America\’s next great awakening will look and sound like, and whether or not we have entered into it as a result of the hope-filled Awaken 2020 concert in ASU\’s Sun Devil Stadium—it feels good to plug in the earbuds and turn up the volume to 10 on Matt Redman.
Matt is right, \”Better is one day in your courts, better is one day in your house, better is one day in your courts than thousands elsewhere.\” As the plane hits 30,000 feet and we have come through the ascension phase, a sense of absolute peace and rest sets in. The baby one row back has dozed off. My wife Jess, sitting next to me, has done the same. I\’m pretty sure that my dad, tucked into his seat rows ahead of us, has just ordered his Diet Coke and re-opened his Bible. Security and the confident hope that we will reach Chicago on time has brought us into grace.
As Matt finishes up his set, I\’m randomly sent into Amanda Cook\’s music and a new school reminder of God\’s presence moving in and through us, \”What a mystery that You notice me, and in a crowd of ten thousand You don\’t miss a thing.\” Let\’s place ourselves into the middle of that sweet truth for a moment, and thank Amanda for using her life to bring us to it.
At one point during the Awaken 2020 event, I heard Kanye West tell about 10,000 people to give their lives to Jesus and live for Him. No matter how you cut it, that\’s a good thing. As he shared his testimony, God did not miss one thing. When Kanye West and the Sunday Service Choir closed out their allotted slot in the Awaken 2020 schedule, I witnessed this truth in action. I\’d been invited to be part of the event\’s \”ministry team\” placed strategically up front to pray with people. When Kanye was finishing, an older man with a cane laid back into my arms and wept uncontrollably while a young girl held his hands and told him that Jesus loves him. He said that it was impossible for God to love him because of all the bad things he had done. He cried in my arms until snot dripped from his face, and he received grace and a real manifestation of tangible love. God did not miss a thing!
Government changing revival has been my prayer for America. Call it an awakening, call it revival, call it the call, the send, the promise, call it whatever you want to. Just stand WITH IT as it comes, and position yourselves to find and embrace the ones that God is changing, like this older man. God is changing America right now and pouring out His spirit on this nation. He is doing what He said He would do!
But this is not the only nation experiencing unprecedented change. In fact, if you would like to know of one significant calendar date that may be more important than the 1,000 others before it or after it, then please put a circle around January 31st, 2020. On this day, the United Kingdom will leave the European Union. The global economic, political, and judicial effects of this governmental change will restructure the world. Just ask Israel, India, Hong Kong (who, by the way, are also experiencing unprecedented government change today as well) about the effects of UK transition on their livelihoods.
At SEAPC, we have now spent approximately 1,000 days as a registered charitable organization within the United Kingdom. We have sent many to walk and pray the land, we have enjoyed strategic partnerships placing praying friends in the old George Müller, Rees Howells and Smith Wigglesworth wells of prayer and revival. We have addressed parliamentary review on global Christian Persecution inside of Westminster Abbey, held a healing prayer meeting within Westminster Chapel, and submitted into a local movement of prayer for revival across the UK.
When I walked around David Livingstone\’s tomb inside the Abbey, then climbed the towering steps to meet with the review board on Christian persecution, I trembled. I was remembering my mother reading Hudson Taylor\’s biography to my brother and me while we traveled with her as children to smuggle Bibles into China. Now I was informing the parliament that they should take care of my friends living under persecution in China today. This was quite a humbling and stirring moment for me. It was understandably humbling as my spirit responded to the great cloud of witnesses filling the temple but stirring as well to embrace their cry for God\’s word to move the people yet again.
God\’s WORDS are eternal and are created gifts for each generation to receive and apply within His will for their allotted days. His words given to the UK were very clear, and when followed, brought forth the greatest earthly glory that this world has ever known. \”May the Kingdoms of this earth become the Kingdoms of our Lord and King.\” Rev 11:5. It is written today on the altar in the Abbey. Livingstone, Howells, Müller, Wigglesworth, and Taylor knelt, submitted, and received the revelational gift of those words, and with those words, the imparted spirit to carry out God\’s will for their lives.
Man and women leading the United Kingdom (much like men and women in the US) chose to manipulate and use those words to enslave, control, rob, and destroy the weak for the sake of their own kingdoms. God removed the gifts and fruit of His spirit from within them as they removed their eyes from His throne and His words from their mouths. Today is a new day, my friends! Get your hopes up. Carriers of the WORDS of God are rising today within America and the United Kingdom.
Repent, the Kingdom of God is at hand! Today is the day for the UK to arise and its people to receive again the glorious grace that follows the trials of ascending from sin. It will not come to you because of Brexit or Megan and Harry just as we will not receive it here in the US because of Kanye West or the impeachment trial. But I tell you that we will rise into revival in America and the UK this year only through the uncovering revelation of the word of God, the digging up of ancient wells of worship, the prayers of the nations, the blood of the martyrs, and by God\’s Holy grace to bring unity within His church.
Who will lay down their life for righteousness?
Who is the Müller my kids will read about, the Martin Luther King Jr. they will learn from? Where are you, Mother Teresa? God help us to be like them and help us to find more like them. We are desperate, Jesus, for the spirit that drove your friend Peter to the cross in Rome and drove out Nero from the throne. Which one of us will tell Netanyahu, Hun Sen, Modi, Xi Jinping, Khamenei, Trump, Johnson, and the lot that without the life-changing love of Jesus Christ, the power they seek will only lead to slavery? STAND UP!
As you pray, please join me to go old school and to embrace the new school as well. Please do not look to or lift up any one man or ministry, through prayer avoid the distractions of media blitz, hold fast to the hope that is in you and the salvation secured through Jesus Christ, make as many friends as possible, and remember that our God is not missing one thing and that trading your entire life for just one day with Him is truly worth it.
