SIGNS OF
THE TIMES
&
The Key to Revival!
by Pastor Max Solbrekken, D.D.
“And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and behold it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.” (Gen. 6:5, 11 & 12)
“But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.” (Matt. 24:37) “And because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” (Matt. 34:12-13)
PERSONAL CHRISTIANITY IS DYING!
According to recent surveys, only one in five Canadians has enough knowledge of his Christian religion to make sense of human existence. A staggering 43% of the Canadian population according to a recent poll feels No Answer Exists! How tragic to think that Canadians who are basically a Christian nation would have fallen so low!
Not surprisingly, crime continues rising almost unchecked, the divorce rate climbs astronomically, violence and murder is on the increase and teenage pregnancies are running at 1000 per week across the nation.
According to Dr. James Dobson of ‘Focus on the Family’, morals in the USA are at an all time low now: “Over 360,000 unmarried teens give birth yearly; 1 in 5 Americans over 12 has herpes virus and don’t know it; 3 million teenagers contract a sexually transmitted disease (STD) yearly”.
We shouldn’t be shocked that VD among teenagers is almost epidemic across North America , when PARENTS stop going to church and spend their time at the bars, casinos, cocktail parties and the race track! When PARENTS have ‘no time’ for the Bible or prayer and no time for God and His cause, it is no wonder the nation drifts into chaos; violence, high unemployment, teenage delinquency, drug addiction, broken homes and alcoholism!
Pornography and smut is contaminating young as well as older minds and runs like a sewer across the world. Moral decay brings economic and political decay! The Roman Empire and the Golden Age of Greece rotted away morally and then totally fell apart; militarily, socially, economically; and politically.
SOCIETY IS INFECTED WITH THE VIRUS OF SIN - just like in Noah’s day - with corruption and graft in business, government and even the church! Canada
The church needs a revival of holiness, and an awakening to the sad conditions of the community, with a dogged determination to change things - to do something about it!
WHAT CAN WE DO?
Ministers of God need to be alerted, awakened and re-fired with the power of the Holy Spirit. We need another dip in the fountain of blood, another experience in the Upper Room with Jesus, and a fresh glimpse of Calvary and the price Jesus paid for our salvation!
WHAT ELSE DO WE NEED? A NEW VISION OF HELL THAT AWAITS THE LOST, AND THE ETERNAL VALUE OF A HUMAN BEING!
Laymen and church members can help turn the tide through their consistent prayers, total commitment in church attendance, consecrated giving and fervent balanced witnessing. Pray for our pastors, evangelists and theologians. Ask God to build a fire under your pastor! We, the ministers of God must lead the way in exemplary living and sacrificial giving to God and His cause! Here is the key - the Blueprint to Revival!
“Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withheld from the house of your God. Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord, Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come”. (Joel 1:13-15)
God’s Word explicitly tells preachers what to do: Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly and gather the people into the house of the Lord for a time of weeping and crying out to God in humility and prayer! NOTICE: Here are the reasons why we need a Revival!
1. THE LORD'S MINISTERS MOURN!
“Why?” Because the meat offering and drink offering is cut off (v. 9). The priests were unable to function because there were no resources. The priest used a portion of the meat offering in order to exist. When “Revival Fires Burn Low’ and God’s people become cold in their devotion and love to Him, the tithes and offerings are very often neglected!
How can we proclaim Christ’s Gospel if His people are not stirred by the Holy Spirit to undergird ‘the work’ with their tithing and giving? A red-hot revival causes people to see their responsibility in giving of their substance to the Lord’s work!
2. THE FIELD IS WASTED, THE LAND MOURNETH; FOR THE CORN IS WASTED: THE NEW WINE IS DRIED UP, THE OIL LANGUISHETH!
The admonition again is to the shepherd, the vinedresser. We are to be ashamed! Why? Because the harvest of the field is perished! What a tragic thing! The harvest is destroyed! How awful to think of the prairie farmers getting hailed out, dried out or frozen out 100%. That would be devastating! To lose the harvest could cripple the economy!
How much worse to lose the spiritual harvest! The Christian Church has lost much of the harvest. Young people have slipped out of the church and gotten involved with the alcohol and drug scene - spending their time sniffing glue, popping pills, smoking hash, taking LSD, hanging around discotheques and bars!
May God help us to salvage the harvest. It’s time for an old-fashioned ‘PRAYER MEETING’ in our churches, where we seek the face of God in order to save precious souls for God’s kingdom!
3. THE BIBLE RECORDS THE STARK REALITY OF ISRAEL
“The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field are withered.”
Why? Because joy is withered away from the sons of men! (vs. 12) Why has the Christian Church lost the joy of salvation? Why do ‘born again’ believers walk around with faces that are painfully sad and unhappy? Why do folks appear to be enduring their salvation when they should in fact be enjoying it?
They have lost the harvest! Let every Christian begin winning souls for Jesus Christ and the joy will return. There is nothing more joyfully glorious than leading a lost soul to the knowledge of sins forgiven though Jesus our Saviour!
We must begin to witness to the lost, needy and lukewarm about God’s great mercy and love and we will see results. Then we’ll have joy, and remember, “The joy of the Lord is your strength”. (Neh. 8:10) Do you want to be strong? Receive the joy of the Lord and you will receive great inner strength!
The Bible says: “If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land”. (2 Chron. 7:14)
God has promised that if we do the four things He requires, revival will break forth among us! Here they are:
1) Humble ourselves!
2) Pray fervently!
3) Seek God’s face diligently!
4) Turn from our sins!
Satan is very active and many present-day signs point to the wicked, end-time generation which Jesus foretold. The Bible however, gives us hope! “When the enemy shall come in like a flood the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him”. (Isaiah 59:19b)
HANDWRITING IS ON THE WALL!
Soon, Jesus Christ will return for His Church, and judgment will fall upon this sinful and wicked world. There is HOPE, however, for the Bible says, “It shall come to pass that whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved”.
To ‘Believers in Christ’ I say, “Let us win souls now while we still can”, and to the unconverted and uncommitted I write: “Receive God’s grace and mercy today and be saved”! Let us return unto the Lord with humility, renouncing pride, arrogance and selfishness for the Bible says: “...God resisteth the proud but giveth grace to the humble”. (1 Peter 5:5)
Jesus said, “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh”. (Luke 21:28)
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