Gtcotr/ss101214
Revelation 3:22 "He who
has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
In
accordance with those things God has been speaking to me as confirmed by so
many witnesses around the world, I believe we have entered into a season in
which we will witness an increased outpouring of the Holy Spirit and as a
result, in the coming months and throughout 2015 an beyond, multitudes of people, from
all walks of life, will experience the greatest miracle ever known to mankind.
This
same word is being testified by Believers all over the world. People in dark
regions of the world who are from all walks of life are having unexplainable
encounters with angels and seeing visions, hearing voices and having dreams of
Jesus, the Son of God appearing to them and calling them into His kingdom. I am
hearing these testimonies from an increasing number of saints telling how the
most unsuspecting people are coming to Christ. Invariably these conversions
follow a simple and predictable pattern which we see confirmed in the New
Testament of our Holy Bible.
What
is that pattern? It is found over and over again from the conversion of
Cornelius in Caesarea to the one called Saul on the road to Damascus Syria who
saw a great light, heard a loud voice and received instructions to go and await
further words from someone God was going to send. In the case of Saul of Tarsus
as recorded in Acts 9, God sent a Believer who lived in Syria to go and tell
Saul the Gospel message of Jesus the Messiah. When Ananias witnessed to Saul, God confirmed the Word in his heart and Saul was born again, filled with the
Holy Spirit, changed his name to Paul and became the first Apostle to the
Gentile nations of the world. What is that pattern being confirmed 2000 years
later even in the same cities of Syria?
The New
Testament Pattern
1.
A Holy Spirit encounter by a lost person (That’s God’s Business)
2.
A clear presentation of the Gospel by a Believer (That’s our
Business)
3.
A true conversion of a soul by the Holy Spirit (That’s there
Business)
Just
this week I met with a pastor who recently fled from Damascus in the face of
the current persecution of Christians by ISIS, the Islamic Brotherhood, and
those radical Sunni backed rebels who are beheading followers of Jesus Christ.
We met privately and sat in a room in secret, closed off from the world, in
concern that peering eyes and listening ears might reveal the whereabouts of
Believers who are in hiding and contribute to their personal torture and the
execution of their families. He showed me pictures taken on Wednesday and
Thursday of this week showing the horrific deeds being perpetrated against
innocent, peace-loving Believers in Jesus Christ as Son of God and Savior of
the World, by these demon forces, all in the name of their god.
I
listened with a heavy heart as this pastor told how that for the last few years
the Church congregations in Syria and Iraq have had to teach their families,
and especially their children, to be very careful about any display of their
faith which might provoke others to unleash the demons of hatred against them.
One 10 year old boy was recently heard by a friend at school praying over his
food before he ate. The friend heard the boy reciting the Lord ’s Prayer and
reported him to the teacher. When the teacher asked the boy what he was praying
to Jesus and if he was a Christian the boy unashamedly answered that he was.
This
teacher drug that 10 year old boy into the classroom, tied his feet and hoisted
him up in the air. With this young lad hanging upside down the other children
were given sticks and worked into a frenzy against this “infidel” and while
they screamed at him and spit on him they all gathered around and beat him
until he went unconscious. After school he was cut down by the teacher and left
with a warning to never mention Jesus again.
I
don’t wish to overdramatize these current events with any of the other accounts
I was given and pictures and videos I was shown just to prove the point but I
can’t get them out of my mind. Suffice it to say, there is great need in our
lost and hurting world today and that need is Jesus.
One
video I was shown was a video of several Christian men rounded up and taken
into a compound on the Syrian side of the border with Turkey. The video, which
was recently shown to our pastors and Church admin staff at the fall gathering
of our COTR Churches, showed Christian men being kicked and beaten and brutally
tortured by ISIS. The pictures were so horrible that many could not watch and
some even left the room in tears. More than one of our staff members has had
recurring nightmares since. These things are happening now … and it’s almost
unimaginable to believe. Two days ago, in my private meeting with the man who
smuggled this video to the US, I asked how it happened that he had a copy. I
had heard the testimony but I wanted to confirm it with the source.
One
of the members of the ISIS group who was participating in the beating decided
he would use his phone to take some video of the torture of these Christian
infidels. The beatings were bloody and brutal and just continued with hitting
and bludgeoning and kicking to the heads, and faces, and necks and ribs and
chests of these men. I can’t begin to imagine how someone could take videos on
their phone of such atrocities.
That
night the ISIS soldier who had participated and taken the video was sleeping
when he had a dream. Jesus appeared to him in the dream and spoke to him and
told him to run away and cross the border into Turkey. The young man was
awakened and left immediately in the cover of night. The border was not that
far and before daybreak as he carefully approached the crossing he was shot by
an ISIS sniper hunting for fleeing refugees. He knew his life was over and
wondered about the dream.
It
so happened that the pastor I was meeting with this week had organized a few
teams of pastors and willing church members to stretch out along the border at
strategic points and hide in the darkness hoping to assist anyone who need help to get across. One of the pastors saw this man as he was shot and crawled
across the border to reach him and drag him back across to safety. The wounded
ISIS soldier was taken to a safe house and given medical aid and over the next
3 weeks was nursed back to health before being moved to another location. Each
day as he was being taken care of he would ask why he was being helped and the
answer he received was because they were Christians and that Jesus told them to
love their enemies and do good to those who persecute you.
After
recovering this man could no longer bear up under the conviction of the Holy
Spirit and the prayers which were continually going forth over him for his
health and recovery and he asked if he too could become a Christian. He was led
in the sinner’s prayer and became a Believer in Jesus as the Son of God and
Savior of the World. His life changed …
A
few days went by and this newly converted Believer was being discipled and
taught the Word of God in the systematic classes provided by the newly formed
Syrian house Church in the city where he had been moved, not far from the
border. He came to the pastor I met with this week and asked a serious question. He
wanted to know if he could truly be forgiven for his sins and the horrible
things he had done against others. When the pastor told him yes and began to
encourage him, the young man wanted to share his testimony by way of making a
full confession of his sins.
As
the pastor listened to him, having heard the same stories from so many others
like him who have converted to Christianity in the recent months, the young man
produced his phone and showed some pictures and videos which he had taken of
the brutal beatings of Christians. While the pastor comforted the new convert
and ensured him that God had forgiven him, he realized that these videos might one
day be used to help the cause of those who continue to suffer persecution and
execution in the current conflict ongoing in this region. As well, it is hoped
that the world will see and respond to the terrible atrocities being
perpetrated against Christians.
Revelation 3:22 "He who
has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
The
Bible records Jesus saying this 7 times, each time Jesus is specifically
talking directly to Christians in a difficult place in a difficult time and
notably, each and every time Jesus speaks these words, He is addressing
Christians who are living inside the country of Turkey and specifically those
areas facing growing threats from ISIS today.
Well,
what is the Spirit saying to the Church? There is a
great harvest of souls coming to the earth in these days the likes of which the
world has never seen.
We
must consider bold, Holy Spirit led mass evangelism as the answer to the
current world need. We must prepare ourselves and prepare others. While people
will be coming to Christ all over the world they will also be coming to Jesus
in our world. The harvest is plentiful, only the laborers are few. How can you
become a laborer? What is there for you to do?
God needs:
·
Goers
·
Stayers
·
Prayers
·
Payers
in the Church for this world harvest plan to have its greatest
success.
Everyone
is called ‘to go’ on some level even if only called to go next door or to work
or school, to the hospital or nursing home, to support a local evangelistic outreach or a sidewalk Sunday school - Therefore everyone needs to be prepared.
This
morning I want to close by helping prepare you to lead someone to Christ. God
will make their heart ready. All you will need to do is to make a clear
presentation of the Gospel. How can you make that clear presentation? Glad you
asked! Here is an easy, simple, and well proven way – it is called:
The Roman
Road to Salvation
Take
your Bible or the note pad in your phone, Ipad, or computer – or if necessary
just write it down on the back of a piece of paper for the moment and transfer
it to your phone or Bible later. Ready:
1.
Romans 3:23 for all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God
2.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of
sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus
our Lord.
3.
Romans 10:13 For
"whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved."
Ephesians 2
8 For by grace you have been
saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
9 not of works, lest anyone
should boast.
The
whole world is experiencing trouble and God is ramping up the Church for a
dynamic harvest of souls.
In
the current increased persecution of Christians in China, the underground
Church of China is seeing an unprecedented 29,000 people being born again each
day. God will not be outdone!
Where
sin does abound, grace does much more abound.
Two
Sundays from now I have invited a pastor and friend from Pakistan, another
country dealing with the problems of terrorism and radical ideology, to share a
few words with us during our second service.
As
well, I want to thank you on behalf of those persecuted and displaced brothers
and sisters in Christ from Syria and Iraq who are now living as refugees in
Jordan and Turkey. You helped them greatly this week with so many of their
immediate needs including safe housing, food, medical and pastoral attention
for those recovering from being shot, beaten, raped, and horribly traumatized
by the ongoing deeds of a world gone mad. They asked only for your prayers for
them, their families, and especially for the souls of their persecutors.
May
God bless these courageous saints, protect them, encourage them, and meet their
every need, and may their persecutors come to know the saving grace of our Lord
and Messiah, Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
