Category: Resource Notes

Today, October 31, is the 501ST anniversary date of Martin Luther’s nailing of his Ninety Five Theses on the Church door at Wittenberg, Germany.

Martin Luther had hoped that he would be able to reform and purify the Church. Instead, the Church split into a Catholic branch and a Protestant branch. Then came religious wars, with millions of Catholic and Protestant martyrs. Peace and some level of tolerance finally prevailed, but the division continues.

Nor was it the first such division. The Jewish Church was driven out at the Council of Nicea, the Nestorian Church at the Council of Ephesus, and the Copic Church at the Council of Chalcedon. The Orthodox East and the Roman Catholic West formally split in 1054. And throughout Church history, beginning with Frankish King Clovis, Kings were sent to destroy heretical groups. The Scandal of Division has stalked the Church from the beginning.

Today there are thousands of Christian denominations, each with its own unique set of beliefs and practices. All of them know that Christ prayed “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me” (John 17:23), but they do not know how to get past their doctrinal and governmental differences. So the Scandal has been allowed to continue, even at the cost of casting doubt on Jesus and the Church.

Finally, in the latter 20th Century, things began to change when Christians began to take a fresh look at Christ’s prayer for unity. Jesus prayed that, just as He was in the Father and the Father was in Him, the believers would be in Christ and thus be brought to complete unity (John 17:20-23). Our unity is in Christ, not in our doctrines, traditions, or Church government. The Apostle Paul also recognized this, and urged the believers not to look down on their “weaker” brothers who had different practices (Ro 14:1-23).

Unity is not uniformity. Rather, it is unity in diversity, where the special giftings of other Christian traditions add to the richness of our Christian heritage.

Let no one be judged for their doctrines so long as they are in Christ. Rather let us become friends of God by keeping Christ’s command to love each other (John 15:12-14) and focus on God’s business (John 15:15).

Let us end the Scandal of Division so the world will know that God sent Christ to save us.

This weekend, October 20 and 21, perhaps 250,000 Millennials will gather at the Texas Motor Speedway outside of Dallas Texas for the Together 2018 meeting.

This meeting is not your typical evangelism outreach event. Instead it is designed to encourage and empower young people to take their faith outside of the four walls of the church into a lost and dying world. There will be powerful worship by bands like Hillsong and Jesus Culture, along with transformative messages by speakers like Nick Hall, Sammy Rodriguez, and Tony Evans. But there will also be opportunities for fellowship, mentoring and prayer.

As intercessors we will be praying for a great outpouring of God’s Spirit on our young people at Together 2018. Specific prayer needs requested by Together 2018 include:

1. Pray for the younger generation to be awakened to their need for Jesus.
2. Pray that the Holy Spirit will stir up boldness in our young people to share Jesus with their generation.
3. Pray that the nation will turn to Jesus as Healer, Reconciler, and Restorer to heal our divisions, bringing hope and revival.
4. Pray that the Together 2018 meeting will be a catalyst to help usher in a new Jesus movement.
5. Pray for the organization, logistics, and funding of Together 2018.

As the new generation prepares to take its place on the wall, remember the vison one of our intercessors of an old worn out horse standing quietly in a pasture. Then its ears perked up and it began slowly walking toward the sound of war trumpets in the distance. As the trumpets grew louder the horse moved faster as the years seemed to fall off. Soon it was running full speed at full strength toward the battle.

God is calling the old and tired back into the battle. These young people need their experience, their love, their peace, their mentoring, and their prayers. Let the elders respond to the trumpet call and may their strength and zeal be restored.

There is not one church for the young and another for the old. Pray that the generations will come together to see the full manifestation of revival.

And check out Together 2018 at togethergeneration.com.

We have just witnessed one of the worst Partisan spectacles in history in the Kavanaugh hearings and now are heading into the elections with a bitterly divided electorate.

We Christians have no one to blame but ourselves for this sorry state of affairs.

Over 70% of Americans say they are Christian – about 250 million. We are a majority in both major political parties. Yet neither party exhibits Christian character or convictions. How is it that we exercise so little influence in modern American politics?

The answer is division, which dilutes an often nullifies the power of the Church. The Pope has referred to the “Ecumenism of Blood”, where our enemies see us as one and persecute Christians all the same without regard for our divisions. Yet we remain divided in the face of our enemies, sending a mixed message to the world and spreading doubt about the gospel (See John 17:23).

This division plays out in the political realm as evangelicals concentrate on evangelism, often ignoring hurting people, while the “Liberal” churches focus on social issues without bringing in the life changing power of the gospel. One group wants to fight sin while another wants to ignore it. Because of these divisions hot button issues like immigration, abortion, same sex marriage, economic opportunity, law and order, and foreign policy are left to partisan fighting without a clear message from the Church. And our freedoms of religion, speech, and self-defense are increasingly at risk.

We understand that there will always be different opinions about public policy matters, just like there are differences between denominations. However, the Church is called to be the salt and light of society. It must rise above politics to keep the Christian message and hope alive in the public square. This we call transcending politics.

As an example of the transformative power of transcending politics, remember the genuine Civil Rights movement of the 1950’s are 1960’s. Up until that point the Church had been divided, with some opposing equal rights for black people. Then a movement led by a black Baptist pastor, Martin Luther King, awakened the Church to the need for racial justice. The Church captured a majority of Republicans and just enough Democrats to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Today, while we may have some disagreements, no significant Christian denomination is opposed to racial equality. The issues that vex us today can be solved by a united Church in the same way.

As Lou Engle has famously said, only a united Church can heal a divided nation. Let us then pray that the Church can come together in unity to transcend politics and bring healing to our divided nation.

Late October brings to view the Constellation Aquarius (“The Water Bearer”) as it rises high in the Southern skies in the late evening.
Aquarius is the sixth chapter of the Star Bible. It follows Capricorn (the Goat), which pictures the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ and leads to Pisces (The Fish), a representation of the Church. The event pictured by Aquarius is the birth of the Church, when the Holy Spirit was poured out on Pentecost. The constellation itself pictures a man pouring water representing the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost (see John 7:37-39). Stars named Sadalsuud (The Pourer Out) and Sadalmalik (The Record of the Pouring Out) confirm this understanding, while the Star Meon (Urn) is always pictured as pouring out the water of the Holy Spirit.
Follow the outpoured water down to the next constellation, Pisces Austranis (“The Southern Fish”) for the rest of the story. We know that the fish is an ancient symbol of the believers, and the single fish of Pisces Austranis represents the Jewish Believers who received the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues at Pentecost in 30 AD. The outpoured water of Aquarius flows down to the bright Star Formalhaut (“The Mouth of the Fish”) in confirmation that the Holy Spirit flowed through the mouth, as the sign of the Holy Spirit was speaking in tongues. Thus we may call Fomalhaut the Pentecostal Star.
The constellation Aquarius contains few bright stars and is best viewed through binoculars. Its Western stars are North of the Zodiacal constellation Capricorn, and then can be followed down to Pisces Austranis which is directly below Aquarius. The Pentecostal Star Formalhaut is the brightest star of the grouping and sits on the Eastern edge of Pisces Austranis.
So tonight drink in a little of the Holy Spirit water of Aquarius and the Pentecostal Star Formalhaut.

Next week we celebrate our public holiday marking the epic changes brought about by the landing of Christopher Columbus in America and his dream to create a Christian society here.

The Native American people he found were descendants of ancient Siberian immigrants, but had lived in isolation from the rest of mankind for about three thousand years. Nevertheless, their pyramids, their religions, and their cultures still contained the stamp of their origins with the rest of mankind in ancient Babylon. Unfortunately, they also retained some of the worst pagan practices of Babylonian Religions, as the Aztecs demonstrated by sacrificing 50,000 human victims every year.

Our study of history shows that human sacrifice is a flash point for God’s judgment, and we believe that the Aztec and Inca civilizations were judged and destroyed by God through the technology and diseases of the Europeans. Sadly, the Conquistadors enslaved the survivors and forced them to “Convert” to Christianity, thus losing the opportunity to achieve a real Christian society. Those sins were compounded by bringing in African Slaves to replace the decimated Native American populations working the European Plantations.

The establishment of a Christian society did finally occur when a small group of English Christians landed in New England. Over time the English settlers in Eastern North America adopted the concept of religious freedom and went on to build the greatest Christian society on earth, the United States. And, with all its failures, backsliding, and flaws, the United States, with its 250 million who claim to be Christians, remains the World’s most powerful beacon of the Christian Dream.

Christianity has also experienced a comeback in Latin America, thanks to the Catholic Charismatics and the Evangelical Christians. Today Latin America is 92% Christian, the highest proportion of any continent, and there are 800 million Christians in the Americas.

So, on this Columbus Day, let us join with all North, Central, and South American Christians in praying that we will continue to follow the dream of living in a Christian Society in the Americas.

Today as we celebrate Yom Kippur, the Hebrew Day of Atonement, we should also remember the miracle of the 1973 Yom Kippur war.

After their miraculous victory over the Arabs in the 1967 war, Israel had become complacent and confident in its military superiority. Its 1967 enemies, Egypt and Syria, seethed with resentment and desire to avenge their humiliating defeat. Together they developed a plan to attack Israel in the Sinai dessert and the Golan Heights using new tactics and new technology. The attack was set to take place on a date which would hit the Israelis when their preparedness was at its lowest point, the Yom Kippur Holy Day.

The Israelites were taken completely by surprise. Worse, the Egyptians inflicted defeats on Israel tanks and air power using their new Soviet technology while the Syrian tank forces overwhelmed the few scattered Israeli tanks on duty. Israel was days away from a total collapse, but the Egyptians outran their technical protections and the Syrians were stopped by a handful of Israeli tanks. Miraculously the war turned around, resulting in a massive defeat of the Egyptians and Syrians. As a result, Egypt entered into a momentous peace treaty and Israel’s borders remained secure. God had turned disaster into security.
In the years since the Yom Kippur miracle the hand of God can be seen as He has watched over Israel. The terrorist Palestinian Liberation Organization has been defeated and rendered impotent in the West Bank. Saddam Hussein, who wanted to take Jerusalem, attacked his Kuwaiti bankers instead and he and his threat to Israel have been eliminated. Another anti-semetic terrorist, Gadaffi, has been overthrown in Libya.

The so-called “Arab Spring” brought instability and new threats to Israel, but God’s protection continues to be manifested. For a while it appeared that the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt would wage war on Israel, but the Brotherhood was overthrown and its ally, the Hamas terrorists in Gaza, has been cut off from Egyptian support and defeated by Israel in a 2014 invasion. Syria has fallen into a full scale civil war where Israel’s enemies Iran and Hezbollah are fighting Israel’s other enemies Al Queda and ISIS, and leaving Israel alone for now. Thanks to God, the miraculous peace won in the 1973 Yom Kippur war is still holding.

This is not to say that Israel is not still threatened. We believe that Israel is in the middle of a 150 year war which is described in Revelation 9:1-11. But we also know that God watches over Israel.
Let us thank God for His continued miraculous intervention on behalf of Israel.
And continue to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

This week the nation remembers the anniversary of the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001.

We have been praying through the 40 day Jewish season of repentance, Teshuvah, which ends on Yom Kipper. As we complete the prayer journey we want to share a prophecy given in 1998 which warned us of the 9/11 catastrophe and launched the Teshuvah Prayer Initiative.

In the summer of 1998 a well-known prophet, Chuck Pierce, warned the Church to cleanse itself during a 40 day period corresponding to the Hebrew repentance season of Teshuvah, which ran from August 22, 1998 to September 30, 1998. He warned the Church of the coming rise of the Islamic spirit and the Spirit of lawlessness in the U.S. He also warned that, if the Church did not repent and find God’s plan, it would be unable to stop the disaster which would come at the end three years.

On September 11, 1998 the special prosecutor appointed to review to the scandals of President Bill Clinton announced that the President had committed perjury about an affair with an intern, and committed other abuses of power. Instead of removing the President, as the Republicans had done when Nixon was caught lying, the Democrats lined up behind him. By doing so, they endorsed his lawlessness and released the Spirit of Lawlessness on the country. And the Church, divided by politics, made no effective response.

Exactly three years after the announcement by the special prosecutor, just as the prophet had said, a catastrophe hit the United States. The Islamic Spirit warned of in the prophecy rose up and killed 3000 Americans on September 11, 2001. Few understood the judgment that had fallen on America. Many politicians made a show of defiance by quoting from a scripture, Isaiah 9:10, about rebuilding bigger and better. What they failed to understand in their ignorance was that Isaiah 9:10 scripture was condemnation of their attitude of defiance against God.

Last year the prophecy came to our attention as we prepared to pray for repentance, unity and healing the land during the 2017 Teshuvah season. For more information get a free download of our book Teshuvah Eclipses at www.dropbox.com/s/835gr2gnzg1labn/Teshuvah%20Eclipses.pdf?dl=0. This year we have again prayed through the Teshuvah season, which ends with the Hebrew Day of Atonement on September 19.

We believe that God has begun to deal with the spirit of Islamistism in answer to our prayers. The so- called caliphate of the ISIS terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq has collapsed, and the worldwide terrorism wave is receeding. The U.S. has also scotched the terrible Iranian nuclear deal and has brought the terrorists in Tehran under tremendous pressure. Much remains to be done, but much progress has been made against the Islamist scourge.

Here in the U.S. we are seeing the exposure of the lawlessness loosed by the Clintons and fostered under President Obama. Senior officials of the Justice Department and FBI have been caught colluding with the Clinton presidential campaign to excuse Clinton’s wrongdoing while working to undermine the Trump presidential campaign and his presidency. Many Obama era regulations, promulgated illegally, have been rolled back. And the appointment of a second originalist Supreme Court Justice promises to bring back the rule of law into our judicial system.

We thank God that in His mercy He has brought relief from the threats of Islamistism and lawlessness which the Church failed to deal with 20 years ago.

Let us pray that the Church will continue the Teshuvah prayers of repentance, unity, and healing of our land and will seek God for His plans for our generation.