William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army,
listed what he felt were the dangers to
the 20th century.
Booth prophetically wrote that there would be religion
without the Holy Spirit, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness
without repentance, and salvation without regeneration.
I believe the old boy pinpointed out our
day pretty good, friends.
I look around today at our bleak situation,
where our country is prosperous materially but bankrupt
spiritually, our young people are borderline atheists, and
the church has lost her voice of authority.
We live in a day where there is
no shame in society, no fear of God
in the land, and no sense of sin
in the church.
Christians today have become so desensitized to sin
they fail to recognize it in society and
fail to acknowledge it in their daily living.
But Jesus never preached a sin in religion.
The gospel has been diluted of its saving
power to make it more palatable to sinful
man.
Few preach an offense of the cross and
hold up a blood-stained savior from sin.
God's demand for repentance is never mentioned.
Neither is man's necessity for regeneration.
It's just believe whatever I tell you and
repeat this prayer and you will go to
heaven.
A powerless church is a laughing stock to
society.
Millennials today just view the current church in
her impotency as an outdated and unnecessary institution.
Few realize that as a nation we stand
on the very brink of destruction, beneath an
unsheathed sword of divine judgment.
We live at a dangerous intersection where a
sex-crazed society and a sleeping church collide.
And all this troubles me very deeply.
But I still believe God can raise up
his man for this dark hour.
I believe a Jonah can emerge from the
deep waters of purging and preparation and appear
on the scene crying out a call to
repentance that will bring conviction to a people
and bring it to its knees.
I believe revival is our only hope.
The hour is tragic.
It is my prayer, friends, that God will
raise up his man for a desperate time.
The greatest need in our land today is
a prophet, a man sent from God, a
God's man who will stand in the gap
between heaven and earth, between mortal man and
almighty God, a holy man who is so
wholly sold out to God, so intoxicated with
Christ, and so consumed with eternity, that his
very footprints leave a smoky trail of the
lingering fire of God, a man whose desperate
life of prayer has left fingerprints on the
horns of the altar in glory, a man
whose emboldened faith and Enoch-like walk with
God moves mountains of resistance and proves that
the God of the Bible is alive and
interested in the most minute requests of man.
God will always raise up an Elijah whose
prayers impact a sleeping nation.
The church in each generation has had individuals
who live upon their knees, whose prayers reach
heaven with holy violence.
India had her praying Hyde, China her Hudson
Taylor, England her Puritans, Scotland her Covenanters, America
her fiery E.M. Bounds, voices which gained
the attention of the throne room, startled angels,
and shook the gates of hell, making even
the demons quake and tremble with their desperate
prayers.
Great God, raise up a man for this
hour.
Send us your man with your spirit and
your power in Christ Jesus' holy name.