Is a Great Awakening on the Way?

 

Evangelical Christians with a Biblical world view (redundancy run amok) have long found prayer material for revival in the Old Testament book of the Bible, Malachi 4:5 & 6:  “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.  And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”

But such “prayer warriors” have about grown weary waiting for the Spirit of Elijah to fall upon the whole of Christendom all the while seeing the Church, particularly in America, becoming increasingly more irrelevant.  So any hint of God’s moving in a special way anywhere on the globe heartens such prayer warriors.  A number of such “hints” are contained in Jonathan Bernis’ book, A Rabbi Looks at the Last Days, telling how God has been bringing Jews to a place of repentance and acceptance of Jesus as their Messiah—all over the globe.  Good news indeed.

Now on April 18, 2015, Sid Roth, Messianic Jewish Evangelist, tells of an absolutely electrifying event in Jerusalem where 650 Jews were gathered for a “lecture on the supernatural”.  After he started speaking, according to his “Outreach in Jerusalem Report”, “. . . so many Jewish people raised their hands to say they were healed that I couldn’t count them all.  But the best part is this:  after I presented the Gospel, 98% of the 650 unsaved Jews stood to make a profession of faith in Jesus as Messiah!”  (Emphasis his.)

Using Mr. Roth’s figures, 637 Jews made a profession of faith in Jesus as Messiah—in Jerusalem, possibly the most significant such move there since Pentecost with the birth of the Church and the subsequent preaching of the Apostle Peter when 3,000 Jews made a profession of faith in Jesus as Messiah.  This is an event that cannot be dismissed.  This sort of thing just does not happen in Israel, let alone Jerusalem.  What can it possibly signal?  Let me suggest a possible relevant Scripture then I will speak of its implications for the Church.

The Scripture:  “You (the Lord) will arise and have compassion upon Zion (Israel), for it is time to show favor to her; the appointed time has come.  For her stones are dear to your servants, her very dust moves them to pity. . ..  For the Lord will rebuild Zion and appear in His glory.  So the name of the Lord will be declared in Zion and His praise in Jerusalem when the peoples and the kingdoms assemble to worship the Lord” (Psalm 102:13-14, 16, 21-22).

An implication for the Church.  As the Lord begins to move upon “natural” Israel, so will He begin to move upon “spiritual” Israel, the Church.  This has always been God’s order, “. . . to the Jew first, and also to the Greek (non-Jew)” (Biblical Book of the New Testament, Romans  1:16b).  Encouraged with such news the prayer warriors can resume their work with a high expectation that God will begin to work afresh in the Church, drawing her unto Himself, then loosing her in renewed fashion upon a world desperate for answers.  O believer, O prayer warrior, be encouraged.