The Church is to be the hope of the nations. It is to be showing to the world that there is hope and that the answer is found in Christ. We are to be showing the world that Christ can push back the flood of darkness; He can restore sanity to our lives and to the ways in which we go about life.
The Church is to reveal that God has the power to redeem, deliver, and transform every aspect of our culture and our society, even in the drastic times in which we live. But where is the Church? We are living in difficult times. The communities and nations in which the Church exists are starting to come against traditional biblical beliefs.Things that are displeasing to God are being forced into the Church by government policies and laws that legalize them. There is a social pressure and intimidation that is trying to force the church to succumb to the values and mindsets of this day and time instead of the values and wisdom of God.
The Church is to be pointing out to the world that there is hope and that the answer is found in Christ. Politicians and media personalities today are increasingly encroaching on the moral arena that churches previously held. These people set standards on issues of morality apart from the Church. Those who speak against these changing standards are called haters, bigots, prejudiced, old-fashioned, or abusers of human rights. These human standards dilute God’s absolute moral standards. They turn good into “evil” and evil into “good.” They bring about compromise in the name of “acceptance.” They turn what was considered shameful yesterday into normal behavior today.
When these unbiblical changes started to rear their ugly heads some years ago, the Church quietly retreated into its four walls. Today, however, the Church’s doors are being pushed open by laws and belief systems that go against the teachings of the Bible. The Word of God is increasingly being pushed out of schools and public arenas. In some nations, speaking or writing anything that disagrees with the ways of the world system has become a “hate crime” punishable by law. The Church is being forced to bow to the evil demands of this world system or lose its followers, general support, and charitable status, on which it heavily depends. The Church has begun to fall under the influence and compromise of the world’s ways and systems.
When we understand the extraordinary pressure that is coming at lives and families in society now and we look at the weakened state of the church, we realize that if it does not rise up, there is no one to lead us out of this chaos and deception that is swirling around the nations. I am not attempting to offer a simple explanation of how the nations came to be in such turbulent shape. We do need to recognize, however, that there is a world system that is opposed to the purposes of God and the ways of God, and that there is a war raging over the nations.
God is waking up his Bride, the Church – for this very hour – to rise up and be able to impact the nations. God gave the Church to the nations as a means of hope. The Church is to be God’s redemptive arm to the nations. God has commissioned us to go disciple the nations, but sadly, at this time in history, the Church does not have the impact on the nations it is supposed to have. In fact, in many parts of the world, the Church has been so diminished and its impact on society has become so minimal that it is even being treated by some nations as irrelevant to the current problems and crises they face.
The Bible is clear, however:
- We are the light of the world.
- We are the salt of the earth.
- We are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus, our Lord.
- The one who is in us is greater than the one who is in the world.
Jesus Christ is coming back for a victorious Church and I believe that in this season and time, God is waking up his Bride, the Church – for this very hour – to rise up and be able to impact the nations. This is the season in time in which God is going to bring about a mighty movement of His Spirit in his people all across the nations of the world. This has already started. The wake-up call has already begun to go out.
We must answer that call, surrender our lives to God, and allow him to awaken us and use us in these times.
Extract from Awakening the Church (Mission: Open Heavens, Module 1). Rev. Dr. John W Mulinde is the Founder and General Overseer of World Trumpet Mission, and Chairman of the ministry’s International Board of Directors.
