I want to share with you an impression that’s become very vivid to me concerning the task that lies ahead of the Church and the conditions that we will all have to fulfill in order to accomplish that task.
In the middle of our ministry in Kazakhstan, Budapest, Prague and Austria, Ruth and I took a brief time of rest in Britain in the home of one of our married daughters. We were there over the anniversary of D-Day, the 6th of June 1944. There were quite extensive television coverage and documentaries that covered the actual invasion of Normandy. Normally Ruth and I don’t watch the television, but I’m glad we had the opportunity to do this because it really inspired me and gave me various spiritual applications.
A Staggering Event
The invasion on D-Day in 1944 was much the largest military operation that had ever been launched. It included hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people and involved many different branches of the services: the Navy, the Merchant Navy, many types of vessels, the Army, the Air Force, the Marines, and all sorts of unofficial kinds of vessels and vehicles and people. And then the tremendous impact of all the artillery and bombs. It was an absolutely staggering event without parallel in human history. Tragically, it cost many, many lives. In fact, when the Allies launched their first wave against the Normandy beaches, they more or less anticipated that all the men that participated would be killed. And, thousands of them were.
I was amazed to realize how many different nationalities had combined: Americans, Canadians, English, French, Polish, Norwegian, New Zealanders and many others—and how they were able to work together in real unison. The English and the French always have a difficult time in getting on together, and yet, there was this complete commitment and cooperation between them.
Committed to a Common Objective
As I was meditating on this, it seemed to me that this was a kind of pattern for the Church of Jesus in assaulting the kingdom of Satan—that we were going to have to come together regardless of many different differences of denomination, nationality, background. We’d have to have just one common objective!
After that, I preached in several places, both in Budapest and in Prague, on the theme of the Lord’s Prayer, “Your Kingdom Come.” I saw that this was the primary purpose of God on earth today: the establishment of the kingdom of Jesus Christ on earth. Every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer and say “Your kingdom come,” whether we realize it or not, that’s what we are praying for.
I saw that, only because the Allies had this one common objective to break the Nazi tyranny over Europe and open the way for a new regime were they able to work together. What bound them together was this one common objective.
The Overthrow of Satan’s Kingdom
I believe that’s the only thing that can bind the church together, is when we take God’s priorities for ourselves, when we see that this is the number one concern of God for the world, for the earth, is the overthrow of Satan’s kingdom and the establishment of Jesus Christ on earth.
And I mean on earth. He’s going to be a real King, ruling on a real throne, over real nations. He’s going to have a capitol city, which will be Jerusalem. I don’t think that many Christians today really have such a vivid comprehension of this, which is the primary objective and purpose of God.
When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we are aligning ourselves with God’s objective and saying: “This is priority number one in my life.” Later on in the Lord’s Prayer there are personal petitions for the meeting of needs and other things, but all those take second place to the one supreme purpose and priority which is “Your kingdom come.”
I saw that we have to be as determined and committed to that as the Allies were in the Normandy landing and the subsequent fighting.
The Answer to Earth’s Problems
I think one great source of problem in the Church is many of us have lost the vision of what God’s purpose is. I have to say frankly, for my part I have absolutely no confidence in human governments or human ability to solve earth’s problems. People always talk as if in the next so many years the real solution will come. I’ve lived long enough to see how vain that is. It doesn’t come, it won’t come. Man cannot resolve the earth’s problems. The misery, the poverty, the hatred, the warfare, the injustice, will never come to an end until Christ’s kingdom is established on earth.
Some critics call us dreamers and unrealistic. I would say the boot is on the other foot. After so many millennia of human history, it’s extremely unrealistic to believe that man will ever be able to solve the problems of earth and to establish peace and justice. In the Bible you will find that there will never be peace without righteousness. The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Any political system or plan that bypasses the issue of righteousness and seeks to achieve peace is doomed to failure. I believe personally that’s true of the so-called peace process which is currently going on in the Middle East.
I don’t believe that men signing their names on a piece of paper can deal with the real fundamental causes of war—at least some of the major causes: fear, hatred, envy, jealousy, the lust for power, pride, prejudice.
These are not changed by men signing their names on a piece of paper. They’re not changed by some grandiose human scheme. They’re not changed by political means. They are only changed by the power of God working in the hearts of men and women and preparing the nations for the establishment of Christ’s kingdom.
Get the Vision
So I want to challenge you to evaluate where your priorities are as a believer. Is it your number one priority to see the kingdom of Jesus established on earth? Is your life dedicated to that purpose? Do other things in your life take second place to this one supreme objective, to see the kingdom of Jesus established on the earth?
I believe that the main responsibility for that lies upon the Church of Jesus Christ, because we are the only ones that have the understanding and the spiritual means to bring it about.
Harvest Hour
I want to close with what we’ve been witnessing in recent meetings. This is the harvest hour. It really is. I think of a place like Kazakhstan. Ten years ago you probably couldn’t have gathered fifty people. And this year we gathered something like seven or eight hundred, others were longing to come, we had no space for them. This is not because we are especially spiritual, or we have some key that was lacking in previous generations. The reason is we’re living in the harvest hour.
Jesus said, “Lift up your eyes and look upon the fields, for they are white [or ready] to harvest.” That is surely as true today as it has ever been in human history.
This is the harvest hour.
In Proverbs 10:5 it says: “He who sleeps in harvest is a son who causes shame.” You’re a son or a daughter of God. But are you asleep in this harvest hour? Are you not aware of what’s going on? Are you not totally committed to the purposes of God? Are you just going on as if everything was going to continue as it has done through so many centuries?
I beseech you, if you have been sleeping, if you have been unaware of the issues of what’s going on in the earth, of God’s purposes coming to the consummation in our days, please let the Holy Spirit wake you up. Let the Holy Spirit jar you out of your materialism, your self-satisfaction, and give you a vision of what God is doing and how you can be doing it with Him.
(Original Source: Update Letter 73)
