Wake Up Call

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From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
Matthew 4:17

On the surface, it’s tempting to dismiss the lack of revival in our nation with the standard cliché that maybe it “hasn’t been in God’s will.” This is certainly a possible explanation, because God’s will is indeed supreme and there are clearly times when our desires don’t coincide with His plan—just look at Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane:

My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.
Matthew 26:39

Nevertheless, we are far too quick to assume that God’s will is the “missing ingredient” whenever things don’t go as we might hope or even expect.

In fact, there has to be a different reason for the spiritual nonevent that transpired in the wake of September 11th. For when it comes to revival, which results in the outpouring of God’s Spirit upon His repentant people, it is apparently always God’s will to give an increasing measure of His Spirit to those who earnestly seek Him:

And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

You fathers—if your children ask for bread, do you give them a stone? Or for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.
Luke 11:9-13 (NLT)

So this being the case, then how are we to explain what happened—or more aptly what didn’t happen—after 9/11? Weren’t we praying? Weren’t we seeking? Weren’t we pursuing God? Even so, the spiritual status quo reappeared as any flames of revival quickly died out. Just like they did after the first Gulf War…and like they did after Oklahoma City…and after Columbine. Come to think of it, maybe George Barna’s conclusion shouldn’t have come as a surprise after all. We actually seem to be getting pretty good at avoiding revival in this country.

The Missing Piece

In the weeks following September 11th, I am convinced that God stood ready to answer our prayers for revival. The reason He withheld His Spirit, though, is that we once again chose not to hear His voice. For in the wake of 9/11, our primary concern was for God to rise up and deal with the immediate threat posed to us by our enemies. We felt vulnerable, and so we rallied around verses that gave us assurance:

Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me; You will stretch out Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and Your right hand will save me.
Psalm 138:7 (NKJV)

And even though we were right to turn to God in our hour of need, the problem is that the spiritual dimension of 9/11 was mostly taken for granted. For since we tacitly assumed that our most pressing needs were physical, once the threat had passed we simply got back to “normal” without ever questioning the state of our hearts.

So rather than God’s will, the repentance of the church—those called by His name—was the missing piece to the revival picture after 9/11. In other words, genuine revival eluded us not because it was outside of God’s will for this country, but because it was never really our will for ourselves. For while we readily accepted the safety and security that were restored to us from His hand, we stopped short of receiving the same message that He was trying to impress upon the Laodiceans almost 2,000 years ago:

As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.
Revelation 3:19 (NKJV)

And so revival faltered.

It’s not that we were oblivious to the moral condition of our nation after 9/11, for we clearly recognized that our nation was in need of (and still needs!) some divine intervention. What we failed to recognize, though, is that the repentance of the church has to come first. As a result, our prayers for revival were outward focused and lamented the immorality of our culture, when we should have been asking God to search our own hearts. In a very real sense, we just wanted God to “fix things,” not realizing that the church’s collective repentance is the key.

Hence, any flames of revival following 9/11 were rapidly quenched. The immediate threat soon passed, and so assuming that our prayers had been answered we all resumed our “normal” spiritual regimens as if nothing had happened. There were undoubtedly individual exceptions to this generalization, and I’m certain that many hearts were transformed and renewed, but clearly the majority report didn’t reflect this. For once the urgency was gone we kicked things back into spiritual “cruise control.”

So whether we knowingly or otherwise ignored God’s call, the fundamental question that we need to wrestle with is this: what is going on in our hearts? Because in the final analysis, the lack of
revival doesn’t indicate a withholding on God’s part, but rather on ours—the receiving end of the proposition. This conclusion is inescapable since we know that God generously gives His Spirit to those who genuinely seek Him. Indeed, had we recognized God’s voice and allowed His Spirit to penetrate our hearts, George Barna would have come to a much different conclusion in the months after the attacks. Things would have changed…dramatically.

In retrospect, though, it appears that the only big changes to come out of September 11th were geo-political in nature: the Taliban have been ousted in Afghanistan, Saddam Hussein is now a memory, and as a result the Islamic power base in the Middle East has shifted decidedly to Iran. So what does all of this mean to us? It’s difficult to say precisely, but as the mullahs in Tehran continue their unabashed pursuit of nuclear technology, we can only imagine what might unfold in the next few years.

Let’s be brutally honest for just a moment. We all have a sense of the “end game” here, and we understand that the end times aren’t called the “Great Tribulation” for nothing. So by the time we reach the final chapter of this age, things will be in very bad shape on this planet, worse than they’ve ever been. In addition, all indications are that the nation of Israel is going to be at the center of the action, probably in a fight for her very survival.

I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure
themselves.
Zechariah 12:2-3

Accordingly, it doesn’t take much imagination to see where current events are leading us. It should be clear that as Israel’s enemies—not to mention our own—gain the means to inflict staggering casualties, the stage is being set for the rise of the Antichrist. And should we be surprised? Should we be the least bit shocked to discover that things are moving relentlessly towards the point that God has foretold all along?

For in those days there will be tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the creation which God created until this time, nor ever shall be. And unless the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake, whom He chose, He shortened the days. 

Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender, and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see these things happening, know that it is near-at the doors!
Mark 13:19-20,28-29 (NKJV)

What’s truly astounding is the fact that even though this is all happening in plain sight, before our very eyes, we remain spiritually intransigent—unmoved and numb. Or as George Barna observed:
“no change whatsoever.”

Getting the Message

So in spite of how Sept 11th was portrayed by the media (and even the church!) the things that happened that day represented much more than random, isolated acts of violence. On the contrary, what we witnessed on 9/11 was God’s attempt to rouse a people who have become spiritually complacent, who are “at ease in Zion,” yet we rolled over and went back to sleep. For that reason, I believe that the events of September 11th were a mere preview of things to
come…because God will not be ignored.

To put it bluntly, the primary spiritual purpose behind September 11th was to discipline the American Church: He was warning us that we need to repent of our backsliding. At the same time, God used the events of that day to alter the course of world history in accordance with His plan. This conclusion may seem like quite a leap, and I realize that many find this declaration to be presumptuous, shocking…maybe even offensive. Yet in the pages that follow I hope to persuade you not only of its plausibility, but also of its inescapability.

Why does it matter? Because my fear is that like the church in Laodicea, we have become oblivious to the fact that our ongoing attempts to find the “middle ground” between God and culture have rendered us spiritually barren before Him. Like the Laodiceans, we are “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked,” and so we desperately need to hear God’s admonition to this lukewarm church: He is anything but pleased and will chastise us in order to bring us to repentance.

We are trying to serve both God and men, falsely thinking that we can have it both ways, and the irony of recent tragedies is that each has progressively inured us to the reality of our sin. For instead of turning our hearts back towards God, they have effectively hardened us as we continually resist or otherwise rationalize His calls to repent. It’s a trend that needs to be reversed, and quickly, because even though our national tolerance for sin may be increasing, rest assured that God’s is not.

Indeed, the ominous consequence of this cycle is that each time that there is “no change whatsoever,” each time that we ignore the message God is trying to send us, we are only “upping the ante” for the next time. Why? Because if God is trying to get us to change our ways, we know that He will continue to discipline us until His message penetrates our hardened hearts: “Be zealous, and repent.” Therefore, if we want to avoid subsequent discipline from God’s hand, we had better get one thing straight—repentance is not optional.

Thus, the Body of Christ in this country—and that means you and I—had better wake up and turn from our lukewarm religion while there’s still time. For as our insensitivity to His voice grows, we can be certain that the severity of His discipline will increase commensurately. And I don’t know about you, but if what happened on September 11th didn’t do the trick, I hate to think what is in store for our nation the next time God decides to get our attention…

Looking Ahead

So where do we go from here? Admittedly the picture isn’t very pretty, but we do ourselves no favors by pretending that things are better than they really are. To put it differently, trying to deny those growing chest pains won’t prevent a looming heart attack, but only ensures that it will occur! Neither will sugar coating the signs of our decline do anything but accelerate it. Furthermore, while I don’t mean to diminish the good things that the church is doing faithfully, we need to make sure that we’re not patting ourselves on the back while ignoring the symptoms of a deeper problem:

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.

You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!
Matthew 23:23-24

In short, if we want to see revival come to our nation, we need to make sure that we’re looking at things from God’s standpoint. Practically speaking, this means that we must strive to view the
church, our culture, our hearts, and even God Himself from His perspective…rather than our own. Before we can do that, though, we must first let go of our flawed notions of who God is and what He expects from us. Why do I say that? Because whether we want to admit it or not, our understanding of God has been unduly influenced by a culture that is anything but godly. As Paul might say, we’re still being conformed:

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will.
Romans 12:2

Therefore, it’s time to allow ourselves to be transformed by a right understanding of God… it’s time to renew our minds. It’s time to remind ourselves that God is truly great, that He alone is good, and that He is in control of history. It’s time to restore a sense of awe, to bring back reverence to our relationship with God, because He really is worthy of all our praise! In other words, it’s time to rediscover some fundamental truths about God that have gotten lost over time, because until we see God clearly, we simply won’t be able to worship Him in spirit and in truth.

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