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The War for the Soul of the Church
God has a plan for the Earth, and all of humanity is moving inevitably toward its fulfillment. And the key ingredient to God’s ultimate success among the nations is His effective work among His people. His Church will mature to where we accurately express Christ corporately. Just as the Lord Jesus revealed the Father two thousand years ago, so also the body of Christ must become in practice a true expression on Earth of the heart and mind of the Lord Jesus in Heaven. And everything in our midst that distracts attention from Him must be removed.
Indeed, God has declared war against lawlessness in His house. His success in this war will lay the groundwork for His kingdom to come into clarity as first Israel, and then many other nations experience the grace of God in ways greater than what was released from Heaven two thousand years ago when the Jewish nation rejected her Messiah.
When Peter preached his second recorded message in the Book of Acts, he spoke of what would have to occur before Jesus would return. Addressing the crowd before him, he spoke prophetically that there would be two outcomes when they turned to the Lord –
Times of refreshing would come from God’s presence.
He would then send Jesus from Heaven (Acts 3:19-20).
Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you.
(Acts 3:19-20 NASB)
But Jesus did not return when those listeners turned to the Lord. Perhaps Peter was speaking to more than just the assembled multitude. I suggest that he was addressing the whole nation of Israel as represented by that specific gathering. Two thousand years later, even though many individual Jews have turned to the Lord, Israel as a nation still has not. It is true that the Church of the Lord Jesus is again increasing in Israel. But for that nation to turn nationally to the God of her fathers, Heaven must bring to a measured fullness the revelation of their Messiah as revealed in a corporate body among the nations.
When this fullness of the Gentiles comes in among us from Heaven and Israel turns back to the Lord, Peter’s prophetic word will be fulfilled, and seasons of abundant refreshing will be released upon the Earth.
Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing (Greek, ANAPSUXIS–a recovery of breath) may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus.
(Acts 3:19-20 ESV)
Have you ever had the wind knocked out of you? When I was much younger, I fell when climbing a tree. As I lay there, I thought I would surely die. But when a few minutes had passed, I experienced a time of refreshing when I was able to breathe again; I recovered my breath. In his sermon, Peter gave us the biblical word for revival. He defined it as a refreshing, a recovery of breath.
Seasons or times (notice that it is not just one) of revival will sweep the Earth when Israel returns to the Lord. In the days leading up to and following Israel’s salvation, Jesus’ prayer in John Chapter 17 will be answered. Recognizing the unity of God’s people with Him and with each other, it will dawn upon many that Jesus Christ was indeed sent from Heaven and that the God of Heaven loves His believing people (both Jew and Gentile) as He loves His Son.
According to Peter, Heaven would have to receive Jesus (i.e., in Heaven on our behalf) until the times of the restoration of all things.
…whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.
Somewhere during the times of restoration, Jesus will return. Some have suggested that since the great apostasy in Christianity brought the Church into the time of the dark ages, the times of the restoration of everything have since commenced beginning in the days of Martin Luther. If so, then we are in the midst of the time when Heaven is restoring all things.
God has begun restoring His presence, truth, and power to His people. Most importantly, He has been restoring Jesus to His rightful place as the foundation of His house, as the Head of His body, and as the central focus of His people. Indeed, over the last five hundred years Jesus has been emerging among us into clarity before the eyes of the nations by the power of His Holy Spirit. The last ingredient of God’s restorative plan for the Church will be fulfilled when Jesus himself returns and we see Him face to face. Even so, come Lord Jesus.
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