Recently I’ve been seeing articles and posts predicting a revival in the US. I don’t know whether a revival is coming or not. I welcome it if it does. What I notice about the majority of these posts is that they leave out going after God with a sense of urgent desperation and consistent, ongoing prayer that includes crying out to Him for mercy and facing our sin in a spirit of brokenness and humility.
“The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
Jonah 3:6-9
The Assyrian revival was sparked after Jonah told them they had 40 days to turn from their sin or the hammer of judgement would drop. Not because they were predicting or planning a revival. They were locked in on going hard after God and crying out for mercy.
What is also missing from the revival predictions is the need to face the massive wave of sexual sin that has swamped the church and the lukewarm, entertainment-choked state of many. We don’t see mourning over sin Paul addressed in 1 Corinthians 5. That’s for “those other denominations,” not stoic, got it together evangelicals. But then, we American Christians don’t tend to do “urgent.” God is in control and we win in the end. Why worry?
Revival or not, it’s important that we look at what we know from God’s word that is just around the corner.
In Revelation 5 we see Jesus breaking open a scroll with 7 seals. As He breaks each seal, another wave of devastation is set in motion. Verse 6 shows that the breaking of the third seal will trigger runaway inflation:
“A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius…”
A denarius is a day’s wage. Imagine spending several hundred dollars for a loaf of bread.
When the fourth seal is broken in Revelation 6:7-8, one fourth of the earth’s population is wiped out.
“When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth” (emphasis mine).
And we’re just getting started. There will be 7 seals and 7 trumpets of judgement; 14 waves altogether.
Revelation 6:9-11 makes it clear that God’s people will be there during this time:
“When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been” (emphasis mine).
Many believers will lose their lives during the 4th seal devastation, with more to come. No provision is given for a mass exit of believers, ie the rapture, during this time.
In Revelation 7 we see a scene of a “great multitude from every tribe and nation.” After John asks who they are, he is told:
“Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (emphasis mine).
Thousands of years earlier, Daniel prophesied the following in Daniel 7:21-22: “As I looked, this horn made war with the saints and prevailed over them, until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given for the saints of the Most High, and the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom” (emphasis mine).
The ”horn” is the Antichrist.
Christians in the tribulation will be martyred in large numbers.
In Revelation 9, after the sixth trumpet it blown, one third of mankind is killed. More than half of the earth’s population has now been wiped out.
Revelation 13:7 confirms Daniels that the Antichrist will murder God’s people:
“Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them.”
In Revelation 13:10 the church is urged to be prepared for what is coming:
“If anyone is to be taken captive,
to captivity he goes;
if anyone is to be slain with the sword,
with the sword must he be slain.
Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.”
(Emphasis mine.)
There is a second call to the saints in Revelation 14:12:
“Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.”
Both of these calls for endurance echo Jesus’ words in Luke 21:16-18:
“You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives” (emphasis mine).
…And Mathew 24:9-14:
“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
I see many Christians celebrating the coming return of Christ, to which I say, “Yes and amen.” Then I find myself thinking, “Have you read the Bible, especially the book of Revelation, and do you know what’s coming before Jesus arrives on the scene? If your life is among the one quarter of the earth’s population that are killed at the start of the tribulation when the fourth seal is opened and this time comes soon, are you ready?
If today you:
Have a hard or bitter heart.
Are living in open, willful, disobedience to God, sexual sin included, or are in bondage to any kind of sin.
Are isolated.
Are hurting, particularly with unresolved heart wounds.
Are in a lukewarm state.
Spend hours in entertainment, wasting your life, while giving God several minutes a day.
Are prayerless.
Are not pouring your life out for that which counts for eternity or have any fruit to show.
Then, do whatever it takes to make changes, TODAY. Get help if you’re hurting, cut off the stumbling blocks of sin under your control, plug in to a tribe of believers, turn the spigot of entertainment way down, pour yourself into prayer, ask God to show you how He wants you to be a blessing to others and spend your life on eternal priorities, immerse your mind in God’s word, forgive who you need to forgive, unretire, and make going after God your biggest priority in life.
And attend prayer meetings regularly!
If you knew that the fourth seal would be broken one year from now and your life would be over, how would you order your remaining time? What would you change? What would you focus on?
I hope it wouldn’t be staring at a screen 5-6 hours a day as most Americans are doing, Christian entertainment included.
I encourage you to read the bible yourself and ask God to speak to you through it. Forget about what you’ve heard every pastor say, what I’ve said. Walk through the book of Revelation and the passages in Luke and Matthew where Jesus talks about the end times. I fed on a steady diet of man-made PTR (pretrib rapture) until I stripped away what man said and let the Scripture speak for itself. There are way too many warnings about being ready and passages that show believers in the tribulation and being martyred for me to buy into PTR. If the rapture does hit before the tribulation, hey, let’s go!
But if not, we must be ready to go the distance.
