Jun
29
2009

Don’t Take the Gospel For Granted

The following excerpt was taken from Contact with God by Jeanne Wilkerson.

jeanne-wilkersonIt is important to never take this glorious gospel for granted! You may think that you will always have the bright light of God’s Word available to you, but darker days are coming. You can’t just sit in the seat of ease in Zion after you have been saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. You must maintain your spiritual life and keep yourself sharp in the Word. You must allow the same source that produced that life-the Holy Spirit-to sustain it.

The gospel can be compared to light. It is like the moving of the sun, which rises on one horizon, crosses the heavens, and sets in another horizon. While we have the sunlight, the gospel, it is day. But the Bible says the night is coming, and unless we continue to walk in the light, the darkness will overtake us (John 12:35).

According to Romans 15:19, Paul took the gospel to a place known as Illyricum. After he did, the churches and people were so blessed by the beautiful light of the glorious gospel that signs and wonders followed. Today that same region is known as Albania.

It is the place where Paul performed so many signs and wonders in the name of Jesus, and the glorious gospel was proclaimed with all of its beauty and power. Through Paul, the people of Albania saw the gospel manifested through powerful signs and wonders.

But notice the more recent history of this nation where so many miracles had been performed. Albania is the first nation in the world to declare herself totally atheistic. Today it is a communist nation, and most of the people are Muslims.

In 1967, after a fiery speech by Albania’s ruler, two thousand convents, monasteries, mosques, and churches were taken over to be put to use for “better purposes.” The ministers and priests were assigned to hard labor, and since 1967, the practice of Christianity has been totally forbidden. Bibles were collected and burned, and even the mere possession of a Bible warrants one’s being shot by a firing squad.

It is hard to believe this is the same place that once saw such mighty signs and wonders!

A broadcast from the capital city of Tarana reported that severe measures had to be taken to erase Christianity from the minds of the people-extreme measures such as sealing Christians in barrels and rolling them alive into the sea.

The bishop of Duress in Albania was enclosed in an iron cage the size of his body. Inside, the walls were covered with spikes that penetrated his flesh. He was then pushed along the streets until he died. The London Daily Telegraph reported that several priests had been shot by firing squads.

Children are placed in state nurseries from birth. Their parents are not allowed to have custody of them. They are given two hours visitation privileges daily to spend with the child, if both the child and mother desire it. Over half the population in Albania is under twenty-five years of age.

Less than five percent of its citizens are ever permitted to leave the country. Albania is the second smallest country in Europe, the size of Belgium. It is bordered by Yugoslavia, Greece, the Adriatic, and Ionion Seas. It is Europe’s most primitive, backward nation, though the Communist party’s chief objective is to create a “new man.”

This place that had actually witnessed the birth of the gospel and had seen the signs and wonders of our God within its borders is no longer walking in His blessings. Sadly, if in our own lives we don’t take advantage of God’s hour of visitation, as in the case of Albania, we will not always enjoy divine demonstrations from God.

Freedom is the most valuable commodity in the world. People who travel to the underprivileged nations of the world will often tell you what a privilege it is to enjoy religious freedom in America. For example, a friend of mine who traveled to preach at a church in a communist nation told me about the adversity he witnessed.

He said that the Christians in that country spend hours upon hours crying out to God to give them just a few hours of freedom to preach the gospel.
We can pray for people to be saved, but we must also be obedient to go and bring the gospel to the people.

In light of the vision Oral Roberts had in July of this year, this next portion is a vision that Kenneth Hagin Jr. had in 1985:
I’m sure you’ve seen, while driving in the dark, off in the distance, a mighty glow against the skyline-some large, metropolitan city, fanning its light against the night sky.

I began to see the world, I saw the glow as it came from the North American continent, out of the United States, this glow. I saw that it got brighter, and brighter, and brighter, and began to spread north, south, east, and west.

It spread until, as the globe turned, I could see it encompass islands of the sea, other countries, and the darkness was driven away, light began to encompass these countries. Even as the light came to some of them, they weren’t all black and dark, but sort of in twilight, but some were completely amassed in darkness, and this encroaching light would make them bright.

I said, “Lord, what is the meaning of all this?” it had encompassed the whole earth.

He said, “This is the last day revival that people have been talking about. It’s the new WAVE people have been talking about. This is the MOVE of the end time of the Holy Spirit. And it’s not just a revival that’s going to reach one nation, not a revival for a few ’spots’ around the world, as you saw what seemed like twilight in some of the countries, that was where there is something happening already.

“This revival will encompass the whole world. It will involve My people all over the world who are willing in this last day to be mature, and to do the job that I’ve called them to do. It’s not going to happen easily, as one would think, or that it seems that it does to others.”

I said, “What do you mean?”

He said, “It’s going to happen as My people begin to call on My Name, and ASK for the anointing and the power of God to move in the Church-not move on me individually; not move on our group; not move on our denomination; not move on the so-called “faith” people; or this people or that people. But as MY people fall on their faces and begin to pray, and say, ‘God, we want a revival-we don’t care whether it’s through us or someone else-we want a revival of the power of the Spirit of God!’”

“Then,” He said, “it’s going to happen. It’s already started, because the glow you began to see, not only in your country, but also in the other countries who were in twilight-that’s the people of God who are hungry for revival.”
Kenneth Hagin Jr. then delivered this prophetic word:
“Some will say, ‘I don’t know about this.’ Others will say, ‘Let’s watch!’ and they will be like the fifty prophets that watched Elisha.”

“But I say to you this night, if you will bow before Me in prayer and praise and will not be ashamed of the Holy Spirit and the demonstration of the power of God, I will lead you into the greatest anointing that you have ever known! And your churches will grow. And everything that you do will turn to victory!”

“And there will not be anything that can stand in your way and that can defeat you! But you will march arm in arm, running to tear the devil’s kingdom apart. And gathering souls from the harvest field as you run! Because the revival is now at hand!

“And it shall be poured out upon all of those that are willing to be God’s vessels, dedicated to the power of God and not be ashamed if somebody calls them this or that or something else. And not be ashamed to stand and demonstrate the power of God in the face of all odds that says, ‘It can’t happen!’”

God says, “I will be with you. I will anoint you and there will be a revival. I am only looking for vessels. Will you be that vessel?”

No Comments »

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL


Leave a Reply

Powered by WordPress. Theme: TheBuckmaker. Bonitaet, selbst bauen