Wild Time of Revelation

By David Hobbs

Like I said in my last post, in talking about this 2-hour, 5 day a week intercessory prayer meeting I have been attending: it’s phenomenal!

Not long after the “ripper” prayer meeting of last post, I started another meeting with the usual zero feeling. I prayed through the first hour just as dry. But when we began interceding together in the second hour, the Holy Spirit came and wrapped Himself around me like a warm blanket. I went from no feelings to being in the middle of His presence in a matter of moments. Duane was playing the piano like he does during the second hour, and I began quietly singing along in the Spirit as others prayed.

Full on in the Spirit now, I was sensing a mighty rolling coming from heaven like when thunder rolls and rumbles through the sky after a crack of lightning. It’s hard to explain but I was sensing a convergence of sound and vibration between heaven and earth.

Suddenly I saw it! When we are all in harmony with heaven--all aligned to God’s will for us, though each having his/her own individual part--there is a harmonic convergence connecting every one of us with God Himself in a harmony of God’s perfect will. Then Jesus’ prayer is truly fulfilled: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This harmonic convergence is like an invisible, spiritual grid connecting each one of us to God. Whatever God’s will, as it evolves from moment to moment, is automatically transmitted down that grid to each one of us connected to the grid and immediately put into effect by the Holy Spirit in us working with our spirit. Then perfect harmony returns the way it was before sin introduced disharmony and dissonance into the creation. Wow! That was rich.

Then I had a revelation of the effect that has on Satan’s kingdom. I remembered this film clip we saw in physics’ class about a suspension bridge built in Washington State in 1940. But as heavy as it was, it wasn’t heavy enough! Four months after completion, a storm sent 40+ mph winds against the bridge. The bridge picked out one of the frequencies of the wind and began to vibrate in sympathy with it. Soon the whole bridge was heaving and rippling in a giant sine wave. It’s crazy to watch. You can see it on YouTube under “Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse.” It oscillated and undulated until it broke apart and fell into the water below. God said, “That’s what happens to the kingdom of darkness when all my people are in harmony with Me: the vibrations created are amplified to such an extent that the enemy’s kingdom vibrates to rubble."

Then He reminded me of the “concrete vibrator” that cement layers use when they pour cement. Cement, when poured, does not flow out perfectly. It is honeycombed with air bubbles that weaken it. But they throw in this metal cylinder that is vibrating so intensely it liquefies the cement, which fills in every air pocket. So the vibrations from heaven, when joined and amplified with the harmony of those on earth, liquefies Satan’s kingdom and causes it to lose its structure.

Another thing I was reminded of later is the phenomenon of waves in the ocean. Most of the time the waves are choppy and don’t accomplish much. On rare occasions though, they happen to align together and produce a mighty wave that has been known to wash sailors off the deck, or fishermen off the rocks and out to sea. It only happens when they align and all their force is added together instead of being at cross-purposes. It can only happen in the spirit when we are all aligned with God’s will.

Then I understood why Satan tries so hard to divide the church. Every time there is a breach in that spiritual, harmonic grid, it weakens until its effect is nothing more than choppy waves in the harbor. Every time a person takes their eye off the Lord and onto another person or thing, they sever their own connection to the Father and lose the power of their note in His symphony. No wonder the enemy goes about so much spreading discord among the brethren. The one thing he can’t afford is for us to all get on the same page in the will of God. Then his kingdom will come crashing down just like the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

Think of it: a huge, multi-ton bridge of cement and steel brought down by nothing more than a stiff breeze blowing through it, all because of the power of harmonic vibration! I left that prayer meeting fairly burning with understanding and excitement over the ways of God. I had to tell somebody, so now I’ve told you!

One Ripper of a Prayer Meeting!

By David Hobbs

We hear a lot about demonic attacks, and I’ve experienced a number of them. But I had never experienced anything like what I’m about to relate to you.

 I’ve started going to this intercessory prayer meeting at my old church led by Stephanie, my long time prayer compadre, and Cheryl, the pastor’s wife, with whom I have spent hundreds of hours in prayer over the last 10 years. Because of the seriousness of the days we are in, the meeting runs 2 hours a day, 5 days a week. We spend the first hour mostly praying in tongues--the first half of which we pray independently, and the second half we sit together in a circle holding hands while we pray. Then we take a few minutes to let people share what they saw or experienced in this first hour praying in the Spirit. The second hour we intercede (“pray into”) those things which people saw in the first hour. Usually there are 6-8 prayer warriors praying, but I have counted as many as 13.

The prayer can be quite intense and I often leave wrung out physically and emotionally, yet energized wondrously in the spirit from crying out to the Lord. Many times I start out with my soul completely dry. I have to go through the motions for a while, but almost invariably the Holy Spirit will come on me at some point and I will be completely quickened. It’s a wonderful prayer meeting!

Two weeks ago to the day we were in the second half of the first hour, circled up and praying in tongues. I sensed a lot of spiritual energy in the room, like static electricity in the air before a thunderstorm, but it wasn’t coming together in focus on any one thing. Then Stephanie launched into a song in the Spirit. Now when I sing a song in the Spirit, it is usually free-flowing and melodic. But Stephanie’s song was martial in character, crisp in cadence like a military marching song--loud and emphatic. It was powerful, but still didn’t draw everyone together. I tried to find a place to flow with it but couldn’t.

When we shared what we were experiencing, I said that I sensed a lot of spiritual energy, but it seemed unfocused. I got some agreement to that. Then we went into the intercession time, but people began slipping away. Stephanie had to leave, and others as well. About 20 minutes into it there was only Cheryl and me and dear sister Sherry, who rarely says anything, though she experiences things deeply in her spirit.

Then it happened!

When I see things in the Spirit I get momentary flashes of mental images, like in my Walking in the Spirit book, where, in the chapter “Spiritual Warfare in the Garden House,” I kept getting images of hideous, angry, demonic faces while feeling their presence in my spirit.

Now, suddenly I saw images of flashing swords, rearing horses, and the chaos of battle. “I think there’s a spiritual battle going on!” I said excitedly to Cheryl, “I’m going to pray into it!" We both started praying and the Spirit swept in and energized us incredibly. The forces of heaven had launched an all-out attack against the armies of hell in the room and we were right in the middle of it!

The battle was no contest. The hosts of heaven were victorious wherever they turned, just like when they went out in front of Israel’s armies in the Old Testament. It’s never a question of who is stronger--God’s forces are always stronger. The question is whether the people of God can qualify for heaven’s help. This morning we had qualified and the battle was engaged. I began casting down demonic strongholds over the area and calling in everything the devil had stolen from us: our health, our callings, our resources, our children, our hopes, our vision—demanding that he restore it all with interest, demanding that he give up all his ill-gotten gain--that he restore seven-fold. We called out for total victory in our area and for the hundred mile radius around us—no more sickness, no more suicides, no more crime, no more demonic influence--the Kingdom of God here on earth just like it is in heaven.

It came in waves. One wave would pass and then another one would come with new images which sparked new prayers. At one point I saw the gates of hell bulging from the pressure coming against them. “The gates of hell shall not prevail against the church!” I shouted over and over. “The gates of hell shall not prevail!” I saw the gates again in vision form splintering as the pressure against them caused bits of wood to break loose and fly off. I never saw them burst open as I hoped, but they suffered significant damage.

The time went on and on with the fire and glory of God all around us and the hosts of heaven routing the wicked foe on every hand. I really thought that we had entered a new reality in God, that this was Armageddon or something--that we had crossed over a divide never to return.

There are times that does happen in the Bible. Enoch walked with God and one day, “poof!” was no more, for God took him. He entered a new realm in God never to return to the old normal. Joel 3:18 says a day is coming when:

 … the mountains shall drip with new wine, the hills shall flow with milk, and all the brooks of Judah shall be flooded with water; a fountain shall flow from the house of the Lord and water the Valley of Acacias.

 Zechariah 14 talks about a similar day:

 6It shall come to pass in that day that there will be no light; The lights will diminish. 7It shall be one day which is known to the Lord—neither day nor night. But at evening time it shall happen that it will be light. 8And in that day it shall be that living waters shall flow from Jerusalem, Half of them toward the eastern sea and half of them toward the western sea; In both summer and winter it shall occur.

 There definitely are such “suddenlys” in the Bible. But not this time. After an incredible half hour the troops rode off and the prayer meeting ended right on time! Still, I was pumped up all weekend. And even now when I relate the story to someone, I get pumped up all over again. I had never seen God launch an attack on the hordes of hell, let alone doing it right in my presence. It was, as my sister Cheryl so aptly put it, “one ripper of a prayer meeting!”

Biggest Hindrance to Church Getting on War Footing--The Rapture Doctrine

By David Hobbs

THIS IS THE 7th IN A SERIES OF POSTS REGARDING THE CHARGE THE LORD GAVE ME TO "CALL THE CHURCH TO A WAR FOOTING."

The biggest hindrance to the church in America getting on a war footing vis its belief in an imminent rapture. The notion that we will be snatched out of here at any time, certainly before any major hostilities erupt, means we won’t have to face the major spiritual armies massing against us. I run into this all the time; people start to talk about what’s about to come against us in the church, then they catch themselves and say, “Wow, I’m glad we’ll be raptured out of here before that happens!” When I worked for the government we called this a “short-timers attitude.” Since you were going to leave soon, why worry about things going on—just leave them for the next person to deal with. In the military too, when you got within a month or so or your separation, you not only quit worrying about problems, you almost quit working altogether. The same thing in school; we called it “spring fever.” A lot of the church has a bad case of this “spring fever” so they certainly don’t want to hear about the necessity of going on a war footing.

No one can deny the rapture as it’s taught by Paul in 1 Thes. 4:16-17 and 1 Cor. 15--it’s in the Bible. It’s going to happen just like Paul says. But when is it going to happen? That is the million-dollar question that everyone thinks they know the answer to. But the wrong answer could plunge an unsuspecting church into a fight for its life against forces it is totally unprepared for. “That’s just your opinion, Brother Hobbs, what makes you think you know better than we?” The short answer is: because there are scriptures being totally ignored like they weren’t even in the Bible. But they are there, and we’d better consider them now while we still have time.

First let’s look at the end time scenario as it is commonly taught. The world gets wickeder like the Bible says. The perilous times come that Paul mentions in 1 & 2 Timothy. The stage is set for the anti-Christ to come forth and take over the world, but he can’t. Something is in his way, holding him back.

In talking about the rapture in 2 Thes. and how the Thessalonians misunderstood his teaching in 1 Thes., Paul goes into a fuller explanation in 2 Thes. 2 starting in verse 3:

 "Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God. Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth …" [NIV] 

 So who or what is is holding the anti-Christ back? “Gosh Brother Hobbs, everyone knows that--it’s the church!” (More specifically, the power of the Holy Spirit working through the church.) As the teaching goes, the church is now holding back the anti-Christ until the church is removed from the earth via the rapture. Then the anti-Christ comes forth and the world enters into tribulation, the bowls of wrath are poured out, the beast is judged and the wicked perish while the Christians are safe in heaven at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

 That’s a nice story, but does it fit reality? Has the church been holding any wicked or evil thing back? Abortion? Homosexual agenda? Corruption? Violence? Societal breakdown of all kinds? What power of evil has the church held back in the last 50 years?

 If it doesn’t fit reality, how does that rapture-narrative fit with scripture? Look at Rev. chapter 12. It’s a poetic look at the war between God and the dragon (the devil). There is a woman there also who represents the people of God, both Old and New Testament. She gives birth to a Son (Jesus) who has come to defeat the dragon. The dragon tries to kill him at his birth (using King Herod) but is unable to, and Jesus flees to Egypt. Since he can’t kill the Son, the dragon goes off to make war against the woman and her seed. At this point the author interjects a clarifying point so we know exactly who this seed is: “those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus.” That sounds like us! He is going off to make war against us!

Then in chapter 13, up from the sea comes the beast. We know this is the anti-Christ because in verse 6 he has a great swelling mouth, which blasphemes God and those who dwell in heaven. So here he comes to make war against us like it said in chapter 12. But we’re not here, right? Though the rapture is not mentioned, yet we have to have been raptured away for the beast to rise out of the sea, right? (Since before this the church has been holding him back.)  Then what is the meaning of Rev. 13:7:

[the beast] was given power to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.

 Daniel too saw this beast (along with three others) rising out of the sea in Dan. 7. This last beast was especially ferocious and had an imposing horn (the anti-Christ) which “was waging war against the holy people and defeating them (vs. 21).” Verse 25 says again, “The holy people will be delivered into his hands for a time, times and half a time.”

Wow! Somebody’s got some wires crossed somewhere! Nowhere does it say or imply that this will be a substitute people of God raised up to replace the raptured church. No folks; we are the holy people of God, and we will be delivered into the anti-Christ’s hands right before the end. Are we ready for that? Are we ready to give our lives if need be? Or are we so sure we’re going to miss it that we are living careless and at ease? Only you can answer that for yourself, but God told me to “call the church to a war footing,” so I have to assume that many, if not most of God’s people, are unprepared for what the scriptures warn is coming.

Let’s look at the rapture again in 1 Thes. 4. Paul says that those who are alive when the rapture comes must wait for all the dead in Christ to rise from their graves and be given new, bodies. Then “we who are alive and remain” will also “meet the Lord in the air.” So all those who have ever been Christians throughout history will leave, and then every Christian still alive will leave. How many Christians does that leave on the earth? Exactly none. Then who is the anti-Christ making war against and overcoming in Dan. 7 and Rev. 13:7?

Verse 8 also implies that there are some of God’s people left, because it makes a distinction between those of the world who accept the mark of the beast, and God’s holy people who don’t. That would be a wasted sentence if it didn’t apply to anyone. And God doesn’t waste words. Besides, why would there even be warnings in the Bible about taking the mark of the beast if all the Christians were gone when it was rolled out? The Book if Revelation is a book of warning to the church, not to the world.

 Jesus confirmed that there would be Christians on the earth up to His coming at the end of the tribulation period, because He said that God's judgments would be so severe that unless those days were shortened, no flesh would live. But “for the sake of the elect,” God would shorten those days (Mt. 24:22, Mark 13:20). I don’t know of any scripture that indicates there will be a time that there are none of God’s people on the earth, as would be the case after the rapture (as it's taught).

 People go to great lengths to get around this problem, such as saying that the 144,000 mentioned in Rev. 14 were Jewish evangelists, who, after the rapture, got saved somehow and then God discipled them, raised them up, empowered them--all without the church’s help--and then they quickly evangelized the earth. Never mind the problem raised by what billions in the church failed to do over 2000 years, these 144,000 were able to do in a snap. (if that were the case, why even have the church for all those years? That would make it a colossal failure! Why reward it by rapturing it out? Rapture out the 144,000 evangelists instead! They’re the real heroes.)

So maybe people who were not saved before the rapture, got saved by seeing the rapture and missing it. All kinds of things are possible, but is there any scripture to back them up? Isn’t the whole rapture scenario just human speculation with little scriptural evidence? For most of its 2000 year history, the church has done just fine without it. It’s only been around since 1830.

But there is scripture that the anti-Christ is going to be allowed to make war on the saints and overcome them. Shouldn’t we be preparing for that event? We know it’s going to happen. God told me, “Call the church to a war footing.” Would you put human speculations ahead of heeding His voice?

The rapture scenario that makes the most sense to me is that it occurs at the second coming of the Lord; that after rising to meet the Lord in the air, the whole entourage accompanies Him back to the earth where He takes His throne and assumes His millennial reign. The verb used in the Greek for “meet” refers to guests going out to meet the guest of honor to escort him back to the estate.

Paul clearly identifies it as "the coming of the Lord" [1 Thes. 4:15]. The idea of a "secret" rapture with the trumpet blast of God, the Lord descending from heaven with a shout, the voice of an archangel, every Christian grave being broken open simultaneously around the world with bodies rising out of them as they’re being transformed, along with 3 billion Christians rising from the earth also being transformed, all being a “secret” event, is … well, mind-boggling. Rather, I see it as a cataclysmic event of epic proportions. The way Paul ends his account in 1 Thes. 4:17 agrees with this. It is the final, climatic, ultimate consumption of biblical history. The breach opened between God and man in Gen. 3 has been closed “And thus shall we ever be with the Lord.” Amen!

The Church's Disastrous Retreat from the Public Square

Post 6 in a series

By David Hobbs

In both the Civil War and the Revolutionary War, the tide of public sentiment was turned by fiery preaching from the pulpits of America. Scottish reformer John Knox was so powerful in the pulpit in Scotland that Mary, Queen of Scots, is reputed to have said, “I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the assembled armies of Europe.”

But the 20th century saw a remarkable change in the pulpits of America. Other than briefly in the black pulpits during the Civil Rights movement, the pulpit’s fire has gone out and the pastors have retreated from the public square and confined their ministry to within their four walls. The reasons for this are not entirely clear, but the results have been disastrous for the church and the nation.

Once the government and the Supreme Court got away with outlawing prayer from the public schools in the 1960s they took an even bolder step 10 years later and legalized abortion at any time during pregnancy. They reasoned that the churches would not rise up and fight them and they were right. The churches fretted and fumed, prayed and marched, but when it was all over, abortion was still legal and the church was back inside its four walls where it's been ever since.

Many church leaders justified their retreat by saying the church shouldn’t be involved in politics anyway, but should instead concentrate on winning souls. When enough souls got saved, they reasoned, they would vote the miscreants out of office. But if that was the church’s strategy, where are all the souls that were saved while the church was absent from the public square? Instead of growing, the church as a whole has been losing members steadily for many years in America.

Once the church proved it wouldn’t fight for even the babies in the womb, the culture began pushing it around like the playground bully. Though over 70% of Americans identify as born-again Christians, they have let the homosexual community, estimated to be around 2½%, defeat and humiliate them on issue after issue, winning not only legally, but also amazingly in the court of public opinion. Nothing brings to mind more clearly the humiliation the people of God experienced at the hand of their enemies in the Book of Judges, than the church in America over for the last 50 years. And instead of repenting for its failures, the church expects the Lord to swoop in, rapture it to heaven, and then trounce the world! Have we learned nothing from our Bibles, which are now available in over 50 English translations?

As things got worse, the pastors adopted a strategy, consciously or unconsciously, that they would concentrate their efforts within the four walls, and delegate the cultural battles to others. The anti-abortion effort became lay-led and has been ever since. How has that worked? Unable to get access through the pulpits to the people (and not possessing the pastors’ God-given charisma to lead the people), lay pro-life leaders were rendered largely ineffective. As one long-term national pro-life leader wrote not long ago, the lay-led pro-life movement has proved to be a colossal failure over the last 40 years. How colossal? It’s failure has cost somewhere between 55 million and 95 million lives.

Is there a singe pulpit the abortionists fear? Any group of intercessors anywhere in the country they cringe at the mention of? They laugh and scorn the church, which is so ineffective that even when that brave band of film makers caught Planned Parenthood in the act of illegally selling baby parts, authorities brought charges against the film makers instead of PP, which has yet to lose a single dime of funding.

As part of this trade off by the pastors to delegate the church’s cultural warfare to others, many Para church ministries have sprung up like Focus on the Family, the American Family Assoc., National Right to Life and many, many more. How has that worked out? They fight for the church continuously on a national level, but have only managed to slow down the cultural decay, not stop or reverse it. All of them put together have not been able to equal the power of the fiery pulpits. And no matter what the situation, whether it’s a victory or a defeat, their answer is always the same, “We need more money!”

Today was the last day of the Supreme Court term and they handed down their tragic decision overturning Texas’ common sense abortion clinic law and then skipped town. Almost immediately I received an email from a national pro-life group informing me of the terrible news and begging for an emergency donation--as much as I could give. I thought, Why? The Supreme Court’s out of town for three months; there’s nothing that can be done about it now. What’s your next strategy going to be, anyway? Do you have any idea? Why do you need money when you don't know what you'll do with it? But they use every opportunity to dun you for money. They have become just more bureaucracies in a city full of bureaucracies, and, like all bureaucracies, self-preservation takes first place on their list of priorities. How I long for one of them to say, “I know you’d like to give, but don’t send any money now. We are going to spend the summer in fasting and prayer, asking the Lord what our next step should be. Please pray with us.” But I never have and probably never will see such a statement. How can God use such an unrighteous system to accomplish His holy will?

Which brings us back to the pastors. It seems clear to me that no one else can do the pastors’ job. God made them His leaders and gave them charisma to lead. God causes His people to follow them because that’s the way He has ordained it. If the pastors don’t lead the church, it is not going anywhere, no matter how much people like me hector and fume. That is one task they cannot delegate to others, no matter how much they want to.

It’s like the leading bass singer in the opera feeling sick and delegating his part to the soprano that night. He can delegate all he wants, but his part is not going to be sung by any soprano. Likewise, no one in all of God’s creation can perform the pastors’ part but them. Either they rise up and do it like they’ve been called to, or it won’t get done and the churches will continue to flounder and lose ground.

John Knox is also known for his prayer to God, “Give me Scotland or I die!” Is there a pastor in America today who will cry out to God, “End abortion for me or I will die!”

God told me to call the church to a war footing, but unless the pastor’s pick up and trumpet that call, it will never happen.

What's the Prophetic "Now" in the Church? Post 5

By David Hobbs

(This is part 5 in a series of numbered posts)

Though the Book of Joel is coming (post 3), I don’t believe we’re there yet. Today the church is in 1 Chron. 12, when there was a major change about to take place in Israel. The Kingdom of Saul had become corrupt before God, yet had resisted all attempts at correction. Now it was about to be replaced by David, who had the anointing of the Holy Spirit and the call of God on his life but little else. The prophetic call had gone out and many had joined David even during the 7 years he was fighting the die-hard remnants of Saul’s kingdom. The people of Israel were having to choose which kingdom they were going to align with, the one from the past still trying to stay in power, or the upstart one with the anointing and promise of God.

Today the church of Jesus Christ stands in a similar place. We must choose between an old, familiar-yet-failed order, and a new one the Holy Spirit is raising up.

Let’s be honest. The church in America has failed. Like the churches in the Book of Revelation, we do have things that are commendable, but we have failed at our most important callings. We have failed at the Great Commission--evangelizing and discipling our world; we have failed at the first and greatest commandment-–loving the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind and strength; we have failed at being the salt and the light of our world; and we have failed at stemming the tide of the evil, sodomistic culture that has taken over America. 

Like King Saul, the church has resisted the attempts of the Holy Spirit to reform it. Awakenings and revivals come and go; while the church slips back into its old deadness. We have lost the fear of the Lord so there is no wisdom. Our people live carelessly like the world with no fear of consequences or judgment. Though the church belongs to Jesus and was purchased by His blood, most of what goes on in it is not His will but man’s. (If the Holy Spirit was having His way, would the churches across America be in the state they are in?)

But now, like in 1 Chron. 12, there is a new move arising from the ashes of the old order: a new army being led by the One David was a type of--Jesus through the Holy Spirit. The call is going forth again. In David’s day the first ones to respond were those whom the old system had rejected: the ones in distress, in debt, or discontented (1 Sam. 22:2). Likewise the ones responding now are those dissatisfied with the old order, dissatisfied with the lack of the power that Jesus promised, dissatisfied with feel-good messages that leave them empty inside--people too much in love with Jesus and the moving of the Holy Spirit to abide dead religion. The Holy Spirit is raising up this army, and for the most part He’s not going through the churches to do it. He’s looking for hungry hearts like it says in 2 Chron. 16:9--to show Himself strong on their behalf.

How do you join it? You must first get up to snuff with the Holy Spirit yourself: you must learn what it is to be Spirit-led; what it means to have a true personal relationship with Jesus and not just talk about it; you must be sold out and fully committed to His will in your life. Then you can look for like-minded people to group together with. Remember, this is an army, not a bunch of spiritual lone rangers. The absence of Koinonia love for the brethren is almost as glaring in the modern church as the absence of true love for God (“if you love Me, keep My commandments”). It’s our love for one another that will prove to the world our connection to Jesus (John 13:35).

In those days there were many like the sons of Issachar (v. 32) who “had understanding of the times, to know what Israel out to do;” so much so that v. 22 says there assembled to David at that time “a great army, like the army of God.”

Will the Holy Spirit do any less in our day? Jesus must have His army, just like He must have His bride.

Time of Great Danger for the U.S.--Post 1

By David Hobbs

(This is the beginning of a string of posts that all flow together, based on a word I received from the Lord to "Call the church to a war footing.")

There has come a time of great danger to this country and to the church, especially between now and when the next president is inaugurated in Jan. 2017.

The very foundations of this nation are being shaken by an accelerating collapse of our moral order and its replacement by an ungodly, sodomistic one. Christians, who over and over again have been unable to stem this tide, are expecting God to step in and judge this horrific state of affairs. But the church is making a serious mistake. The Bible declares in 1 Peter 4:17 that judgment, when it comes, must begin with the house of God. Before God can judge the evil in this nation, He is bound by His word to judge the evil in the church. And the church is woefully unprepared for such judgment. It has been so focused on the speck of sawdust in the nation’s eye that it has missed the plank in its own.

On the recent National Day of Prayer (May 5^th), there were 300-400 at the breakfast sponsored by the CBA—food and a speech in a comfortable setting. That evening, at the prayer-at-the-fountain event, there were 18. On previous National Days of Prayer, we used to have prayer meetings all over town: City Hall, Yuba County Courthouse, even Wheatland. Now we’re down to one event that drew 18 people. But the truly amazing thing was that out of the 18, only 1 was a member from the regular, mostly white, Evangelical/Pentecostal churches that dominate Yuba-Sutter. Only one out of thousands! The church is dwelling careless and at ease. Someone I shared this with said, “Not all people are called to intercession.” Well, how many from our 100+ local churches has God called to intercession? One hundred? Two hundred? Then where were they? When the dike starts to break, everybody swarms up to try and plug it, whether they are trained dike repairers or not. But nobody in the church thinks our dike’s about to break.

When I asked the Lord where the church was, the Lord showed me they were all over town. Doing what? He gave me the scripture of 2 Tim. 2:4 where Paul exhorts Timothy to be a good soldier. (How many Christians today even consider themselves called to be spiritual soldiers? Listen, unless you were a “special needs” student who went to school on the short little school bus, you’re called to be a soldier in this war!) Then Paul told Timothy what was required of God’s soldiers if they wanted to please their commanding officer (Jesus). They had to “refrain from becoming entangled in civilian affairs.” That was God’s answer to my question “Where is the church?” They weren’t in brothels or bars. But they were busily engaged in affairs of this life which had entangled them to the point they had forgotten they were supposed to be soldiers about the Master’s business. When I wondered what could be done about this situation, the Lord told me, “Call the Church to a war footing.”

The church is trying to fight a war with a handful of valiant intercessors, while the rest of the body takes its ease in Zion: living carelessly, going to church when it’s convenient, going to prayer meetings if no ball games are on, glad to be saved by grace and not works! It’s the same way our nation has fought its last few wars: Viet Nam, Iraq and Afghanistan. The wars raged and people died—55,000 in the case of Viet Nam—But the nation was never put on a war footing. We were never called to sacrifice anything or do anything other than live life as usual. Many veterans have said we could have won the Viet Nam War if we had only prosecuted it whole-heartedly. It’s the same way we are fighting ISIS today, with one hand tied behind our backs, trying to pick off a leader here or there. And the church has done the same thing in its war against a spreading culture of evil.

Most of the church doesn’t even realize it’s at war. If you want to know if we’re at war, ask an intercessor. Do you know one?.

Before God can judge Barack Obama, He must judge the church. He must judge the lukewarm, the complacent, and those who put their lives in this world ahead of their calling in God. Many who are sitting at ease in Zion today, waiting to be raptured to heaven, will be shocked to find themselves spewed out of Jesus’ mouth like it says in Rev. 3:16. That is the startling teaching of the Bible. Jesus would rather we were atheists than lukewarm Christians who have lost our first love.

(Keep reading the next post down to continue with this thread)

War Footing—World War II (Post 2)

ByDavid Hobbs

(Keep reading down from the last post above. The thread continues in this post)

Perhaps the greatest example of a nation being on war footing in modern times was the U.S, in World War II. We were viciously attacked which galvanized the nation. We knew the future of our nation depended on us winning this war against two formidable foes, Imperial Japan and Hitler’s Third Reich.

The nation went on war footing. The men marched off to war, the women marched into the factories to produce the weapons of war. Even the children went around with their wagons picking up metal to recycle into the war effort. Food was rationed; gasoline was rationed; whole cities near the coast were blacked out at night; people put their savings into war bonds to fund the war effort; Hollywood made short movie clips for theaters to play between their regular movies exhorting the people to buy war bonds and support the war effort.  There were shortages, there was suffering, there were sacrifices all around. But now we look back and call the World War II generation “The Greatest Generation.” They not only won a world war fought on 2 fronts, but they turned America into the greatest superpower on earth and caused the 20^th century to be called “The American Century.”

That was the last time this nation has been placed on a war footing, and, not coincidently, the last war America has decisively won.

I use that as an example of what a war footing is and what it can accomplish because I believe God is calling the church to a war footing now. It’s the only way we can overcome what is about to hit us.

(Keep reading down to next post for a continuation of the thread)