Tsunami

I want to write a short piece about where I think we (the Church) are in terms of the plans and timing of God

As we all know, many countries of the world (but by no means all) chose to take a draconian response to the appearance of the Sars 2 virus. The result for these countries was that strict rules and laws were enacted. Society, healthcare, economies, supply chains and much more were completely disrupted. The effects will take many years to recover from. Inevitably the Church was caught up in this. In the U.K. the government closed all churches for months. It took a good two years for things to return to a sense of “normality” in church life in this country.

As the nation was upended and severely shaken by the response to Covid, I believe that God allowed the Church to be shaken too. I have said this before, but I think that in His allowing the Church to be shaken, God was wanting His Church to turn to Him, to take stock of everything they (we) had been doing. Has we been effective? Is it time to change what we do or how we do it? Are there things we need to stop doing? Are there things we need to start doing?

Wise leaders used the time well to seek after God’s heart on these issues and began to institute changes. I know of one group of churches who scrapped their plans for a multimillion pound new building complex because they felt God was saying that the way forward for the future was to work in smaller communities, not big central gatherings. I was in another church in Newcastle who decided to suspend everything except for the Sunday gathering and the prayer meeting because they wanted to know what God was saying for the years ahead.

So, why Tsunami as the title for this? Well, I think there are similarities between how a Tsunami sometimes works, and where we are now.

Often, before a Tsunami, the tide recedes a long way out, and quickly too. In doing so, it reveals what is lying on the sea bed. Then there is a long pause, and then suddenly the tide comes in quickly, powerfully and with much force. I believe we are in the period after the tide has receded. We are in the long pause. The time where there is silence; (immediately before the recent Turkish/Syrian earthquake, the thing people noticed was that the birds stopped singing).

In this pause, where the waters have receded as it were, there are two things to note.

Firstly, things have been exposed. On the seabed it would be rocks or perhaps half buried objects. For the Church it has been our disjointed-ness because we have each been largely ploughing our own denominational furrow (and being non-denominational is simply another denomination). It has exposed our inability to multiply – the only way in which we will reach the nation and the world. (More of this later). It has exposed our dependence on buildings. Tell us that we can’t use our buildings and we’re scuppered, more or less.

Secondly, we are in that quiet time where it seems as if nothing much is going on. For many this has been a time of simply trying to get back to what they were doing before – back to “normality”. I use inverted commas because I believe that by the standard of the New Testament as a whole, much of what we were doing previously wouldn’t count as normal. Also, for many this has just been a time to heave a sigh of relief and relax back into the familiar. This is to misunderstand where we are.

If your response on the beach to the sudden disappearance of the sea was to lie back and snooze in the silence, that would be foolhardy and dangerous. Similarly, any response to the apparent calm of the moment to just relax and enjoy the familiar, is foolhardy and dangerous. We have been given this gift of time in which to prepare ourselves for what’s ahead. To snooze our way through it is foolhardy and dangerous. This period of calm before the big inrush of the flood is limited. I believe we only have last year, this year and perhaps next year in which to get ready.

I used the phrase, ‘the big inrush’ to describe what is coming. Obviously with a Tsunami it is water – lots of it coming powerfully and fast, sweeping away all kinds of stuff before it. It would be lovely to think that what is coming is just a mighty inrush of the Spirit and Power of God, and that we could look forward to being swept along victoriously on the crest of a wave. However, I think there is more to it than that.

Just as God knows what time it is, so does Satan. He can read the times as well as anybody! I believe we are going to see an incoming flood of two separate parts. I think we are going to see an unprecedented deluge of evil flood the earth, and it will sweep many away who allow themselves to be seduced by it and its accompanying right-sounding arguments and justification. At the same time we will see an unprecedented deluge of Holy Spirit and His power, which will gather up millions who submit themselves to Jesus the King.

It may seem quiet now, but soon all hell and all heaven are going to break loose. Now is the time to prepare, as individuals and as the Church.

When I talk of a deluge of Holy Spirit and His power hitting this nation, and the rest of the earth, don’t for a minute think “that’s great. I can just stand back and watch people flood into our church”. No. That’s not it. There’s work to do. The gospel still has to be preached – by us. Disciples still have to be made – by us. The sick still have to be healed – by us. Those oppressed by demons still have to be delivered – by us. And not just the occasional person coming to Christ who needs to be neatly parcelled up and allotted their little niche in church. No, that’s not it either. Things need to change and now is the time to get ready.

We need to make disciples (plural) who make disciples (plural) who make disciples (plural)and so on. Plural means defo more than one and ideally more than a measly two. 2 becomes 4, and 4 becomes 8, and 8 becomes 16, and 16 becomes 32, and 32 becomes 64 and so on and so on. And when we all do that, the church grows exponentially instead of the addition that we see at the moment. We also need churches that plant churches that plant churches (plural) and so on. Exponential growth.

No longer is this about us. No longer is it to be My story, My fulfilment, My happiness, My gifting, My calling, My ministry, My church, My denomination, My stream. This, from now on is about one Person only. It’s about Jesus as the undisputed King of everything.

Secondly, it’s about the lost. Reach the lost. Disciple the lost and then teach them to do exactly the same – and straight away

Lastly it’s about not loving our own lives – for some of us maybe unto death. Who knows what lies ahead? Ridicule, being ostracised or rejected, Standing out from the crowd or not being allowed to participate. Perhaps worse. The two fastest growing churches in the world are in Iran and Afghanistan (God is on the move!) In those countries believers run the risk of arrest and prison. Some don’t come out from those prisons. We’d be fanciful to think that that could never happen here. The bottom line is that we are born into a war and the end for us is VICTORY.