Prayer That Brings Revival

Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.
1 PETER 2:17

This is a very powerful scripture because it perfectly describes the posture of the Church of Philadelphia. It is the perfect expression of how to balance, as it were, the tensions of allegiance we are supposed to have as Christians. 

There is a deep truth at the heart of this verse and it is this: you cannot honour all men if you do not honour the king. The biggest problem with the Church today is that Christians do not know how to honour people. This is why evangelistic endeavours bear so little fruit. Christians see "unsaved" people in a vampiristic way - they are there to "turn" into believers. If they do not convert, they are regarded as worthless by many Christians. Don't tell me this isn't so, I've been around this too long. Deep down you know it's true. And so do unbelievers; they smell our hidden agendas behind the facade of concern. You see, Jesus honours people. He never condemns or belittles.
 

A lack of honour is the biggest failing of the modern Church. This is no more evident than in the ambivalence shown by many Christians toward our monarchy here in the UK. Many believers forget that we live in a KINGDOM with a monarch anointed by God. No politician has this sacred calling. It is shocking that so many Christians ignore and even mock the monarchy in this nation. If you do not honour the sovereign, you cannot honour all men; the two are mutually inclusive of the other.

Paul charges us in 1 Timothy chapter 2 to pray for all men then immediately after says to pray for kings and all who are in authority. The reason is simple: God has set things up in such a way that the destiny of a nation and its people is inextricably linked with the destiny of its anointed monarch. As goes the Throne, so go the people. A good king can lead the people to peace and prosperity, to greatness and victory. A bad king will do the opposite. Thus to honour the king is to honour all men. To denigrate the king, even by a lack of prayer, is to dishonour all men. These are spiritual matters you cannot afford to ignore.

It is clear from a cursory reading of 1 Timothy 2:1-4 that praying for kings brings peace (manifested in things like reduced crime rates) and honesty back in to society. Such an environment is then conducive to men being saved i.e. a revival atmosphere. Anciently, kings were the harbringers of revival in biblical times e.g. Hezekiah, Josiah. That so many miss this is nothing short of criminal in a society so blighted by multiple problems like ours is.

It is my personal belief that our British Throne is the continuation of the Throne of David in the earth; the descent of our Royal House (and that of virtually every other European monarchy) can easily be traced back to King David. You might not share that belief but the importance of praying for kings still applies and is biblically mandated. Imagine a godly king upon the British Throne - a monarch sold out to Jesus, tongue-talking, devil-stomping, Word-preaching fanatic just like King David. What could God do with such a king? The Scottish preacher John McPhee had the vision of the King (Jesus) within the king on Britain's Throne. Yes, this is an Arthurian vision but it has also been reality more than once in our history. The need for it to be so again is greater than ever in this 21st century.

By praying for kings (and other leaders in Parliament, civil service, military, education etc) you are effectively praying the Kingdom of God down since heaven is a Kingdom ruled by a King and peopled with kings!! I am sure you would agree with me that Britain's best future is one where it is patterned after heaven. Praying for our monarchy is the best way to accomplish this. Seek God until He reveals this secret to you. Do not buy into the blatantly obvious disconnect of thinking kings were good in the past and the future is about a King called Jesus but as for today, we should be governed by politicians. I put my faith in an anointed sovereign over a self-serving politician any day. Yes, we have had bad monarchs but we have had some shocking prime ministers too. Ultimately, we are ruled by one person in all our forms of government so why not stick with the Bible one?

A new book on the descent of Queen Elizabeth II from the biblical King David is available. It is called Daughters Of Destiny and is authored by Glyn Lewis. Price is £9.50. If you want to get this fascinating book, email me and I will send you a copy along with some free books. If you don't want this book but would like to read more on the importance of praying for kings, email me and I will send you a free copy of my book The Key Of David.

A New Paradigm

It can be a terrible thing to receive revelation from God; terrible in that it makes you fear Him but also because it means you can no longer escape truth and its fearful implications. What is, IS, and there is no denying, deflecting or escaping it. The Lord has been deepening and broadening our understanding of the Sardis/Philadelphia paradigms and it is both exhilirating and dreadful.

What is eye-opening is the harsh reality that Sardis is blind to so much of Philadelphia. Moreover, such blindness has no excuse - even though it is actually of God - because it is a wilful ignorance. Sardis folks have no interest in Philadelpia and this is a decision, not an accident. Improving Sardis is what those of Sardis see as being their task in God, along with making it more appealing to the world. Yet Sardis is death and is for the dying. Only Philadelphia has resurrection life. We are not referring here to individual salvation but something way beyond that. Philadelphia's agenda is not to escape eternal damnation but to bring heavenly glory on earth. Philadelphia is, of all the churches, the church of paradox. It is very much heavenly-oriented but also earthly-minded. 

Philadelphia is inherently Johannine because it is about love of the brethren. Compared to Philadelphia, the brotherly love of Sardis will look like hate. In fact, it often really is. Sardis has no place for those who are not of Sardis. It has a hard time recognising them as brethren. And Sardis has no clue of the synagogue of satan; again, this is reserved for the church of mysteries, Philadelphia. Sardis is the modern church and there is something very postmodern about Philadelphia in that it seeks no pat answers. Sardis has its systematic theologies and its Bible answer men. To Sardis, the Bible is "a manual of successful living" and the book that contains all the answers. But Philadelphia is content to have the Bible be a "book of mysteries." Sardis functions in an either/or paradigm; Philadelphia has a both/and approach. Philadelphia is the church that refuses to box God.

Of course, there are many wonderful things in Sardis. It holds enormous appeal to many and it can boast of great treasures. More people have come to faith in Christ under the roof of Sardis than any other era. It has the reputation of being alive and Sardis saints would fight you if you said otherwise. They are proud of their history and their reputation. But the problem is that it is God who says otherwise. What God says is death is, quite simply, death. The remarkable thing is that the first to see it are probably what Sardis calls the "lost" or "unsaved." This is why Sardis is declining in numbers. It is a frightful thing to behold. Of course, Sardis blames the lost themselves as well as the devil and much of Sardis smugly decrees that such decline and declension is all part of the prophetic plan of God.

Sardis is the church of prophetic timelines and charts, the church that seeks to know all things, where mystery is abominated. Sardis has all the answers but doesn't actually know what the questions are. Sardis is obsessed with the antichrist and the mark of the beast and terrifying people into thinking they may be "left behind." This is why Sardis is told that the Lord may come as a thief. Also, Sardis is where you will hear about "giving big so that God can bless you" and where slick preachers will pray "the anointing of Abraham" on you - for a certain donation, of course. Philadelphia has no such blessings to sell since these things are not for sale but are freely given. A Philadelphia saint knows he/she is rich and has no need to manipulate what he/she can manifest by faith. For the blessing-selling huckster of Sardis, however, the warning of Jesus coming as a thief should be very clear.

God loves Sardis folks but that love implores them to repent. Sardis is tainted and imperfect. It is not the vehicle God has chosen to bring about the restoration. That which Sardis longs for, it cannot actually enter into. Like those who wandered around the wilderness and drank of the Rock which is Christ, they cannot enter into the Promised Land. These things were written for our example here at the end of the age. Drinking of Christ is not enough. There is a higher dimension to walk in than Sardis. Sardis people are rabid about Jesus-centredness. But you can't be Jesus-centred if you reject truth! Sardis is a remnant paradigm but Philadelphia is a fullness paradigm.

These truths are being contested in the spirit even as you read this. God is seeking to take us into the Philadelphia paradigm just as He wanted to take Israel into the land. The problem is that Sardis must die first, just as many had to die who were older generations in the wilderness. The modern church must die that the postmodern church may come forth in resurrection life. These terms modern and postmodern are just ways of helping us understand, though technically the term "postmodern" means future or after time. Thus the Church of Philadelphia is a church that draws upon the powers of the age to come.

I cannot make you see Philadelphia, dear reader, only God can. I can pray for you and counsel you to lay hold upon Him. Seek the Lord. If you are blind, ask that you may see. Mysteries await you if you will die to Sardis.