The Turning Point

Editor’s Note: This is the final installment of a nine-part series, with a new installment presented every day in Charisma Digital Daily. You can access the previous story here. These articles are excerpted from Stephen E. Strang’s God, Trump and COVID-19, which is now available to purchase. Click here to learn more.

In these unsettling times what good can all these problems bring? If you’re a Christian, they may point to an awakening—a turning toward God not only in America but around the world.

Rev. Kevin Jessip, president of the Global Strategic Alliance, believes a tsunami of the Holy Spirit is beginning to flow, bringing with it overwhelming fruit, dreams, visions, signs, wonders, miracles, and all manner of spiritual gifts.

“We are on the verge of the greatest move of God in all the ages. This outpouring will sweep multitudes into the kingdom of God as they are saved, healed, and delivered,” Kevin said. “Spiritual leaders from around the world are sensing this wave. This sovereign move of God is rising, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, there is a new unity being woven within the fabric of the body of Christ.”

Kevin should know. He’s a great networker, and he’s working with church leaders across the globe to call for repentance. This is what 2 Chronicles 7:14 is talking about when it says we must humble ourselves, pray, and seek God’s face, believing that as we repent and turn, God’s response will be to hear from heaven, forgive our sins, and heal our land.

For those who have spiritual eyes, Kevin explains it this way: “Our foundation is in our identity in Christ bought by His blood on Calvary’s cross and through the finished work of His sacrifice. Since the Spirit of God incarnated Immanuel and entered history from eternity in Jesus of Nazareth, the receding tide was reversed. This was the beginning of the greatest outpouring since creation was born. As an earthquake at the bottom of the ocean produces a tsunami, so the birth of Jesus the Messiah shook the very foundations of hell.”

Kevin says Jesus’ incarnation, life, death, resurrection and ascension were like an earthquake. Then before He went to heaven, Jesus told His disciples to go to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth and make disciples (Matt. 28:18-20, Acts 1:8). That happened in the first few centuries after the birth of the church, and the power of the Holy Spirit that fell in the upper room on the Day of Pentecost is still at work on the earth almost two millennia later.

As Spirit-filled believers we know God is still healing the sick and raising the dead. The power and gifts of the Holy Spirit have been at work uninterrupted throughout church history and have continued even into this present day.

Kevin told me that one of the Greek words translated “opportunity” in the Scriptures is kairos. It implies the right moment, that which lasts only for a while. Kairos means a God-given opportunity is being offered to mankind at a specific moment in time. However, the word also implies there is a risk-of faith. In other words, as time moves on, we can miss the opportunity.

We are living in a kairos moment today. First Corinthians 14:8 says, “If the trumpet makes an uncertain sound, who will prepare himself for the battle?” This verse is warning us that now is our personal kairos. Like the men from the tribe of Issachar who had “understanding of times” (1 Chron. 12:32), we are called to understand our times and seize the moment.

Kevin also pointed out that the word opportunity comes from the Latin phrase ob portum veniens, which means “coming toward a port.” He said in the ancient world seamen used the term to describe the time when the tide and winds were favorable to make it safely to port. When that moment came, they would set their sails to take full advantage. In the same way, when God is at work, as He is now, we must wake up to that opportunity, set our sails to His favor, and ride in His boat, using the wind and tide.

The Holy Spirit’s anointing does not flow without conditions. It continues and increases through the same process that secured it at first: unceasing prayer to God. We must count all else loss and failure without it. His holy oil only fills praying hearts.

Prayer is the sole condition to maintain this anointing, which pervades the spirit, convicts the conscience, and breaks the heart. There are now rumblings as never before of the Spirit’s outpouring as in the promised latter rain. The Lord is arising for the sake of His name, infusing His bride with a habitation of His Holy Spirit, where there is no fear as she enters His rest.

The time has come for each of us; we have been called to seize the moment! We are at the threshold of the greatest move of God in our time. Though the time of God’s favor has been generously extended to all people at all times through the cross, church historians have noted specific seasons of God’s increased favor throughout history.

Scholars use terms such as outpouring, awakening, movement, and revival to describe those unique periods when God bestowed His grace and power in unusual measure upon a people to extend His kingdom on earth. Anything other than a Nineveh-type move of repentance will not move us forward in the battle for the soul of our nation or any nation.

We must seize the moment. Carpe diem—seize the day! Seize the God-given opportunity. The Scriptures say God will “do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or imagine, according to the power that works in us” (Eph. 3:20). However, for that to happen, we must be men and women of action who are ready to respond by faith to what God has initiated. As Paul said, we must “walk carefully, not as fools, but as wise men, making the most of the time because the days are evil” (Eph. 5:15-16). {eoa}

To be continued in God, Trump and COVID-19. To purchase the full book now, click here.