Looking Ahead

Plenty of people are warning of difficult times ahead, but anyone with their eyes open can see that the world faces many problems. The challenge is to prepare God’s people to remain strong through the times of distress and to be victorious out the other side.

The Church should be explaining how Christians can remain strong while the world is crumbling and weak. It should explain how Christians would be able to reach out to the people of the world who are struggling and draw them into a place of safety. It should be telling them how to start building the new thing that God wants to establish in the middle of the world’s troubles.

We do not need more prophets warning of political and economic disasters. We need prophets who can prepare Gods people how to survive through the difficult times and deliver a new thing after the times of distress run their course.

The Bible describes the “men from Issachar who understood the times and knew what Israel should do” (1 Chron 12:32). Every society needs people who understand the times and know what God’s people should do. Most of the time this gift has been lacking from the church.
When Rome fell, Christians were shocked. The Roman Empire had been around for 500 years, so they assumed that it would be around forever. Christians believed that it was part of God’s plan for expanding his Kingdom. They were so used to it being there, that they could not imagine life without it.

Worse still, church structures had aligned with imperial power structures, so Christians found it hard to cope without the order of the empire. No one prepared Christians for the collapse of Rome. They had not prepared Christians to live in a world without an empire, so they struggled to cope, an enormous opportunity was lost. It took the church a 1000 years to regain the ground that was lost.

We have the same problem in the modern world. Democratic political power and the nation-state have dominated life in the West for so long that we find it hard to imagine life without them. However, they are not part of God’s plan of salvation so they will not last forever.
Many Christians have identified democratic capitalism with the Kingdom of God. When the evils of democratic capitalism are exposed, they will be totally shocked. Just like the Christians shocked by the collapse of Rome.

When the western political system collapses, will Christians be ready to take advantage of the opportunity, or will we be stunned and confused like the Christians in the Roman Empire. Unless the quality of our prophetic ministry improves, we will be stuck in the headlights of disaster, just like them.

We do not need more warnings of political and economic disasters. We need prophets who can prepare Gods people how to survive through the difficult times and deliver a new thing after the times of distress run their course.