Empires are built through the creation or acquisition of wealth. The Roman Empire came about through the productivity of its people and its subsequent acquisition of wealth from those that it invaded. The Spanish Empire began with productivity and expanded through the use of its large armada of ships, looting the New World of its gold.

The British Empire began through localized productivity and grew through its creation of colonies worldwide—colonies that it exploited, bringing the wealth back to England to make it the wealthiest country in the world.

In the Victorian Age, we Brits were proud to say, “There will always be an England,” and “The sun never sets on the British Empire.” So, where did we go wrong? Why are we no longer the world’s foremost empire? Why have we lost not only the majority of our colonies, but also the majority of our wealth?

Well, first, let’s take a peek back at the other aforementioned empires and see how they fared. Rome was arguably the greatest empire the world has ever seen. Industrious Romans organized large armies that went to other parts of the world, subjugating them and seizing the wealth that they had built up over generations.

And as long as there were further conquerable lands just over the next hill, this approach was very effective. However, once Rome faced diminishing returns on new lands to conquer, it became evident that those lands it had conquered had to be maintained and defended, even though there was little further wealth that could be confiscated.

The conquered lands needed costly militaries and bureaucracies in place to keep them subjugated but were no longer paying for themselves. The “colonies” were running at a loss. Meanwhile, Rome itself had become very spoiled. Its politicians kept promising more in the way of “bread and circuses” to the voters, in order to maintain their political office. So, the coffers were being drained by both the colonies and at home.

Finally, in a bid to keep from losing their power, Roman leaders entered into highly expensive wars. This was the final economic crippler and the empire self-destructed.

Spain was a highly productive nation that attacked its neighbours successfully and built up its wealth, then became far wealthier when it sailed west, raiding the Americas of the silver and gold that they had spent hundreds of years accumulating.

The sudden addition of this wealth allowed the Spanish kings to be lavish to the people and, as in Rome, the Spanish became very spoiled indeed. But once the gold and silver that was coming out of the New World was down to a trickle, the funding for maintaining the empire began to dry up.

Worse, old enemies from Europe were knocking at the door, hoping to even old scores. In a bid to retain the empire, the king entered into extensive warfare in Europe, rapidly draining the royal purse and, like Rome, the Spanish Empire self-destructed.

In the Victorian era, the British Empire was unmatched in the world. It entered the industrial revolution and was highly productive. In addition, it was pulling wealth from its colonies in the form of mining, farming and industry. But, like other countries in Europe, it dove into World War I quickly and, since warfare always diminishes productivity at home whilst it demands major expense abroad, the British Empire was knocked down to one knee by the end of the war.

Then, in 1939, the game was afoot again and Britain was drawn into a second world war. By the end of the war, it could still be said that there would always be an England, but its wealth had been drained off and, one by one, its colonies jumped ship. The days of empire were gone.

Into the breach stepped the US. At the beginning of World War I, the US took no part in the fighting, but, as it had experienced its own industrial revolution, it supplied goods, food, and armaments to Britain and her allies. Because the pound and other European currencies could not be trusted not to inflate, payment was made in gold and silver. So the US was expanding its productivity into a guaranteed market, selling at top dollar, using the profits to create larger, more efficient factories, and getting paid in gold.

Then, in 1939, it all happened again. Although the US eventually joined both wars, they did so much later than Britain and her allies. At the end of World War II, the US had a lively young workforce, as they had lost fewer men to the war. They also had modern factories, which had been paid for by other nations, that could now be used to produce peacetime goods for themselves and the rest of the world more efficiently than anyone else.

And (and this is a very big “and”) by 1945 they owned or controlled three quarters of the world’s gold, as they’d drained it away from the warring nations in the early days of the war. This allowed the US to invite the post-war leaders to Bretton Woods to explain that, as the holders of the world’s wealth, they’d dictate what the world’s default currency would be: the dollar.

But this was all threatened by the fact that, when the now-poorer nations of the world sold their goods to the US, they, too, beginning with the French, wished to be paid in gold.

And so, in the subsequent years, the gold in Fort Knox was beginning to travel back to the east, from whence it had come in previous years. In 1971, this flow was shut off, as the US, still the foremost empire, had the power to simply remove all intrinsic value from the dollar and turn it into a fiat currency. Payment in gold ended.

Fast-forward to the post-millennium era and we see that America, like the previous empires, ended its acquisition of gold after World War II, yet its people became spoiled by political leaders who promised ever-increasing bread and circuses.

The productivity that led to its initial strength was dying off, and it was spending more than it was bringing in. Finally, it sought to maintain its hegemony through warfare, thereby creating a dramatic drain to its wealth.

Like other empires before it, the US is now on the verge of relinquishing the crown of empire. If there’s any difference this time around, it’s that its collapse will very likely be far more spectacular than that of previous empires. However, just as in previous collapses, those who least understand that the collapse is around the corner are those who are closest to its centre.

Clearly, the majority of Americans are worried about their future yet cannot conceive of their country as a second-rate power. And those who hold the reins of that power tend to be the most deluded, delving ever-deeper into debt at an ever-faster rate, whilst expanding welfare and warfare without any concept of how it might all be paid for.

It’s understandable, therefore, that those of us who are on the outside looking in find it easier to observe objectively from afar and see the coming self-destruction of yet another empire.

As stated in the first line of this essay, “empires are built through the creation or acquisition of wealth.” They tend to end through the gradual elimination of the free-market system, the metamorphosis to a welfare state, and, finally, through the destruction of wealth through costly warfare.

Does this indicate the “end of the world”? Not at all. The world did not end with the fall of Rome, Spain, England, or any one of the many other empires. The productive people simply moved to a different geographical location—one that encourages free-market opportunity. The wealth moved with them, then grew, as the free market allowed productive people to make it grow.

Freedom and opportunity still exist and indeed flourish. All that’s changing is the locations where they are to be found.

Jeff Thomas is British and resides in the Caribbean. The son of an economist and historian, he learned early to be distrustful of governments as a general principle. Although he spent his career creating and developing businesses, for eight years, he penned a weekly newspaper column on the theme of limiting government. He began his study of economics around 1990, learning initially from Sir John Templeton, then Harry Schulz and Doug Casey and later others of an Austrian persuasion.

Copyright 2017, Casey Research International– All rights reserved

Is it too much to say that since the French Revolution, the left has been the source of virtually all political evils, and continues to be so in our day?

There can be no doubt that great cruelty and violence can be and have been inflicted in the name of preserving the existing order.

But when we compare even the worst enormities of the more distant past with the leftist totalitarian revolutions and total wars of the twentieth centuries, they are in general a mere blip. The entire history of the Inquisition, said Joe Sobran, barely rises to the level of what the communists accomplished on a good afternoon.

The French Revolution, and particularly its radical phase, was the classic manifestation of modern leftism and served as the model for still more radical revolutions around the world more than a century later.

As that revolution proceeded its aims grew more ambitious, with its most fervent partisans demanding nothing less than the total transformation of society.

In place of the various customs and settled ways of a France with well over a millennium of history behind it, the radical revolutionaries introduced a “rational” alternative cooked up in their heads, and with all the warmth of an insane asylum.

Streets named after saints were given new names, and statues of saints were actually guillotined. (These people guillotining statues were the rational ones, you understand.) The calendar itself, rich with religious feasts, was replaced by a more “rational” calendar with 30 days per month, divided into three ten-day weeks, thereby doing away with Sunday. The remaining five days of the year were devoted to secular observances: celebrations of labor, opinion, genius, virtue, and rewards.

Punishments for deviations from the new dispensation were as severe as we have come to expect from leftism. People were sentenced to death for owning a Rosary, giving shelter to a priest, or indeed refusing to abjure the priesthood.

We are plenty familiar with the guillotine, but the revolutionaries concocted still other forms of execution as well, like the Drownings at Nantes, designed to humiliate and terrorize their victims.

Given that the left has sought the complete transformation of society, and given that such wholesale change is bound to come up against the resistance of ordinary people who don’t care for having their routines and patterns of life overturned, we should not be surprised that the instrument of mass terror has been the weapon of choice. The people must be terrified into submission, and so broken and demoralized that resistance comes to seem impossible.

Likewise, it’s no wonder the left needs the total state. In place of naturally occurring groupings and allegiances, it demands the substitution of artificial constructs. In place of the concrete and specific, the Burkean “little platoons” that emerge organically, it imposes remote and artificial substitutes that emerge from the heads of intellectuals. It prefers the distant central government to the local neighborhood, the school board president over the head of household.

Thus the creation of the departments, totally subordinate to Paris, during the French Revolution was a classic leftist move. But so were the totalitarian megastates of the twentieth century, which demanded that people’s allegiances be transferred from the smaller associations that had once defined their lives to a brand new central authority that had grown out of nowhere.

The right (properly understood), meanwhile, according to the great classical liberal Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, “stands for free, organically grown forms of life.”

The right stands for liberty, a free, unprejudiced form of thinking; a readiness to preserve traditional values (provided they are true values); a balanced view of the nature of man, seeing in him neither beast nor angel, insisting on the uniqueness of human beings which cannot be transformed into or treated as mere numbers or ciphers. The left is the advocate of the opposite principles; it is the enemy of diversity and the fanatical promoter of identity.

Uniformity is stressed in all leftist utopias, paradises in which everybody is the same, envy is dead, and the enemy is either dead, lives outside the gates, or is utterly humiliated. Leftism loathes differences, deviations, stratifications…. The word “one” is its symbol: one language, one race, one class, one ideology, one ritual, one type of school, one law for everybody, one flag, one coat of arms, one centralized world state.

Is Kuehnelt-Leddihn’s description partly out of date? After all, who touts their allegiance to “diversity” more than the left? But the left’s version of diversity amounts to uniformity of an especially insidious kind. No one may hold a dissenting view about the desirability of “diversity” itself, of course, and “diverse” college faculties are chosen not for their diversity of viewpoints but precisely for their dreary sameness: left-liberals of all shapes and sizes. What’s more, by demanding “diversity” and proportional representation in as many institutions as possible, the left aims to make all of America exactly the same.

Leftists have long been engaged in a bait-and-switch operation. First, they said they wanted nothing but liberty for all. Liberalism was supposed to be neutral between competing worldviews, seeking only an open marketplace of ideas in which rational people could discuss important questions. It did not aim to impose any particular vision of the good.

That claim was exploded quickly enough when the centrality of government-run education to the left-liberal program became obvious. Progressive education in particular aimed to emancipate children from the superstitions of competing power centers (parents, church, or locality, among others) and transfer their allegiance to the central state.

Of course, the leftist yearning for equality and uniformity played a role as well. There is the story of the French Minister of Education who, looking at his watch, tells a guest, “At this moment in 5,431 public elementary schools, they are writing an essay on the joys of winter.”

As Kuehnelt-Leddihn put it:

Church schools, parochial schools, private schools, personal tutors, none is in keeping with leftist sentiments. The reasons are manifold. Not only is delight in statism involved, but also the idea of uniformity and equality — the idea that social differences in education should be eliminated and all pupils be given a chance to acquire the same knowledge, the same type of information, in the same fashion, and to the same degree. This should enable them to think in identical or at least in similar ways.

As time has passed, leftists have bothered less and less to pretend to be neutral between competing social visions. This is why conservatives who accuse the left of moral relativism have it so wrong. Far from relativistic, the left is absolutist in its demands of conformity to strict moral codes.

For example, when it declares “transgender” persons to be the new oppressed class, everyone is expected to stand up and salute. Left-liberals do not argue that support for transgender people may be a good idea for some people but bad for others. That’s what they’d say if they were moral relativists. But they’re not, so they don’t.

And it is not simply that dissent is not tolerated. Dissent cannot be acknowledged. What happens is not that the offender is debated until a satisfactory resolution is achieved. He is drummed out of polite society without further ado. There can be no opinion apart from what the left has decided.

Now it’s true: the left can’t remind us often enough of the tolerant, non-judgmental millennials from whom this world of ubiquitous bigotry can learn so much. So am I wrong to say that the left, and particularly the younger left, is intolerant?

In fact, we are witnessing the least tolerant generation in recent memory. April Kelly-Woessner, a political scientist at Elizabethtown College who has researched the opinions of the millennials, has come up with some revealing findings. If we base how tolerant a person is on how he treats those he disagrees with — an obviously reasonable standard — the millennials fare very poorly.

Yes, the millennials have great sympathy for the official victim groups whose causes are paraded before them in school and at the movies. That’s no accomplishment since millennials agree with these people. But how do they treat and think about those with whom they disagree? A casual glance at social media, or at leftist outbursts on college campuses, reveals the answer.

Incidentally, who was the last leftist speaker shouted down by libertarians on a college campus?

Answer: no one, because that never happens. If it did, you can bet we’d be hearing about it until the end of time.

On the other hand, leftists who terrorize their ideological opponents are simply being faithful to the mandate of Herbert Marcuse, the 1960s leftist who argued that freedom of speech had to be restricted in the case of anti-progressive movements:

Such discrimination would also be applied to movements opposing the extension of social legislation to the poor, weak, disabled. As against the virulent denunciations that such a policy would do away with the sacred liberalistic principle of equality for “the other side,” I maintain that there are issues where either there is no “other side” in any more than a formalistic sense, or where “the other side” is demonstrably “regressive” and impedes possible improvement of the human condition. To tolerate propaganda for inhumanity vitiates the goals not only of liberalism but of every progressive political philosophy.

Even much of what passes as conservatism today is tainted by leftism. That’s certainly the case with the neoconservatives: can you imagine Edmund Burke, the fountainhead of modern conservatism, supporting the idea of military force to spread human rights around the world?

Talk to neoconservatives about decentralization, secession, nullification, and you’ll get exactly the same left-wing replies you’d hear on MSNBC.

Now I can imagine the following objection to what I’ve said: whatever we may say about the crimes and horrors of the left, we cannot overlook the totalitarianism of the right, manifested most spectacularly in Nazi Germany.

But in fact, the Nazis were a leftist party. The German Workers’ Party in Austria, the forerunner of the Nazis, declared in 1904: “We are a liberty-loving nationalistic party that fights energetically against reactionary tendencies as well as feudal, clerical, or capitalistic privileges and all alien influences.”

When the party became the National Socialist German Workers’ Party or the Nazis, its program included the following:

The National Socialist German Workers’ Party is not a worker’s party in the narrow sense of the term: It represents the interests of all honestly creative labor. It is a liberty-loving and strictly nationalist party and therefore fights against all reactionary trends, against ecclesiastical, aristocratic, and capitalist privileges and every alien influence, but above all against the overpowering influence of the Jewish-commercial mentality in all domains of public life….

It demands the amalgamation of all regions of Europe inhabited by Germans into a democratic, social-minded German Reich….
It demands plebiscites for all key laws in the Reich, the states and provinces….

It demands the elimination of the rule of Jewish bankers over business life and the creation of national people’s banks with a democratic administration.

This program, wrote Kuehnelt-Leddihn, “oozes the spirit of leveling leftism: it was democratic; it was anti-Habsburg (it demanded the destruction of the Danube monarchy in favor of the Pan-German program); it was against all unpopular minorities, an attitude that is the magnetism of all leftist ideologies.”

The leftist obsession with “equality” and leveling means the state must insinuate itself into employment, finance, education, private clubs — pretty much every nook and cranny of civil society. In the name of diversity, every institution is forced to look exactly like every other one.

The left can’t ever be satisfied because its creed is a permanent revolution in the service of unattainable ends like “equality.” People of different skills and endowments will reap different rewards, which means constant intervention into civil society. Moreover, equality vanishes the moment people begin freely exchanging money for the goods they desire, so again: the state must be involved in everything, at all times.

Moreover, each generation of liberals undermines and scoffs at what the previous one took for granted. The revolution marches on.

Leftism is, in short, a recipe for permanent revolution, and of a distinctly anti-libertarian kind. Not just anti-libertarian. Anti-human.

And yet all the hatred these days is directed at the right.

To be sure, libertarians are fully at home neither on the left nor the right as traditionally understood. But the idea that both sides are equally dreadful, or amount to comparable threats to liberty, is foolish and destructive nonsense.

Copyright 2017, Lew Rockwell, LewRockwell.com-All rights reserved

Though we do not want to think about it, and some will deny its existence, there is a worldwide phenomenon happening right now. It is ripping apart nations, communities, and even families.

It’s called “Identity Politics.”

It is dangerous. Those who engage in it are contributing to the destruction of our great nation. Those who promote it in government, the media, and international relations are doing so for their own political and financial benefit.

But they are playing with fire.

Why do I believe “Identity Politics” is so dangerous? Well, Jesus Himself thought it threatening enough that He warned us that in the last days it would be prominent.

He said that in the days just prior to His return, “…nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.” (Matthew 24:7 NASB). To modern ears, those sound the same, but Jesus made an important distinction. “…Kingdom against kingdom….” means country against country. “…Nation against nation….” means people group against people group.

People group can also mean “race” or “tribe.” Usually, these “people groups” identify with one another because of race, but people groups can identify with one another because of gender, language, or many other things.

Though much — if not most — of identity politics is instigated and manufactured for the express political benefit of the Leftists, nonetheless it is fracturing the United States.

At last week’s demonstration against free speech that took place on the Boston Common, a woman was photographed carrying a protest sign. It read: “My heroes are queer immigrant female people of color.”

That’s identity politics in a nutshell.

In the last century, identity politics resulted in Jim Crow laws, segregation, and the systematic exclusion of African-Americans from U.S. politics. It was the philosophy that engendered the Ku Klux Klan and Planned Parenthood.

For a while, it seemed to mostly disappear, but in the last few years it has made a roaring comeback.

The site of its most dramatic resurrection may surprise you: American universities. Judging people based on their race or gender permeates academia.

White nationalists saw this and rejoiced. So did the newest group of public racists — black supremacists. They had both been judging by race all along, but now they have seized upon identity politics for their own exploitation. And with great success. Identity politics now dominates the mainstream media and reaches into the Congress itself.

But God has a better way. The Bible gives us three reasons not to participate in identity politics.

First, we are all sons and daughters of Adam. Acts 17:26 says, “He has made from one blood every nation (people group) to dwell on all the face of the earth.” President Trump observed that very thing in his inaugural address, “…whether we are black or brown or white, we all bleed the same red blood….”

Second, we are all made in the image of God. What better reason to treat everyone with dignity and respect?

Third, Jesus Christ died for the sins of everyone. I John 2:2 tells us, “He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”

Jesus Christ paid a ransom that we can never begin to fathom. And He paid it for every person born into this world. That makes each of us priceless.

Galatians 3:28 says that in Christ, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (NASB)

Ephesians 2:14 tells us, “For He Himself is our peace, who has made them both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation.” (KJV)

In these days of rage and fear, Jesus alone is our peace. Despite our outward differences, in Christ we are one.

But identity politics is not confined to America. It is raging through societies and countries across the world.

In the last decade, we’ve seen a new surge in Jews returning to the Holy Land from Europe. Just as the Bible predicted. But they are not doing it because they want to fulfill Biblical prophecy. They are fleeing to Israel because Europe has once again become a dangerous place for them.

Nazis again roam the streets of Germany. French Jews are attacked in their own businesses.

A recent study by YouGov shows that 33% of Jews in Britain have thought about leaving Britain. They no longer feel safe there.

40% of British Jews say that they hide their faith. They’re afraid of anti-Semitic attacks.

No doubt the arrival of massive numbers of Muslim migrants has contributed to the increase in animosity toward British Jews. But I’ve documented on previous Reports the anti-Semitic beliefs of several British leaders. And it seems to be getting worse. Last year’s election of a practicing Muslim as mayor of London does not bode well for any reversal of the tension that Britain’s Jews are beginning to feel.

In the United States, people on both the Left and the Right have expressed outrage over the anti-Semitism of the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville. But the rising hatred of Israel and the Jews on American college campuses promises to pose an exponentially greater danger to American Jews and the State of Israel than all of the neo-Nazis in America ever will.

Add to that the growing anti-Jewish sentiment of the far Left and I see the potential for new persecution of Jews in America.

There are almost as many Jews here as there are in Israel. I believe many of them may soon decide it’s time to go to the land of their Fathers. Sadly, Charlottesville and Boston may be a preview of things to come.

Finally, on this week’s program, I want to tell you about the greatest hellfire and damnation sermon ever preached.

It was the Sermon on the Mount.

In it, Jesus declared that it wasn’t just what you did on the outside that was a sin. He said that sin includes what goes on inside your heart and mind.

The highly religious of His day were stunned to hear that “good works” were not enough to get them into heaven.

Jesus showed that the Law of the New Testament went far beyond the Law of Moses. It focused on the thoughts and intents of the heart!

In fact, it is the most definitive and exacting law ever given to man. It is impossible to live up to and fulfill to the letter.

In fact, it is so difficult that the most influential of all of Christ’s followers — the Apostle Paul — was reduced to utter despair. He cried out, “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:25 NASB)

That’s bone-deep despair!

You see, the law makes all of us realize that there is no human effort that can save us. It points us to Christ because it does not permit us to hope in ourselves.

But thanks to a merciful God, Paul’s despair is immediately followed by hope! In the next verse he said, “Thanks be to God through Christ Jesus our Lord! … There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 7:25-8:1 NASB)

When we are “in Christ Jesus,” the law is finally done with us. So why can’t we let go of it?

If the Law of Moses was impossible to keep (and it was), what on earth makes us think we can keep the laws of the New Testament (that demand purity of thought as well as deed)? That’s a million times tougher!

The Jews in Paul’s day tried to be righteous by obeying the Ten Commandments. Today, we’ve made a list of rules for being a “good Christian.” It doesn’t work.

Galatians 2:21 makes it perfectly plain: “If righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.” (NASB)

So how can we live a righteous and obedient life? Romans 10:4 tells us, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” (NASB)

The answer to a righteous and obedient life is to walk in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit will produce God’s righteousness within us!

Copyright 2017, Hal Lindsey.com– All rights reserved

When most of us think of the wee hours of the morning, we think of sleep. However, many believers, whether because of insomnia, physical pain, a small baby, or a vocation that requires a night shift sleep schedule, have experienced being awake in the night. Rather then being times of anxiety or stress, these can become times of encounter with the beauty of God. This is not as new idea, as the people of God have a long history of encountering God during the night.

We see this recorded in the lives of heroes of the faith throughout the Bible.

Abraham. “And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces.” (Gen 15:17)

Jacob. “Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day.” (Gen 32:24)

Samuel. “And it came to pass at that time, while Eli was lying down in his place, and when his eyes had begun to grow so dim that he could not see, and before the lamp of God went out in the tabernacle of the Lord where the ark of God was, and while Samuel was lying down, that the Lord called Samuel. And he answered, ‘Here I am!’” (1 Samuel 3:2–4)

Daniel. “Then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. So Daniel blessed the God of heaven.” (Dan 2:19).

We see it especially in the times Jesus spent all night in prayer to God (see Luke 6:12), and when Paul and Silas worshiped in prison at the midnight hour (Act 16:25). We see this in the history of prayer throughout the centuries—the monks in Bangor, Ireland and St. Maurice, Switzerland; the Moravians in Herrnhut, Germany; and the countless men and women through the ages who made rising at night to pray part of their daily routine.

In the present day, some believers are regularly awakened in the night and spend that time interacting with the Lord through prayer, singing, and meditation on the Word. Others have set aside a day every week or a created a habit of getting up early every morning to spend those hours with the Lord. Some have taken time off from school or work to change their sleep schedule for a few months and spend the night in prayer.

While attending a conference as a teenager, I was introduced to the idea of “watching” in the night in a corporate setting. Around midnight I sat in a large sanctuary with others scattered around and encountered the stillness that comes when there is nothing else to do, nowhere else to go besides that room, and no one to talk to besides Jesus. Little did I know that in just a couple of years this would become my occupation!

When IHOPKC began in 1999, I was in the prayer room daily during the evenings. At midnight, a group of mostly 18–25 year olds would come in to begin what we later named the Night Watch, the shift from midnight to 6am. Their primary focus was singing songs about who God is and giving Him adoration. I found myself staying later and later, and finally joined them permanently as an official “Night Watcher”.

There are several verses in Psalms that beautifully sum up the occupation of someone who watches in the night.

Behold, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who by night stand in the house of the Lord! Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and bless the Lord. (Psalm 134:1)

My eyes are awake through the night watches, that I may meditate on Your word. (Psalm 119:148)

From these verses, I gather that an important purpose of watching through the night is to bless the Lord and meditate on His Word. Our task as a Night Watch is simple. Look at God. Connect with Him through His Word. Tell Him how glorious He is, and do it with strength.

The simplicity of this task has at times presented some challenges. Even though the night-time contains few things to distract, it is still tempting to find ways to be busy, to give in to anxiety, or to let the apparent sameness of each night lead to a sense of boredom and myopia, losing the perspective found in searching out the greatness of God. When this happens, I’ve found it helpful to return again to these simple ways to behold and bless the Lord in the night:

Behold His Beauty

Take Scriptures that describe who God is, what He thinks, or how He feels, and meditate on them, speaking and singing these passages from the Bible back to Him, phrase by phrase. I especially enjoy passages from the Psalms and Isaiah, as well as the first chapters of John, Colossians, and Hebrews, which all contain rich truths about who Jesus is.

Behold His Plan

Reading and meditating on the plan of the Father to redeem a people for Himself and to bring all things together in His Son has encouraged my heart so many times. I love to sing about and think about the coming of Jesus to rule and reign over the earth, making all the wrong things right. I think the night is a particularly great time to be reminded that we are longing for the coming of Jesus, our Bridegroom King.

My soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning—yes, more than those who watch for the morning. (Psalm 130:6)

“And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’” (Matthew 25:6).

 Cry Out For God’s Righteousness

In Luke 18, Jesus tells us that God will avenge His own elect who cry out to Him day and night. In the night, I love praying for God’s purposes to be accomplished in the church, Israel, and the nations of the earth. In the night, we have a unique opportunity to pray for dreams and visions for those many who are sleeping and to ask God to push back spiritual darkness by interceding for the ending of many evil activities that take place during the literal darkness of the night.

Whether you are a person who occasionally prays during the night hours or someone whose occupation is to pray through the night, you are part of a company of people who, like the night watchmen who guarded a city, are awake in the night attentively looking at and for Someone. Our primary occupation is to look at the God who is beautiful and beyond comprehension and give Him our affections, our time, our thoughts. He will truly satisfy us with Himself.

Copyright 2017,Alisha Powell IHOP-All rights reserved

America is at a crossroads. Never in our short history has our nation been so divided, either racially, politically, spiritually or ideologically. Jesus made it abundantly clear that a nation divided cannot stand. What that last straw is that will forever break the back of this nation nobody knows for sure. What we do know is that we are either heading for revival or revolution.

Yes, I voted for Trump for president; however, I was not caught up in the vitriol like so many of our evangelical leaders that considered Trump God’s anointed.

When Israel rejected God as their King and demanded a king like the nations around them, God anointed Saul as their king. I believe, like Israel of old, the church likewise rejected God and sought out a man to be their political savior. Speaking of Saul, I see many similarities between Saul and Trump. Saul was proud and bombastic about his accomplishments.

He even went as far as to build a monument to himself. Trump likewise likes to boast about his achievements. Saul was thin-skinned and lashed out at those around him. Trump likewise loves to be honored among the people. Saul was quick to turn against his own son as well as David. Trump too has turned against those who helped him win the election. Saul failed to obey God or seek after Him and thereby lost his office and anointing. Trump could easily do the same.

Prior to the presidential election, I recall writing that if Hillary became president, she might doom America but save the church. On the other hand, if Trump became president, he might save America and doom the church. In other words, my fear was, and still is, that the church will settle back to her complacent state, thinking to herself, Thank God we dodged that bullet, meaning Hillary.

Hillary would have been a disastrous choice for America, but might have provoked the church to turn back to God and cry out for revival. Only time will tell if Trump is/was God’s anointed or if instead God gave us the desires of our heart while sending leanness to our souls (see Ps. 73:25).

Regardless of who is in office, only God can change America. Unfortunately, the church has failed to fully comprehend its true potential. Jesus made clear that He intended to build a church that the gates of hell could not prevail against. Why then is hell prevailing at every turn?

One reason is clear, and that is that we have placed our trust in the office of a man rather than in the power of the living God. King David learned that lesson the hard way. After numbering Israel’s military capabilities, he was instantly convicted and cried out “I’ve sinned exceedingly”. Why didn’t David say “I’ve Sinned” as he did after committing adultery with Bathsheba?

The greatness of David’s sin is measured by the severity of God’s judgment. His sin of passion cost him one life but his sin of pride cost him seventy thousand lives. Little wonder he cried “‘I have sinned greatly in doing this thing'” (1 Chron. 21:8a). David failed to acknowledge God’s protective power when facing his enemies and chose rather to trust in his “chariots and horses” (see Ps. 20:7).

The church in America may well be taking a page from David’s folly and placing her trust in Trump rather than God’s promise to heal the land of those who humble themselves, pray and turn from their wicked ways (see 2 Chron. 7:14).

Only the other day, I was reminded again of God’s promises. An old Scottish writer was quoting from Exodus 34:7a  “Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty.”  The writer went on to say, “He is faithful who promised.” Do we bear sufficiently in mind another truth of equal fidelity: He is faithful who threatens? Ponder that solemn word, “He will by no means clear the guilty!”

With 52 million aborted lives on our record, is God going to simply turn a blind eye to America’s devilish sin against the unborn just because Trump is president? I don’t believe so. I know there is the belief among some in the prophetic community that God would never destroy America because of all the good she has done; I’m not of that belief.

Our choice is simple: We either repent and cry out to God for mercy or face the wrath of God as He promised so long ago. I was pleasantly surprised to hear while visiting Singapore recently that there were many churches there who prayed earnestly for our presidential election last year. The tragedy, though, was to have to tell them I knew very few congregations in America who set time aside to pray for our own election.

Prior to my father’s death in ’94, he would say, “If America doesn’t concentrate in prayer, they will pray in concentration camps.” President Trump was elected to govern in the natural arena; the church was birthed to govern in the spiritual realm. Our power and authority is far greater than any Congress, Senate, Supreme Court or president. If we fail to take our place, America will miss her day of visitation, like Jerusalem of old. It’s time to rise up and take our rightful place before the throne of God and implore God for a mighty move of His Spirit.

Revival or revolution? The church will decide.

Copyright 2017, David Ravenhill, Charisma Media-All rights reserved

A Moravian historian wrote that Church history abounds in records of special outpourings of the Holy Ghost, and verily the thirteenth of August 1727, was a day of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We saw the hand of God and His wonders, and we were all under the cloud of our fathers baptized with their Spirit.

The Holy Ghost came upon us and in those days great signs and wonders took place in our midst. From that time scarcely a day passed but what we beheld His almighty workings amongst us. A great hunger after the Word of God took possession of us so that we had to have three services every day, viz. 5.0 and 7.30 a.m. and 9.0 p.m. Everyone desired above everything else that the Holy Spirit might have full control. Self love and self will, as well as all disobedience, disappeared and an overwhelming flood of graces wept us all out into the great ocean of Divine Love (1927:14).

No one present could tell exactly what happened on that Wednesday morning, 13 August 1727 at the specially called Communion service. They hardly knew if they had been on earth or in heaven. Count Nicholas Zinzendorf, the young leader of that community, gave this account many years later: We needed to come to the Communion with a sense of the loving nearness of the Saviour.

This was the great comfort, which has made this day a generation ago to be a festival, because on this day twenty seven years ago the Congregation of Herrnhut assembled for communion (at the Berthelsdorf church) were all dissatisfied with themselves. They had quit judging each other because they had become convinced, each one, of his lack of worth in the sight of God and each felt himself at this Communion to be in view of the noble countenance of the Saviour. O head so full of bruises, So full of pain and scorn. In this view of the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, their hearts told them that He would be their patron and their priest who was at once changing their tears into oilof gladness and their misery into happiness.

This firm confidence changed them in a single moment into a happy people which they are to this day, and into their happiness they have since led many thousands of others through the memory and help which the heavenly grace once given to themselves, so many thousand times confirmed to them since then. Zinzendorf described it as ‘a sense of the nearness of Christ’ given to everyone present, and also to others of their community who were working elsewhere at the time. The congregation was young. Zinzendorf, the human leader, was 27, which was about the average age of the group.

OUT OF PERSECUTION…

The Moravian brethren had sprung from the labours and martyrdom of the Bohemian Reformer, John Hus. They had experienced centuries of persecution. Many had been killed, imprisoned, tortured or banished from their homeland. This group had fled for refuge to Germany where the young Christian nobleman, Count Zinzendorf, offered them asylum on his estates in Saxony. They named their new home Herrnhut, ‘the Lord’s Watch’. From there, after their baptism in the Holy Spirit, they became evangelists and missionaries. Fifty years before the beginning of modern Foreign Missions by William Carey, the Moravian Church had sent out over 100 missionaries.

Their English missionary magazine, Periodical Accounts, inspired William Carey. He threw a copy of the paper on a table at a Baptist meeting, saying, ‘See what the Moravians have done! Cannot we follow their example and in obedience to our Heavenly Master go out into the world, and preach the Gospel to the heathen?’

That missionary zeal began with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Count Zinzendorf observed: ‘The Saviour permitted to come upon us a Spirit of whom we had hitherto not had any experience or knowledge. … Hitherto we had been the leaders and helpers. Now the Holy Spirit Himself took full control of everything and everybody’ (1927:21). When the Spirit came Prayer precedes Pentecost.

The disgruntled community at Herrnhut early in 1727 was deeply divided and critical of one another. Heated controversies threatened to disrupt the community. The majority were from the ancient Moravian Church of the Brethren. Other believers attracted to Herrnhut included Lutherans, Reformed, and Baptists. They argued about predestination, holiness, and baptism.

The young German nobleman, Count Zinzendorf, pleaded for unity, love and repentance. Converted in early childhood, at four years of age he composed and signed a covenant: ‘Dear Saviour, do Thou be mine, and I will be Thine.’ His life motto was, ‘I have one passion: it is Jesus, Jesus only. ‘Count Zinzendorf learned the secret of prevailing prayer. He actively established prayer groups as a teenager, and on leaving the college at Halle at sixteen he gave the famous Professor Francke a list of seven praying societies he had established.

After he finished university his education was furthered by travel to foreign countries. Everywhere he went, his passion for Jesus controlled him. In the Dusseldorf Gallery of paintings he was deeply moved by a painting of the crucifixion over which were the words: Hoc feci pro te; Quid facis pro me? This have I done for thee; What hast thou done for me?

A COVENANT AND A 100-YEAR PRAYER MEETING!

At Herrnhut, Zinzendorf visited all the adult members of the deeply divided community. He drew up a covenant calling upon them ‘to seek out and emphasize the points in which they agreed’ rather than stressing their differences.

On 12 May 1727 they all signed an agreement to dedicate their lives, as he dedicated his, to the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Moravian revival of 1727 was thus preceded and then sustained by extraordinary praying. A spirit of grace, unity and supplications grew among them. On 16 July the Count poured out his soul in a prayer accompanied with a flood of tears. This prayer produced an extraordinary effect. The whole community began praying as never before. On 22 July many of the community covenanted together on their own accord to meet often to pour out their hearts in prayer and hymns.

On 5 August the Count spent the whole night in prayer with about twelve or fourteen others following a large meeting for prayer at midnight where great emotion prevailed. On Sunday, 10 August, Pastor Rothe, while leading the service at Herrnhut, was overwhelmed by the power of the Lord about noon. He sank down into the dust before God. So did the whole congregation. They continued till midnight in prayer and singing, weeping and praying.

JOHN & CHARLES WESLEY

In 1736 John and Charles Wesley sailed to America as Anglican missionaries. A company of Moravian immigrants were also on the vessel. During a terrible storm they all faced the danger of shipwreck. John Wesley wrote in his journal: At seven I went to the Germans. I had long before observed the great seriousness of their behaviour.

Of their humility they had given a continual proof by performing those servile offices for the other passengers which none of the English would undertake; for which they desired and would receive no pay, saying, ‘It was good for their proud hearts,’ and ‘their loving Saviour had done more for them.’ And every day had given them occasion of showing a meekness, which no injury could move. If they were pushed, struck or thrown down, they rose again and went away; but no complaint was found in their mouth.

Here was now an opportunity of trying whether they were delivered from the spirit of fear, as well as from that of pride, anger and revenge. In the midst of the Psalm wherewith their service began, the sea broke over, split the mainsail in pieces, covered the ship and poured in between the decks, as if the great deep had already swallowed us up .A terrible screaming began among the English. The Germans calmly sung on. I asked one of them afterwards: ‘Were you not afraid?’ He answered, ‘I thank God, no.’ I asked: ‘But were not your women and children afraid?’ He replied mildly: ‘No, our women and children are not afraid to die’.

In Georgia, John Wesley sought spiritual counsel from the Moravian Bishop, A. G. Spangenberg. Back in England in 1738 the Wesley brothers became intimately acquainted with the Moravians, especially Peter Boehler who later became a leading Moravian bishop.

On 4 March, 1738, Wesley wrote in his diary:

I found my brother at Oxford recovering from his pleurisy; and with him Peter Boehler: by whom (in the hand of the great God) I was, on Sunday, the 5th, clearly convicted of unbelief; of the want of that faith whereby alone we are saved. Immediately it struck into my mind, ‘Leave off preaching. How can you preach to others who have not faith yourself?’ I asked Boehler whether he thought I should leave it off, or not. He answered, ‘By no means.’ I asked: ‘But what can I preach? He said: ‘Preach faith till you have faith.’ Accordingly, Monday, 6, I began preaching this new doctrine, though my soul started back from the work. The first person to whom I offered salvation by faith alone, was a prisoner under sentence of death..

Eventually John Wesley came to assurance of salvation. His own testimony reads:

Wednesday, May 3, 1738. My brother had a long and particular conversation with Peter Boehler. And it now pleased God to open his eyes; so that he also saw clearly, what was the nature of that one true living faith, whereby alone ‘through grace’ we are saved. Wednesday, May 24. In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me, that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death. Friday, May 26. My soul continued in peace, but yet in heaviness, because of manifold temptations. I asked Mr.Telchig, the Moravian, what to do. He said: ‘You must not fight with them as you did before, but flee from them the moment they appear, and take shelter in the wounds ofJesus.

— John Wesley

The Methodists and Moravians often met together then for Bible study and prayer. George Whitefield’s biographer wrote: Whitefield began the New Year (1739) as gloriously as he ended that which had just expired. He received Sacrament, preached twice, expounded twice, attended a Moravian love feast in Fetter Lane, where he spent the whole night in prayer to God, psalms and thanksgivings; and then pronounced ‘this to be the happiest New Year’s Day he had ever seen .’This love feast at Fetter Lane was a memorable one.

Besides about sixty Moravians, there were present not fewer than seven of the Oxford Methodists, namely John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, Wesley Hall, Benjamin Ingham, Charles Kinchin and Richards Hitchins, all of them ordained clergymen of the Church of England. Wesley writes: ‘About three in the morning, as we were continuing instant in prayer, the power of God came mightily upon us, insomuch that many cried for exceeding joy, and many fell to the ground. As soon as we were recovered a little from that awe and amazement at the presence of His Majesty, we broke out with one voice ‘We praise Thee, O God; we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord!’ (1927)

What the Moravians imparted to John Wesley is summarised by one of his biographers, W. H. Fitchett: In substance it was three things which lie in the very alphabet of Christianity, but which somehow the teachings of a godly home, of a great University, and of an ancient Church, and of famous books, had not taught Wesley. These are:

• that salvation is through Christ’s Atonement alone, and not through our own works;
• that its sole condition is faith; and
• that it is attested to the spiritual consciousness by the Holy Spirit.

These truths today are platitudes; to Wesley they were, at this stage of his life, discoveries. Wesley’s estimate of the Moravian revival which resulted in his own conversion was prophetic. When Peter Boehler, nine years his junior, left England for America after several months, Wesley recorded in his journal: Peter Boehler left London to embark for Carolina. Oh what a work hath God begun since his coming into England! Such an one as shall never come to an end, till Heaven and earth pass away!  Peter Boehler wrote to Count Zinzendorf, saying: ‘The English people made a wonderful to do about me; and though I could not speak much English they were always wanting me to tell them about the Saviour, His blood and wounds, and the forgiveness of sins’.

IMPACTING ALL SECTIONS OF SOCIETY

Zinzendorf’s speaking, preaching and letters were full of Christ. Everywhere the Moravians went they spoke of their Lord, sang of him, and witnessed naturally. The Holy Spirit had filled them, as in the early church, with great love for their Lord. Their Bishop Spangenberg, for example, told how Johannes, an Indian chief who had been a very wicked man, was converted. The chief said that once a preacher came to their tribe and proved to them that there was a God. They informed him that they were not ignorant of that and told him to go away.

Another preacher came and told them not to steal, drink too much, or lie. They regarded him as a fool because they already knew that, and they sent him off to preach to his own people who were worse than the Indians in those vices. Then Christian Henry Rauch, one of the Moravian Brethren, came to his hut, sat with him and told him about Jesus. Then fatigued from his journey, Christian Henry lay down and slept, unafraid of the chief. Johannes could not get the Moravian’s words out of his mind. He dreamt of the cross. He told his tribe about Jesus and they repented as the Holy Spirit moved their hearts. Johannes said to the bishop, ‘Thus, through the grace of God, the awakening among us took place. I tell you therefore, brethren, preach to the heathen Christ and His blood and death, if you would wish to produce a blessing among them.’

In Europe, a Countess with close friends among kings, emperors and princes, famous for her brilliant gifts and witty conversation, found that none of her amusements and recreations satisfied her any longer. A humble Moravian shoemaker came into her presence and she was struck with his remarkable cheerfulness. She asked him why he was so happy and he replied that ‘Jesus has forgiven my sins. He forgives me every day and He loves me and that makes me happy through all the hours.’ The Countess thought about that and began to pray. Conviction led her into the same joyful faith and she became a great witness for Christ among titled people, especially in the court of the Emperor of Russia, Alexander I, her close friend.

A NEW SONG

Then, as now, the baptism in the Holy Spirit upon the Moravians and then the Methodists, produced a flood sacred song. Many of the best hymns may be traced to this outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Moravian hymns were filled with praise to Christ, adoration of him as God, and proclamation of His virtues and work. Moravian hymns were generally prayers to Christ. It was a Moravian characteristic that their prayers were generally addressed to their Saviour. Honouring the Son they honoured the Father who had sent him as well as the Holy Spirit who glorified Christ.

A truly converted Catholic or Protestant, Calvanist or Lutheran, Moravian or Arminian, Baptist or Quaker, when baptised in the Holy Spirit and with fire often breaks out into sacred song that is prayer or praise addressed to Jesus. This was so in Herrnhut. The chief singer then was the godly young nobleman Count Zinzendorf. He became the prince of German hymn writers. England saw similar developments.

One of the many spiritual children of Peter Boehler was John Gambold, a young clergyman of the Church of England, an Oxford graduate and a friend of the Wesleys. He joined the Moravian Church and became its first English Bishop. Some of his hymns and sacred songs became well known. Another of Peter Boehler’s English converts was James Hutton, a famous book seller. He also wrote some precious hymns. The best known English Moravian hymn writer during the Great Revival was John Cennick.

At one of Cennick’s famous open-air meetings a young Scottish labourer, John Montgomery, was converted. He joined the Moravian Church and John and Mary Montgomery become Moravian missionaries in the West Indies where they died and were buried. Their son James was educated in the Moravian school at Fulneck. James Montgomery ranks with great hymn writers of that era.

Charles Wesley had more than 6,000 hymns published after his conversion in 1738 through the witness and prayers of Peter Boehler. The majority of his hymns testify to his great experience of salvation. Peter Boehler had told him: ‘If I had a thousand tongues I would praise Jesus with every one of them.’ This prompted Wesley shortly after his conversion to write the immortal lines:

Oh for a thousand tongues to sing My dear Redeemer’s praise The glories of my God and King The triumphs of His grace. He breaks the power of cancelled sin, He sets the prisoner free; His blood can make the foulest clean, His blood availed for me.
FRUIT THAT ABIDES

A traveller of that period wrote this striking testimony, ‘In all my journeys I have found only three objects that exceeded my expectations, viz.: the ocean, Count Zinzendorf, and the Herrnhutcongregation’ .Herrnhut had become a spiritual centre visited by people from all parts of Europe seeking to be saved or to be baptised in the Holy Spirit and with fire. John Wesley’s visit to Herrnhut was typical of thousands of others.

‘God has given me at length,’ he wrote to his brother Samuel, ‘the desire of my heart. I am with a Church whose conversation is in Heaven; in whom is the mind that was in Christ, and who so walk as He walked’. In his journal he wrote, ‘I would gladly have spent my life here; but my Master called me to labour in another part of His vineyard. O when shall this Christianity cover the earth, as the waters cover the sea?’

At the end of his life Count Zinzendorf could triumphantly say:I am going to my Saviour. I am ready. There is nothing to hinder me now. I cannot say how much I love you all. Who would have believed that the prayer of Christ, ‘that they all may be one,’ could have been so strikingly fulfilled among us! I only asked for firstfruits among the heathen, and thousands have been given me. Are we not as in Heaven! Do we not live together like the angels! The Lord and His servants understand each other. I am ready.

Over four thousand people followed his body to its resting place on the Hutberg, including Moravian ministers from Holland, England, Ireland, North America and Greenland. His tombstone bore this inscription: “Here lie the remains of the immortal man of God, Nicholas Lewis, Count and Lord of Zinzendorf and Pattendorf; who through the grace of God and his own unwearied service, became the ordinary of the Brethren’s Church, renewed in this eighteenth century. He was born in Dresden on May 26,1700, and entered into the joy of his Lord at Herrnhut on May 9, 1760. He was appointed to bring forth fruit, and that his fruit should abide”.

RENEW OUR DAYS

The renewal of the Moravian Church can stir our hearts to pray, ‘Renew our days as of old. ‘In 1927, 200 years after the revival in of the Moravian Church, the editor of The Biblical Review, New York, wrote: No matter whether one is sympathetic toward the idea of revivals or not, if he wants to study the question thoroughly, he cannot afford to overlook the history and teachings of the Moravians. Theirs has been from the beginning a great Revival Church, and its service to the general cause of Christianity, and to foreign missions in particular, is deserving of wide recognition. The story of their spiritual development and its influence is one of the most inspiring in the annals of Christianity.

Their first great experience which gave the Moravians such spiritual power was a personal experience of salvation. The second great experience which gave them such spiritual power and leadership was the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Dr. J. Kenneth Pfohl, a Moravian pastor, wrote in The Moravian in 1927:The great Moravian Pentecost was not a shower of blessing out of a cloudless sky. It did come suddenly, as suddenly as the blessing of its great predecessor in Jerusalem, when the Christian Church was born. Yet, for long there had been signs of abundance of rain, though many recognized them not. In short the blessing of the 13th of August, 1727, was diligently and earnestly prepared for. We know of no annals of Church history which evidence greater desire for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and more patient and persistent effort in that direction than those of our own Church between the years 1725 and 1727.

Two distinct lines of preparation and spiritual effort for the blessing are evident. One was prayer; the other was individual work with individuals. We are told that ‘men and women met for prayer and praise at one another’s homes and the Church of Berthelsdorf was crowded out.’ Then the Spirit came in great power. Then the entire company experienced the blessing at one and the same time.

In another article in The Moravian, Dr E. S. Hagen declared: The great revival in 1727 in Herrnhut was the normal and logical result of prayer and the preaching of the Word of the Cross. ‘Christ and Him Crucified’ was our brethren’s confession of faith, and ‘the inward witness of remission of sins through faith in His blood’ their blessed and quickening experience.

Lecky in his History of Morals says of John Wesley’s conversion, May 24, 1738, in the prayer meeting of Moravian Brethren in Aldersgate Street: ‘What happened in that little room was of more importance to England than all the victories of Pitt by land or sea.’ …A renewal of our days as of old involves a return to fervent prayer and to the earnest and effectual preaching of the remission of sins through the vicarious sacrifice and the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God. Revival time is coming. We cherish a high expectancy of it. Sooner than we dream of, to God’s people, who give themselves to earnest, persevering prayer, and the Scriptural testimony concerning the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, the windows of Heaven will be opened (1927:9091).

The day of revivals is not past. The Holy Spirit still waits to fill believers with power from on high.

Adapted by Geoff Waugh from John Greenfield (1927) Power from on High. Edingburgh: Marshall, Morgan and Scott.

Image description: Portrait of a group of Moravian Church members with King George II of Great Britain, attributed to Johann Valentin Haidt, circa 1752–1754-Public domain