God has blessed us with an opportunity that He has never before given any generation in history. God chose you and He chose me to live at this specific time in history so He could bless us with this particular blessing. The blessing – He has granted us the opportunity to reach over seven (7) billion people! No other generation has ever had that great blessing. Think about it, if the church of 1920 (100 years ago) had reached absolutely every person on earth with the gospel, it would’ve been less than 1,000,000,000 – only 1/7th of the possibilities in front of you and me.
The strategies, practices, and programs of the North American church in the last seven decades has failed to keep up with the population growth much less kingdom growth potential. Perhaps you will agree with me that it is time to prayerfully rethink and regroup. I do not believe God has brought us to the turmoil and trials of our North American society today without a plan for His church to be effective in her mission.
Like many of you I am troubled, perplexed, and at times depressed at society’s situations unfolding before us. At the same time, I am convinced that we live in a time of great opportunity, perhaps greater than any generation in history. Why would God allow us to live in such a period of great turmoil and great opportunity if He did not have the yearning to pour out one of the greatest spiritual movements of all time?
This is our time to go to God in prayer with a greater, stronger plea than ever before in our lives. Our plea is for strength, power, and boldness that we have never before experienced. I believe God desires to hear the battle cry of His saints and this can only come from the emboldening of the Holy Spirit within each of us. Our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the power of evil and darkness.
We must prepare for a spiritual battle, even if like the Israelites on the wall with Nehemiah, the battle never comes to our door. We begin prayerfully; a deeper heart-wrenching crying out to God than we’ve ever mustered. Then we must seek from God the spiritual wisdom, insight and strategies to carry out His plan for His church for the next fifty years.
I believe His plan will look differently than the church of the past fifty years. We are currently speaking with a few visionaries of how God may be leading His church in preparation for the future considering a series of webinars assisting church leaders in moving into God’s future. We’ll look at questions as: Are we headed for persecution of the church? What will a faithful disciple look like in the future? What are the New Essentials of church life?
Our goal is to assist the church, the bride of Christ, in moving to a greater effectiveness by allowing the Holy Spirit to consume us like never before. Watch this weekly post, social media, and your affinity networks for more information, as together we explore God’s call for Christ’s bride for this time in which we live. Join us as we open our hearts to our unique blessing and perhaps God’s greatest spiritual movement of all time. Begin praying today!
George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life.