The Urgency of Intercessory Prayer - By Jim Tharp, 2014

For our transgressions before you are many, and our sins testify against us.

Our transgressions indeed are with us, and we know our iniquities:

transgressing and denying the Lord, and turning away from following our God,

talking oppression and revolt, conceiving lying words and uttering them from the heart.

Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands at a distance;

for truth stumbles in the public square, and uprightness cannot enter.

Truth is lacking, and whoever turns from evil is despoiled.

The Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.

He saw that there was no one,

and was appalled that there was no one to intervene . . . .

(Isaiah 59:12-16, NRSV).


The prophet Isaiah allowed God to stir his heart over the lostness of His chosen nation so that he understood the Creator’s grief over the apostasy that demanded divine judgment. What must have really awakened the prophet was that God was appalled that there was no one to intervene.

A global fire is raging. The times that Jesus foretold are upon us. He said, Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven. But before all this, they will lay hands on you and persecute you . . . . You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death . . . . When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near . . . . Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth. Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man (Luke 21:10-12, 16, 20, 34-36, NIV).

Millions of professing evangelicals in America are caught up in shocking fear, wondering what happened to their faith. Too many have ignored Christ’s instruction as to our orders for the last days. Franklin Graham writes, “Before one crisis can be calmed, another rains down. From coast to coast, continent to continent, terror strikes the nations. News anchors and political personalities often shake their heads and ask, ‘What in the world is going on?’”

It must grieve our God that at this critical hour our church’s prayer rooms are nearly empty, family altars are broken down, and no solemn assemblies are being called. Surely the God who wants to save us must be appalled that there is no one to intervene. How can we American believers ignore our responsibility for complying with God’s sure solution to our coming implosion? The call is going out to Christians: If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land (II Chronicles 7:14, NIV).

One has to wonder just how dead—deaf, disinterested, paralyzed, indifferent—the body of Christ across America has become! Instead of a marching army ready for battle, have we become one of Ezekiel’s valley of dry bones?

Then, let us pray for an ear to hear God’s voice telling us to Prophecy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones; I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’ (Ezekiel 37:4-6, NIV).

Then the Lord told the prophet, Prophesy to the breath—this is tantamount to the New Testament believer praying to the Holy Spirit— . . . and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ (Ezekiel 37:9, NIV)

Such obedience—sacrificial praying, burdensome intercession, groaning in sync with the Spirit’s passion for renewal—had great results: So I prophesied as he commanded, said the prophet, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army (Ezekiel 37:10, NIV).

Fighting The Good Fight - by Jim Tharp 1997

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, ... And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.
(Eph. 6:10-13, 18)

I still find it shocking that most of our pastors and lay leaders are uncomfortable and unwilling to discuss the subjects of Satan and spiritual warfare. As my friend Jack Taylor says, "Most of the Christian world seems to have taken a vow of silence on these matters." What else can explain the paralysis of spiritual death that grips so many congregations, despite well-educated and well-organized pastors, trained staff, attractive buildings, the latest in technology and a commitment to building a sound spiritual body?

Why is there in so many of our churches a numbness and drowsiness concerning what we are about, where we should go and how we are to get there? And when someone tries to focus, there come a dozen differing responses that send the leaders into confusion and often division. In such a vacuum it is easy for rifts to take place, strong-willed leaders to get into power and church politics to become an offensive odor throughout the whole community. In such discouraging circumstances, the tendency on the part of the leadership is to rally their natural strengths to fight against "flesh and blood." Satan will do almost anything to keep pastors and teachers and evangelists and prophets from discovering the need for true spiritual warfare. One of his most effective strategies is to keep them preoccupied with administration, counseling, meetings, visitation and putting out the fires of opposition so that every day is almost prayerless. Such otherwise intelligent leaders never dream that they are themselves already casualties in a spiritual war.

Someone has got to sound the word that the Church of Jesus Christ is called to enforce the mighty victory that Christ won over Satan and his kingdom of evil at Calvary. Until Jesus returns to actually destroy Satan, the Church is given authority to discern his strategies, disclose his purposes, deny his power, defeat his operations and deliver his captives. Let the followers of Christ realize that since Calvary and the Empty Tomb, Satan does not have unlimited power on planet earth. We who are filled with the Holy Spirit, clad in His armor and given to a ministry of intercessory prayer are called to resist the Evil One, tear down his strongholds and order his retreat. Otherwise, it is the nature of Satan to impose, intrude and usurp until confronted by true representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ who know the power of that Strong Name and will not hesitate to invoke it.

The Early Church received the anointing of the Holy Spirit and took authority to resist and overcome the Evil One. Throughout the book of Acts we see Spirit-filled apostles and deacons and evangelists operating against Satanic forces just as Jesus had done before them, and with the same results.

The Church is called to do battle against the Evil One and his forces today. Because he is invisible, prayerful attention and discernment is required on the part of those who wage spiritual warfare. Otherwise, we will soon be thinking and acting as though our struggle is with flesh and blood (people, institutions, visible entities), and we will then resort to carnal weapons used by the world. When this happens, the Church ceases to be the Church, and becomes as any other natural organization -- and the Evil One wins.

Far too long the Church has cut itself off from its true source of wisdom and power and has been content with its sorry substitutes. This accounts for the spirit of apathy instead of a spirit of authority. This accounts for so many losses and almost no gains in the salvation of the lost, the making of strong disciples, the powerful, drawing, caring fellowship of the saints, and the lack of revival in general.

But hear me, dear people: Any congregation in America can know a Christ-exalting breakthrough of Spirit-anointed worship services, new people and entire families being won to Christ and the church, believers being sanctified holy, the healing of marriages and family relationships, the destruction of Satanic strongholds, vision and direction for the church, the availability of gifted and dedicated leaders, the coming forth of laborers to be trained for need-meeting ministries and the release of needed funds for financing God's Kingdom through ministries and programs inspired by the Spirit -- if only the leaders will lead the way in prayer!

All of the above can be true if pastor and leaders will devote themselves to prayer. Others will follow. It does not require a praying majority; a powerful minority can turn the tide and see revival. Dear ones, the hour is too late and too dark and too dangerous for just more trivial and timid experiments. We must return to the divinely-ordained, time-tested Upper Room means of releasing God's power on His Church for healing her diseases and removing her reproaches. As congregational leaders throw themselves into the ministry of prayer and fasting, God will through a mighty minority begin His outpourings of the Spirit and will not stop until the congregation has experienced a mighty New Testament spiritual awakening and a great increase in the harvest of souls.

Our Holy God of Judgment - by Jim Tharp, 2015

Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man’s design and skill.

In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed.

He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.

When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject” (Acts 17:29-32).

Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him (Hebrews 9:27-28).

For we (Christian believers) must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad (II Corinthians 5:10).

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead (unbelievers), great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:11-15).


Our Western mentality is such today that most of our minds immediately throw out red flags against any biblical mention of divine judgment. Even when evangelical messengers include the divine attribute of grace along with our preaching on divine judgment, we are often tuned out, turned off, and rejected. Still, we who are called of God are not excused from our assignment to remind both Christians and unbelievers that we shall all appear before God to give an account of our lives on earth.

Christians—all who have repented of sin and trusted in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord—will appear before the judgment seat of Christ. We who have been saved by faith shall be judged by our works. Rewards will be given for faithful service and for hardships suffered for Christ’s sake and the Gospel’s—the greater the suffering, the greater the rewards.

Unbelievers—those who have not believed in Jesus Christ as the Son of God sent to atone for their sins by a traumatic death on the cross—will be judged justly for their rejection of their only hope of salvation and punished according to the sins they have committed over a lifetime. Not believing in Jesus Christ will turn out to be the greatest sin. Eternal punishment will be their judgment, and they’ll know it comes from a just God who loved them enough to pay off their debt of sin had they only believed.

The apostle Peter assures us that our God judges each man’s work impartially (I Peter 1:17), meaning that He is absolutely just in every individual’s case and shows, no favoritism. At the great white throne judgment, lost souls will at long last discover within themselves a fear of this absolutely Holy One, an amazement at His Presence, even a respect for this Glorious One who judges them. They’ll have no defense, no argument, only the realization that they’re getting what they deserve for their final unforgivable sin of rejecting the Almighty God’s one and only Son who paid for their sins so that they might believe in him and receive eternal life.

A Word to Believers

In 21st century America’s secular mindset, Christians are being tempted to lose their sense of the holiness of God and begin morphing into the worldly values and styles of a pagan world. But we are called to be light in a dark world and to be salt in a decadent society. God’s Word warns us that when our lights go out the darkness becomes great, and when the salt loses its strength and taste corruption is the result.

As we near the closing out of our year and the approach of 2015, I confess a foreboding that increases as I move deeper into intercession for our beloved America. I do believe that God raised up our nation to be a powerful witness to all the other nations on planet Earth. He brought about the American experiment to prove His great love, power, and grace. We were meant to be a people who would glorify Him by taking the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth, by meeting the needs of suffering humanity at home and abroad, by experiencing the outpourings of the Holy Spirit in periodic spiritual awakenings, and by rekindling revival fires throughout the earth.

But who will deny that we have lost our way, our purpose, our vision, our message, our freedom? So much of our nation is in slavery today—in bondage to debt, having mortgaged our future and that of future generations; and enslaved by drugs, unbridled sexual passions, and materialism. And worse, we seem bent on dismissing God from the public square.

Our gracious and loving God has clearly marked out the only solution, but it has to begin with the millions of us who claim to be followers of His Son. He challenges us:

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land (II Chronicles 7:14).

A Word to Unbelievers

In love and concern for all who have not trusted in Jesus Christ as Savior, I beg you to hear a word from the inspired King Solomon: I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end (Ecclesiastes 3:10-11). This wise man is referring to the awesome responsibility the Creator has placed upon mankind as free moral agents to choose their course in life. But when he writes that God has also set eternity in the hearts of men, he is referring to our God-given innate sense of life beyond death. Anthropologists report that in nearly all cultures there exists a haunting belief that death does not end human consciousness. Mexicans, Peruvians, and Polynesians believed they’d go to the moon when they died. Our native Americans believed they’d go to their happy hunting grounds. The sense that death is not the end has shaped nearly every civilization—that is, until recent times among Western civilizations. What the anthropologists have not told us about these civilizations is the various moral guidelines they followed to prepare them for life after death.

 

But thank God for the Living Word of God, Jesus Christ; and thank God for the written Word of God, the Bible. I can write down for you the eternal truth about our need for preparing for the next life, not because I figured it out myself and not because I heard it from a philosopher. But I can assure you of the true way because I’ve tried and tested it, and it works. It comes from the Holy Book, the Bible, and it tells me that a loving God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

What The Spirit Is Saying To The Church - by Jim Tharp 1997

At the close of His message to each of the seven churches in the book of Revelation, our Lord warns each church, He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches (Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22).

The good news is that our God is speaking today. He spoke in times past through the prophets. He speaks today through His Son, Jesus Christ. He also speaks through the Holy Spirit and His messengers. "The words that I speak to you," says Christ, "are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63). Oh, dear friends, the greatest force in the universe today is the Word of God! But the sad news is that the American church for so long has not had an ear to hear the voice of God. There has been a dullness of hearing. We have listened to siren voices distracting from the voice of our Good Shepherd.

Could it be that now for the past ten or fifteen years American Christians have been coming out of their slumber enough to start hearing what God is saying? But let's be realistic: we have not been fully awakened as yet. We have not seen full-scale revival in our land. There is still complacency, division, prejudice, materialism, cynicism, arrogance and carnality in most of the body of Christ. No, we have not come to revival -- not yet.

But -- praise God! -- something is happening. Even though most American evangelicals are still asleep, some are waking up. Most of us are still in our nightclothes, even still in our bedrooms. But we do hear something and we're afraid to go back to sleep, knowing that we'll miss the mighty call of the Spirit.

We now have an awareness to some degree of the spiritual stupor from which we are emerging. We are developing an ear for the Spirit's startling revelation that we have been infected with the Laodicean Syndrome. We are ashamed that we have invested so heavily in false values, that we have boasted of being whole and having need of nothing, when Christ has seen us as wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked (Rev. 3:17).

We've mistaken our material prosperity for divine approval. We've grown blind to our self-righteousness, pride, prejudices and conceit. We've been insensitive to the movements of God and to the lateness of the hour. We've been so far from God, and so taken up with ourselves, that we have not discerned His voice and we've tried to write off His messengers while ignoring His message.

But we are now at the critical point -- will we humble ourselves and let the Lord touch our ears to hear? Will we receive from the Lord the true wealth, the gold refined in the fire? Oh, dear ones, let us reach for the garments that He offers, while we rend our old ones -- let us cherish the white robe from Him, the only covering for the shame of our nakedness! Let's submit to His ministry to our eyes -- we need His eyesalve to anoint our eyes that we may see. Let us tune out all distracting voices and beg for an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches at this hour.

I'm convinced that God is saying at least three things to His Church as we close out the twentieth century. Consider these three urgent calls prayerfully and seriously, and see if you agree, and then act accordingly.

Wake Up!

I believe that God is saying, Wake up and prepare for the great revival that I am going to give. The most crucial time in revival is at the earliest stage when the Spirit is rousing a Christian or a congregation to its slumber and penetrates just enough to bring about an awareness of their plight of deadness. A critical decision has to be made about waking up, coming fully awake and receiving the whole truth about our undoneness and desperate need as God will reveal it. This is what we say that revival is first a rude awakening before it is a great awakening.

Preparation includes humility, repentance and prayer (II Chron. 7:14). Have you ever noticed how frequently God's Word calls attention to the need of humility on the part of God's people? "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. ... Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up" (James 4:6, 10). The angel Gabriel told Daniel, whose prayers initiated a great war in the heavenlies, that it was when he began to humble himself before the Lord that his prayers were heard (Dan. 10:12). Even our Lord humbled himself before the Father in prayer, before John the Baptist in baptism, and submitted Himself to the humiliating attacks of Satan. But the consequences are reported: "Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region" (Luke 4:14). In Capernaum "they were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with authority" (Luke 4:32).

If we'll humble ourselves, God will continue to speak to us and show us what we need to repent of and how we can more completely prepare for the revival He wants to give.

End-times Spiritual Warfare - by Jim Tharp, 2015

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. (Ephesians 6:10-18, NIV)

* * * * *

The apostle Paul closed his epistle to the Ephesians by calling on believers of all the Church age to be armed for battle. The same Mighty Warrior, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who has led His warriors to victory across the centuries will lead His saints to victory in these last days if we arm ourselves in His armor prepared for us, if we are cleansed and filled with His Spirit of power, and if we will obey His orders. If we follow our Mighty Warrior, our King of glory, into battle we shall overcome!

We who live in the 21st century must realize that the same battle plan God gave the apostle to give to early Christians is the same plan for us who follow in the end times.

While the god of this world has been training his hierarchy of evil to adapt strategies for every period in the history of the Church, he no doubt has reserved his harshest, most atrocious attacks for his grand finale.

The prince of darkness knows that the Invincible Eternal One has already decreed his destiny to be the lake of fire forever. Therefore his last-days strategies will be the most brutal and ominous attacks of all the ages. As Jesus Christ warned all living in the end times through His apostle John: Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time (Revelation 12:12, NKJV).

Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, the writer orders. The forces we are coming against are not visible; they are not flesh and blood. Therefore, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ (II Corinthians 10:3-5, NIV). As Spirit-filled Christians, we have the Spirit’s power to enable us to overcome our own weaknesses and fears and come through the temptations so as not to react as the world, the flesh, or the devil would have us react. In the full armor of God, we are enabled to be strong in the Lord.

• The belt of truth. Truth is the girdle holding the uniform tight, enabling the soldier to be free in all his movements. As it is in Jesus, the imagery affirms that truth holds together all other virtues to maintain the freedom of the Spirit within us to take us to the promised victory in battle.