Respect for the Holy Spirit - by Jim Tharp, 2013

Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt.
Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through.
May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.

I Thes. 5:19-24, NIV.

The apostle Paul, like Jesus and John the Baptist (Luke 12:49; Matt. 3:11), used fire as a symbol of the Holy Spirit. William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army referred to the fire of the Holy Spirit as “a source of the Christian’s power and a safeguard of his purity.” Then he went on to say that we have a tendency to let that fire go out. 

 

Preparing For Revival - by Jim Tharp, 1999

Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight. (Mark 1:3)

So many American Christians expect nothing more at this late and dangerous hour than the wrath of God to be poured out on their wicked country, even as a Just and Holy God poured out judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah. And this is surely what we deserve. And yet, dear friends, I am convinced that God wants His people to hear what His Spirit is saying to His Church, to meet His conditions for revival, in order to show the world His merciful and amazing end-time plans.

Self Examination

It is not our pagan society in its appalling moral darkness that prevents the mighty revival so desperately needed. It is the sleeping majority in the Church that is responsible for the spiritual famine in the land. 

Revival tarries because of the self-righteousness, the hardness, coldness, blindness, carnality and arrogance in the Church. Five of the seven churches addressed by our Lord in the book of Revelation were commanded to repent. That same call is going out to the slumbering body of Christ at this hour. May we have an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches! Revival is the marvelous work of the Sovereign Holy Spirit, but He begins it by preparing the hearts of His people for repentance and obedience. Revival is a new beginning of obedience to God's Word as revealed by the Holy Spirit.

Praying for Revival - by Jim Tharp 2013

As we move deeper into the twenty-first century, most of us will agree that the outlook on the world is bleak, while the condition of the church seems weak. Who can disagree that the body of Christ desperately needs revival? It is tragic enough that the political community of America is awash with corruption and division; but the church is paralyzed with apathy, complacency, and division. It appears that God looks to his people to allow him to bring us to new life before we can expect to influence the world to make the changes he demands before he can pour out his blessings on the nation.

But there is hope. God promises: 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 I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land (II Chron. 7:14, NIV). I am encouraged because everywhere I turn I hear believers testify to the conviction of the Spirit within them to pray for revival. Many of our readers of this quarterly periodical responded to the last issue by saying, “We are praying for revival!”

Holiness and Prayer - By Jim Tharp, 1999

Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. (II Tim. 2:22)

The apostle knew that Timothy's prayer life would be the secret of his power with God and with people. Paul yearned to see his spiritual son mightily used of God, but he knew something of the costly route to such power. He knew that despite Timothy's brilliance and giftedness, his praying could be hindered by carnal compromise, a stricken conscience and a guilt-ridden heart. The old warrior longed to see this promising young leader join with the stalwarts of the faith and boldly approach the Throne of Grace, having complete confidence that he would receive all that he asked because he was in obedience to the Lord and doing all to please the Lord.

Just who are those who get answers to prayer, who see God's will done on earth as it is in heaven? Who are those who know how to ask according to God's will, and know even as they ask that their request will not be denied? What kind of people are those who prevail in prayer?

The apostle James tells us that they are the righteous. He declares that, "The passionate prayers of the righteous have a powerful effect" (James 5:16, Free Translation). He is not referring to the self-righteous, of course, but those who have been justified freely from the guilt of sin and made righteous in the heart by the cleansing of the Holy Spirit from the power of sin. The righteous are those who are justified freely and sanctified holy. They are the ones who are promised a hearing with God. Their hearts have been purified so that they do not "ask amiss" or with wrong motives (James 4:3). Also, the righteous are those who have confessed and cleared their hearts with one another. So the righteous are those who are right with God and with one another.

The Pure in Heart

Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Matt. 5:8). We hear a great deal about the power of the Holy Spirit in these times. This writer has emphasized it again and again, and I shall continue to do so. But if our interest in power exceeds our passion for purity, we are not ready for the baptism with the Holy Spirit. It is the divine order to purify the heart before empowering for ministry. God is more interested in our being than in our doing. Mark Rutland so accurately declares:

Our Heavenly Joshua Leads in Warfare - by Jim Tharp 2013

Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand.

Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”

“Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.”

Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him,

“What message does my Lord have for his servant?”

The commander of the Lord’s army replied,

“Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

(Josh. 5:13-15, NIV)

Believers called to engage in spiritual warfare during these end-time seasons can learn a great deal from Joshua’s lesson learned from the Commander of the Lord’s army—the very incarnate Son of God, Jesus Christ, Captain of the Lord of hosts.

It is significant that God the Father chose to call his incarnate Son JESUS—the Greek form of Joshua. Without Joshua’s encounter with the Heavenly Joshua, he could never have become a conqueror.

Those of us who are being called to 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, … the authorities, … the powers of this dark world and … the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Eph. 6:11-12, NIV). We must have a greater revelation of Jesus Christ than we have ever known. We must behold our Lord Jesus Christ as a warrior (Ex. 15:3, NIV). Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle (Ps. 24:8, NIV). We must learn with Joshua that the kind of warfare we are called to wage is Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty (Zech. 4:6, NIV).

Joshua had his vision of the Commander of the Lord’s army in chapter 5. 

But the Jericho victory would not come until later in chapter 6. The earthly Joshua must first worship the Heavenly Joshua and learn from Him the true secrets of spiritual warfare. The earthly Joshua must know that every effort exerted in human strength alone would fail. He had to learn what every spiritual leader must learn: Without God, we can’t; without us, God won’t! Let us all consider the three very important truths the Heavenly Joshua conveyed to the earthly Joshua before the battle of Jericho was launched.

1. “Joshua, taking Jericho is not your idea; it is God’s command!” Just as Moses had been called of God to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, Joshua had been called to lead them into the Promised Land, even after a generation of failures under Moses. He must feel himself under orders from Almighty God—the One who would be his highest authority to whom he would be accountable and depend on.

Christians, as we are facing end-time darkness spreading the Gospel, building the church, renewing believers, and seeing manifestations of the supernatural, let us remember that we have to undertake it all with a clear understanding that God Himself has prophesied, commanded, and directed our efforts. Jesus said, … I will build My church, and the … powers of the infernal region shall not overpower it … (Matt. 16:18, ANT). He made it clear that He would do this through His Spirit-anointed praying and the Church’s Spirit-empowered praying (Luke 24:49). Then he said in the last days I will pour out my Spirit on all people…sons and daughters will prophesy, …old men will dream dreams, …young men will see visions…I will pour out my Spirit in those days…and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved…(Joel 2:28-29, 32, NIV). The last days, according to the prophet Joel, would be characterized by many outpourings of the Spirit for preserving and perpetuating the Church. Outpourings of the Spirit would be the work of our Sovereign God, but these times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord would be conditioned by the faith, obedience, and intercession of the saints.

2. “Joshua, Jericho will not be taken by your weak army; it will be taken by divine, invisible forces!” The earthly armies of God do not impress the world, but the sinister forces of darkness are traumatized by those Spirit-filled men and women who put on the whole armor of God—the belt of truth (strengthened with the Gospel of truth), the breastplate of righteousness (covered by the integrity of Spirit-cleansing from sin), feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace (poised in battle with holy boldness), the shield of faith to extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one (a Spirit-cleared mind to avert every doubt, fear, frustration, and temptation that would distract, discourage, or defeat), the helmet of salvation (bringing every thought into the captivity of Christ our Commander-in-Chief), and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God (making the Scriptures our Word of testimony, which renders the enemy powerless), and praying at all times in the Spirit (passionately prevailing in intercessory prayer for His revealed will against the principalities, the rulers of darkness, the authorities and the hordes of wicked spirits operating in the heavenlies.

3. “Joshua, Jericho will not be taken for your glory; it will be taken for the glory of the Captain of the Lord of hosts!” My fellow believers, the kind of army that we must enlist in will not impress the world, nor will it attract a majority of the believers—

not even most of those who make up our evangelical churches today. The only kind of spiritual army that can prevail against the tide of evil that Satan has planned for our times will be made up of those who will persevere through all three stages of spiritual warfare—asking, seeking, and knocking.

Our Heavenly Joshua is our example. He became the divinely anointed Intercessor. Here’s how He prayed: During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears … and He was heard because of His reverent submission (Heb. 5:7, NIV). In Luke 11:9-10, Jesus tells us how to persevere and prevail in prayer: So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

Asking is petition—it represents desire, stating a need, filing a claim.

Seeking is resolution—it represents committing to a course of continuing and prevailing in prayer.

Knocking is supplication—it represents desperation, burdened praying, crying out, pleading, begging, fasting, shedding tears, passion, agonizing, groaning under the load of revival praying. Too many believers consider this kind of praying extreme, fanatical, and foolish. May God multiply the number of spiritual warriors who will follow their Heavenly Joshua into this kind of revival praying until the Spirit gives them such a holy boldness that they will not be denied!

The great revivals of church history have been poured out after prolonged seasons of perseverance in burdened prayer and glorious praise. Spirit-filled prayer warriors learn early in revival praying that burdened praying goes with blissful praise. At the parting of the Red Sea, when God delivered His people and drowned their enemies with the same miracle, the Israelites with Moses exclaimed, Who … is like you, O Lord—majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders? You stretched out your right hand and the earth swallowed them. In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed … The nations will hear and tremble … (Ex. 15:11-14, NIV ).

I am convinced that America will see a mighty rending of the heavens only after a greater number of believers have been cleansed from sin, filled with the Spirit, and answer the call to desperate, intense, sacrificial, passionate, prolonged supplication!

Prayer warriors, let us follow the examples of the great intercessors of the past—Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Nehemiah, and Daniel—who humbly and faithfully confessed their sins and then representatively confessed the sins of the church and the world. As modern intercessors, we need to stand in the gap and seek God’s forgiveness for our coldness of heart, deadness of spirit, hypocrisy, apathy, self-righteousness, unbelief, prayerlessness, worldliness, idolatry, and pride.

I believe the urgent call of the Spirit to North American believers is a call to sacrificial intercession. He is calling for wrestlers (Eph. 6:12, ANT). Andrew Murray, Oswald Chambers, and Wesley Duewel defined wrestling as “struggling in anguish over.” Aren’t our dying churches, our imploding America, and our lost young people worth “struggling in anguish over”?

My prayer partner Wesley Duewel does not believe that intercessory prayer at the level of wrestling is self-induced; we don’t work ourselves up into a hyped emotional state—we simply yield to the Spirit-inspired groaning within us for the renewing of the paralyzed body of Christ and against the self-destroying of our nation and the heart-breaking disregard our younger generation has for the things of God.

But let every intercessor realize how easy it is to turn off the Spirit’s work within us of longing, aching, pleading, and believing for the revival that our Lord Jesus Christ, our Great High Priest, is praying for through us. How gracious of Him to trust us with His own holy desires for the Kingdom of God! And yet, how prone we are to fall asleep.

I think I hear Him calling to His sleeping disciples today, Could you … not keep watch with me for one hour? … Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. (Matt. 26:40-41, NIV).

To pray in the Spirit is to push against the threatening clouds of spiritual darkness and beyond the visible, audible, sensual, and spirit world to the very Throne of grace. Let us remember this is not natural science; it is believing and obeying our Heavenly Joshua’s command to prevail with Him for another mighty rending of the heavens to prepare His people for His Second Coming!

The Midnight Cry - By Jim Tharp, 1998

"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour." (Matthew 25:13)

Any attentive reader of the Synoptic Gospels will understand that the Kingdom of God is the central theme. The reign of God has already entered human history in a unique way through the glorious person and work of Jesus Christ, but its consummation awaits a future intervention. So the Kingdom of God has to be seen as both present and future. The Kingdom of God has come; the Kingdom of God is coming.

Jesus took time to teach and answer questions concerning the future of the Kingdom. For the first sixteen centuries of Christendom, the eschatology of Jesus was sufficient. But in the seventeenth century, Johann A. Bengel set the return of Christ for the year of 1836, and in so doing he became the father of premillennialism. During the nineteenth century an entire system of dispensational eschatology was developed, and the idea of the pretribulation rapture of the church can be traced to J. N. Darby and the Plymouth Brethren. Concerning this dispensational eschatology, H. Ray Dunning writes, "For some reason it has become so pervasive among conservative Christians ... that it has assumed the status of orthodoxy among large groups of both laymen and ministers." Contemporary advocates of this Second Coming theory include John Walvoord, Charles C. Ryrie, Hal Lindsey, Tim LeHaye, Jack VanImpe, John Hagee and many others. While these dear men are my Christian brethren, and I rejoice in the Gospel they preach, I must in the interest of genuine revival make a statement: Christian Renewal Ministries believes in the Second Coming of Christ -- and I am convinced that there is some biblical support for the idea of a Rapture. But we do not subscribe to the feverish speculation and depressing theories of latter-day premillennialists who confuse a pretribulation Rapture with a general Resurrection, and who would set the time of the Lord's Return around current events (Israel, Russia, conflicts in the Middle East, the European Common Market, NATO, etc.) instead of the Word of our Lord concerning the obedience and empowerment of His Church.

George Eldon Ladd, an evangelical thinker and writer on the Kingdom of God, suggests that the most important single verse in the Bible might well be Matthew 24:14: "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come." This verse was Jesus' answer to the disciples' question, "What will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the world?" Matthew 24:14 should help us understand something of when Christ shall return, and His parables on the Kingdom (Matt. 25:1-46) should help us understand something of the conditions of both the world and the church at the time of His return.

The Midnight Darkness

The first of Jesus' three parables on the Kingdom (Matt. 25:1-13) draws on the drama of an old Middle Eastern wedding celebration to show how it will be at the time of His return. The bridegroom and his ten male attendants would at some time around the midnight hour (but almost never at the exact minute of midnight) arrive at a significant place (under a certain large tree near the main house, at the end of a bridge over a stream, or at a large rock marking the boundary of the property, etc.) on the bride's father's estate. No one would know the place or the time when the groom and his party would arrive except the coordinator of the activities having to do with the bride and her ten female attendants. The ten girls would all gather with the bride at her father's home early in the day and hear the rules and be told to rest and sleep. The bride and her attendants would be wakened by calls before the time of rendezvous. This would come around midnight, but usually before. When the midnight cry went out, every girl was to trim her lamp (more like a torch) and see to her oil supply, because if any girl's torch went out on the way to the rendezvous, then and there she would be disqualified to be a part of the wedding celebration.

The parable refers to midnight as a symbol for darkness and lateness. Surely, we now live in a moral midnight, and though we do not know how late it is, we believe it is very late. What an hour for the Church of Jesus Christ to come awake and see His glory in revival and the harvest of souls!

A Prayer for Revival - by Jim Tharp

Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? (Psalm 85:6)


O, Jesus, we come to You as Commander in chief of the Heavenly hosts, the mighty innumerable, invisible armies operating at your command throughout your universe. We plead your promise When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will raise up a standard against him (Is. 59:19). Release your Heavenly hosts to come against the moral and spiritual darkness. Lord, you have seen how your people in our land have failed in prayer, grown cold, disobeyed, and resorted to “cheap grace” (trying to justify sin in our lives rather than seeking your grace to cleanse us from sin).You warned us that in our backsliding Satan would come as a thief to steal and kill and destroy (John 10:10, KJV). Consequently, the evil one has targeted our land for rendering us spiritually dead, morally bankrupt, and politically corrupt.

We pray You will release your invisible armies into the heavens above every community in our nation to dispel the evil forces of darkness that have chloroformed the Church and poisoned the minds of our national leadership. We have dismissed God from the public square, deviated from the principles of our founding fathers, and destroyed the faith of our younger generation.

O, Lord, lay it upon the hearts of spiritual leaders to call for Solemn Assemblies—national, denominational, congregational, and citywide gatherings for serious heart-searching before the Lord, repentance, hours of prayer and fasting, periods of reading Scriptures, exhorting believers to confess their sins, acknowledge their sins of judging and criticizing, backbiting and insulting others, worldliness, lust, greed, pride, unbelief, not giving attention to prayer, worship, tithing, witnessing, good works, helping others in need, attitudes that divide and destroy fellowship, failing to attend the means of grace, gossiping, holding grudges, failing to witness to tell others about Christ and His love to save, forgive, and give hope and freedom to live in holiness and spiritual power.

 

Passionate Prayer - by Jim Tharp, 1998

The passionate praying of one right with God is very powerful. (James 5:16, Free Translation)

When the apostle James speaks of "effective praying, "he is referring to prayers that get YES answers. The "righteous" person here in v. 16 is the one who has believed in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, whose sins are forgiven and who has actually by faith "become the righteousness of God" in Christ. The Father will listen to such a person just as readily as He will His "only begotten Son."

Jesus, the Supreme Example

I believe the apostle is seeking to impress his readers concerning the need for passionate praying. This is how Jesus prayed. "During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission" (Heb. 5:7, NIV). Westcott the scholar quotes a rabbinic saying that there are three kinds of prayers, each more powerful than the preceding: silent prayer; speaking and crying out; and tears. Passionate praying can include both the crying out and the tearful praying. Such praying is not merely noted in Heaven, but answered -- and usually answered in the affirmative. From the structure of Hebrews 5:7 ("During the days of Jesus' life on earth"), I do not believe that Jesus' tears in prayer were restricted to His agony in Gethsemane (Luke 22:44) and His compassion for the grieving (John 11:35). I am convinced that the inspired writer had access to some unrecorded facts of Jesus' pattern of passionate praying. Much of the Lord's great prayer of John Seventeen is given in the language of tears.

Elijah Eliminates an Element

Note that Elijah prayed "earnestly (fervently, emotionally, passionately) that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years" (v. 17). The prophet was not divine, nor was he superhuman; he was as human as the rest of us. However, when he prayed passionately that it would not rain (in keeping with the divine decree of judgment), it did not rain.

 

The Wind of the Spirit - by Jim Tharp, 2014

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. (John 3:8).

The distinguished Jewish theologian could no longer deny the miraculous power of God at work in the life and ministry of the Galilean. Nor could he quench his thirst to meet Jesus face to face. So, humbling himself and putting his reputation on the line, Nicodemus went one night to confess that Jesus was from God and inquire of Him the way of salvation.

Jesus responded to Israel’s prominent thinker by making an issue of the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. No one can enter the kingdom of God without a spiritual transformation, Jesus explained, and this requires the Spirit of God to bring about the miracle of regeneration. Just as a natural birth is necessary for one to enter and become aware of the human family, we must be born again, born of the Spirit—in order to grasp the reality and relationships of the kingdom of God. Furthermore, admission to the kingdom of God is never by the proud prerogative of race, status, nation, class, or gender. It is certainly not by heredity! All who enter the kingdom of God must be born into it by the Spirit. This spiritual birth is an act of God.

Jesus was faithful to explain to Nicodemus the one simple condition for being born again: believing in God’s one and only Son who was lifted up (crucified) for our sins (John 3:14-21). The evidence that one has truly believed (come into the light), Jesus said, is that he lives by the truth (John 3:21).

 

The Leaven of the Pharisees - by Jim tharp, 1998

Then Jesus said to them, "Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees." (Matthew 16:6)

Both Matthew and Mark record that Jesus used the metaphor of "leaven" (yeast) to warn the disciples against the teachings of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Leaven was a common symbol for evil in Jesus' day, and could therefore be applied to many kinds of wickedness with the thought that even a small amount could go a long way and have an insidious effect.

Jesus brought a serious charge against His disciples when He said, "O you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves because you have brought no bread? Do you not yet understand, or remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up? How is it that you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? -- but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees?" (vv. 8-11).

Manipulation or Obedience

We do not have to guess at those erroneous teachings with which Jesus took issue with the Pharisees and Sadducees. He had denounced them for their demand of manipulative signs instead of believing in the abundant evidence He had already supplied concerning who He was. But now the disciples are perilously close to the same unbelief as to the person of Jesus and His miracles. The Lord sought to train His men to think deeply about the revelation He was giving them. He was grieved that their tiny faith brought them to such an unimaginative conclusion. To follow the thinking of the Pharisees and Sadducees would cause them to miss the truth that Jesus was Himself "the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matt. 16:18). To follow their thinking would be to seek to restrict and control the very Messiah whom they claimed to believe in.

Scripture or Tradition

The Pharisees were the more prominent Jewish group in Jesus' day. Descendants of the Hasidim (pious ones), they believed fanatically in a righteousness which comes by law. They actually became so obsessed in seeking to render explicit what was implicit in the law that they resorted to artificial means of exegesis. Their devotion to an external holiness prompted rigid codes for dress and diet. The Pharisees stubbornly held to a number of inherited traditions, which, although not found in the written law, they held as a part of the law given to Moses on the Mount. So they proposed two parallel divine revelations: the written law and the oral tradition, and they taught that these were equally important and equally authoritative.

Our Sin of Prayerlessness 2014

I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none. So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign Lord (Ezekiel 22:30-31).

The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene (Isaiah 59:15b-16a).

Anyone who holds a Biblical view of Almighty God has to believe that in His absolute holiness our Creator-Redeemer is deeply grieved by both the wickedness of the world and the weakness of His Church. Reading both our Old and New Testaments, we learn that God is aghast at the degradation of the world and appalled at the sins and prayerlessness of His people.

In Noah’s time The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the Lord said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth (Genesis 6:5-7a).

But God found Noah, who would stand in the gap between divine holiness and human depravity, and those who believed (only eight souls) were saved. Noah built an ark, but all those who scoffed and rejected their only means of salvation were destroyed by the flood.

The apostle Paul, under divine inspiration, foretold conditions of the last days:

People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power (II Timothy 3:2-5a).

But in the last days, God sent His Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to a lost world already condemned, already marked for eternal destruction. As Jesus told Nicodemus, For 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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son (John 3:16-18).

To all who receive Jesus Christ as Savior He has promised the Holy Spirit. On His departure, Jesus ordered His followers to go back into Jerusalem and tarry (wait before the Lord in prayer) until you have been clothed with power from on high (Luke 24:49). His final words were: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).

Throughout the book of Acts we see a demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit in the church that was filled with the Spirit as it spread the Gospel in power—winning thousands to Christ, working miracles of healing, raising the dead, casting out demons, and demonstrating the plan of God for advancing the kingdom of God throughout the world.

But the most tragic sin of the church across the centuries has been its failure to remain empowered by the Holy Spirit. The strange cycle of the backsliding and renewing of the people of God through the centuries is a haunting phenomenon. Just as the Old Testament people of God failed to meet the conditions of its covenant with Jehovah, so the New Testament Church has also grieved, quenched, or ignored the Holy Spirit of power. The resulting apostasy has written tragedy into its history.

Our God of mercy has promised His people the miracle of revivals to restore His Church to new life, fresh faith, renewed vision, and amazing power for reaching a lost world with the transforming power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As a God of Grace and Justice, He gives His people a choice—either Revival or Judgment. Revival is not only a means of preserving His Church; Revival is also a means of preserving the nations His people inhabit. Revival is not only the divine means of restoring Christian believers to New Testament life and power; with true Revival God brings a moral and spiritual healing to the land: 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). 

Jesus warned about the condition of the times leading up to His Second Coming: As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man (Matthew 24:37-39). Despite the moral and spiritual conditions requiring divine judgment, people today—just as in Noah’s day—are going about as though there has been no warning from a merciful God.

Ready for Christ's Coming - by Jim Tharp

But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away; so too will be the coming of the Son of Man.

Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 

But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.

Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour. 

(Matthew 24:36-44, NRSV)

From the very hour in which our Lord Jesus Christ was caught up in His ascension to the Father, Christian believers everywhere have rejoiced in their hope of His Second Coming. The apostles watched Jesus ascend, and then after He was out of sight, angels came and wakened the disciples from their trance, saying Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven (Acts 1:11, NRSV).

Surely, Christ’s Second Coming is of the utmost importance for all believers. But we must also give attention to all that Jesus and His apostles said about our preparation for His coming.

We learn from Jesus and His apostles that the Second Coming will have two phases—He will come first to rapture (“catch away”) His Bride. The world and those not ready for His coming will not see Him. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord (I Thessalonians 4:16-17, NKJV).

The second phase of the Second Coming will be a Revelation—He will return to the very place from which He ascended: to the Mount of Olives in a great earthquake. The prophet Zechariah predicted five centuries before Christ’s coming to earth as a Babe in the manger that He would return: On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south (Zechariah 14:4 NIV). Jesus Himself confirmed Zechariah’s prophecy by saying, For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. . . . Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory (Matthew 24:27, 30, NIV).

The earth to which Jesus returns in the second phase of His coming will be to one filled with tragedy and sorrow because of rejecting the Savior and believing the lies of the Antichrist. The apostle Paul predicted that those believers on earth living just before the rapture would be affected by the preliminary invasions of the evil spirits of the Antichrist: The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness (II Thessalonians 2:9-12, NIV).

Four Components of New Covenant Praying - By Jim Tharp 1998

In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete. In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father." (John 16:23-24, 26-28, NIV)

Having been intrigued by the prayer life of Jesus, the disciples pressed Him to share with them His secrets of prevailing prayer. In His final discourse on prayer, which came within the context of His Paraclete lessons, Jesus told His disciples that things would be different in their prayer life once the Holy Spirit came upon them. Let us see the four components of New Covenant praying as mentioned by Jesus in His last discourse.

Approaching the Father

"In that day," said Jesus, "you will no longer ask Me anything." The phrase "in that day" appears twice in this context, and it refers to the time when the Holy Spirit will come to influence believers, including their praying. When He said, "you will no longer ask Me anything," Jesus was reminding them that He would not be with them literally and visibly. With the Holy Spirit indwelling and guiding them, they would have no need to turn to Him literally as they had in the past. It would be to their advantage that He depart from them in the flesh in order that He might return to them in the Spirit. With the Holy Spirit in them, the Father and the Son would be approachable at all times and in all circumstances. Jesus assured them, "The Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God" (v.27). No apologies would be necessary in approaching the Father. As His redeemed children, bought by the precious blood of His only begotten Son, none of us are considered to be interrupting or intruding when we come to the Father in prayer. "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Heb. 4:14-16). The inspired writer argues here for an approach to the Father that is one of confidence because of our standing in Christ. When we pray, we are not approaching the Father as a stranger or an impostor but as a blood-bought child who is in favor because of Christ and what He did for us. Jesus emphasized boldness in prayer by both example and parables.

Pentecostal Power II - by Jim tharp 2015

And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high (Luke 24:49, RSV).

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8, RSV).

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance (Acts 2:1-4, RSV).

Luke the historian pinpoints the exact day on which God fulfills His promise to send the Holy Spirit to the disciples of Jesus. The 120 believers, including those disciples, had been praying faithfully and waiting in the upper room in Jerusalem for The Promise of the Father. Jesus hadn’t given them the full details concerning the outpouring of the Spirit, but they had been following His instructions.

The Holy Spirit came and poured Himself on these obedient believers on The Day of Pentecost. It is important that we understand how Old Testament patterns were simply shadows of the realities of God’s plans for His New Testament Christian believers. So I want us to understand The Day of Pentecost in light of the Jewish celebrations.

The Feast of the Passover took place on Friday. The blood of the sacrificial lamb on the doorposts was used for the deliverance of the firstborn sons. John the Baptist prophesied that Jesus would be the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29, RSV). Jesus, the Lamb, gave His life on the cross at the exact time the high priest would offer the Paschal Lamb on Good Friday.

The next day was the Sabbath with the celebration of The Feast of Unleavened Bread, commemorating the difficult journey out of Egypt.

Next came The Celebration of Harvest, or The Feast of First Fruits, a shadow or type of the resurrection of our Lord. He is the first fruits of the great harvest to come (I Corinthians 15:12-28).

The harvest continued for a period of 50 days. It climaxed on The Day of Pentecost. Two loaves of bread were presented to the high priest, a symbol of the fulfillment of the harvest. During those 50 days Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father. We are given only a brief insight into the activities in the heavenly realms. Jesus serves as the Great High Priest who offers His sacrifice once for all. He receives The Promise of the Father in order to pour out the blessing upon us on The Day of Pentecost.

I would have us consider three dimensions of the Pentecostal outpouring of the Spirit:

It Takes Prayer - by Jim Tharp 1997

So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed (Luke 5:16).

Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God (Luke 6:12).

And it happened, as He was alone praying, that His disciples joined Him ... (Luke 9:18).

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet ... These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication ... (Acts 1:12, 14).

And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness (Acts 4:31).

From the day that Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit in the River Jordan (Luke 3:21-22) to the time of His death on the cross, He was a Man of the Spirit and a Man of Prayer. When He was ready to birth the Church, He ordered a prayer meeting (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:12, 14; 2:1-4).

When I returned from a preaching tour of South Korea and the Philippines back in the 70s and reported the mighty movings of the Holy Spirit in those countries, my American friends wanted to know the secret. Why was God moving so powerfully in the Far East when we see so little of His power here? Of course, I said, the answer is prayer. I said that I had never been in a place of prayer like South Korea. The Koreans know how to tarry before the Lord. There they pray in the Spirit on all occasions and in every place. I noticed that they did not place nearly as much emphasis on preaching, theology, music, gifts, finances and organizations and other things, as they did on prayer. I listened to their praying in their early morning meetings, during the family prayers and at the special times of prayer among pastors. If they were not praying in English, I would ask someone to interpret their praying. I learned that for the most part, these Koreans were praying for the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the services to capture the attention and hearts of the people of God.

The Holy Spirit knows that He is welcome because of our prayer meetings and by the way we pray. Jesus knew that once His followers began to pray, they would soon be in readiness to receive the Holy Spirit. And He also knew that once they were filled with the Holy Spirit they would be equipped to pray with power.

The same is true with His modern disciples. We are called to militant, mighty praying -- the kind that frightens and defeats the forces of hell. There is a passage in Matthew 11:12 which needs to be laid hold on by Christians of this generation: "and from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force." We must no longer ignore this passage as "bizarre and irrelevant," as some have. Not a few scholars believe that Jesus meant here that "the kingdom of God is carried along by forceful means." If so, then it will require men and women who understand the nature of spiritual power to advance the cause of Christ. It so happens that such men and women are people of prayer.