Drunkeness

"Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory:
Where is thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies toward me? Are they restrained? ... O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance." Isaiah 63:15,17

Every time I return from Africa, I am deeply troubled by the vast difference between the wide open hunger of churches in Africa that I visit and the deadened spiritual landscape of America. In Africa, they can't seem to get enough of the Gospel. No matter how hard you preach it, they want more. They are sick of the anemic, easy-going Gospel they see on TV because they realize that it is only designed to soothe the flesh, not crucify it. They want a Gospel of power and they are ready to pay the price to get it.
The results in Africa have been astounding. After being home for only a couple of weeks, I am already getting reports of how the churches I visited are more on fire than they were before. Before I left, I printed 500 booklets of the message that I was preaching to them, and they are asking for hundreds more so they can give them to even more churches around them so that the fire can spread. I can't tell you how good it makes me feel to know that all the effort and money was not in vain - it's really working!

And let me stop right here and thank those of you who looked past your own personal horizons to help support this mission with your finances. It costs thousands of dollars to go and preach this message of revival, to hand out Bibles to whole congregations that have none, and to print and hand out these booklets so they can spread the message of revival. The fire is spreading, and without your help it would not have happened.
When I come home to America, however, the switch turns off and the light fades back into twilight. Even though I practically jump up and down in my excitement to tell people of the wonderful things that are happening over there, all I get are limpid responses and casual acknowledgements. They appreciate my zeal ... as long as it doesn't upset their churches. They're thankful for all the healings and miracles, but are not concerned about the absence of miracles in their own church. They think that it is very nice that so many souls get saved over there, but they are not cut to the heart for the emptiness of their own altars. They understand the need to help, but don't really care enough to reach into their pockets. My fear is that the mercy they refused others will be the mercy they will be refused in the times to come.
O Lord, where is thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies? Why have our hearts become so hardened from thy fear? Why can we not see how far removed we have become from that old-fashioned Gospel of power that we once had in America? Africans openly acknowledge that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was brought to them through the blood of the missionaries from America and Britain, but now it has all been reversed. They are desperately hungry, and we are not. As a result, God is feeding them while we starve to death.
How I would love to bring this message to every church in America, but how few of them are willing to hear it. Is it that I am not "denominationally correct", or is it that so few of us want to be shaken from our lethargy? Am I just too intense and crazy, or do they just want to roll over and go back to sleep? Is it me, or is it them? Sometimes I wonder.
There are two scriptures I read this week that scare me: 2nd Thessalonians 2:3 and 1st Timothy 4:1. One speaks of the "falling away" of the churches and the other of a departure from the faith. I used to believe that this meant that a large number of Christians would backslide in the last days, but I have read that there are some deeper connotations in the Greek that suggest that rather than leaving the faith, many would stay away from it, never having been part of it. Either way you read this, the bottom line is that our churches are in deep serious trouble ... and don't even realize it.
Are we not in the last days? If we are, then these warnings apply to us. Why are we not shaken by this? Instead, as in Jerusalem when the Babylonians surrounded the city, we see singing and dancing instead of mourning and crying out to God. Are we so blind that we can ignore these scriptures? Can we not see how spiritually bereft we are? Does it not occur to us that we are missing something so vital in our faith that these simple Africans have in abundance, and yet we are not burdened in our hearts?
Judgment is determined upon America. She has been given so much but has squandered it. Proverbs 29:3 says that he that keepeth company with harlots spendeth his substance. We have kept company with an adulterous worldly religion and have spent our spiritual substance in God. We are spiritually broke and drunken with the wine of our comfortable worldly religions, but in our drunken stupor, instead of crying out to God for mercy, we only cry out, "When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again."
When will we turn to God and cry out like Isaiah did, Return, O Lord, for thy servant's sakes and have mercy to allow us to see ourselves as you see us so that we may repent?
Or will we ever?

Brother Dale

If you would like a copy of the booklet, Four Steps to Revival, simply contact us at dale@revivalfire.org or (972) 938-8502 and request a free copy.