The world now stands at one of the greatest watershed points of human history. The next few years will be more crammed with destiny and purpose than most will be able to keep up with. For those who serve the Lord, it will be an opportunity to accomplish and witness some of the greatest exploits ever done in His name.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once commented that the great tragedy of Rip Van Winkle was not that he slept for twenty years, but that he slept through a great revolution. A great spiritual revolution has already begun, but many are still asleep. It is time to awaken and open our eyes to see.
The End of the Age
Every parent has probably heard the words, “Are we there yet?” Likewise, one of the great questions of the age, which has probably been asked by every believer, has been whether we are really at the end of the age yet. Though there may have been some signs that seemed to identify this period with every generation, the one great biblical prophecy that never did fit before has been the re-establishment of the State of Israel. This is an irrefutable sign that does, without question, mark the general period of the end of this age and the coming of the kingdom.
The establishment of the modern State of Israel has set a timetable, and though it is obvious that the end-time clock is now ticking, some of the most important prophecies are yet to be fulfilled. Even so, it now seems that the stage is being set in an unprecedented way for these to come to pass as well. So what is our part? Are we supposed to be packing our bags so we can get raptured out of here? Or does the church have a part to play in what is to come—maybe even the most important part?
I have a great appreciation for the part that Israel and the Jewish people play in the closing of this age and the opening of the next. I am grieved that so much of the church has embraced “replacement theology” which supplants Israel’s part in this and applies it all to the church. However, I have just as much grief for the theology that replaces the church’s part and gives it all to Israel. Their purposes are actually unified at the end, the emergence of “one new man,” as the apostle Paul proclaimed it (see Ephesians 2:15).
It will take great humility for either the church or Israel to see the purpose of the other. However, God gives His grace to the humble. The grace for us to accomplish our purpose at the end will need to be the greatest in which the church or Israel has ever walked. Therefore, we will also need some of the greatest humility that we have ever walked in so that we can receive God’s grace.
Just as King David perceived the “Age of Grace” a thousand years before it came, and lived in it then, and by this became a prophecy of what was to come, we, too, are called to live in the age to come—now! We are called to live by the powers of the age to come and grow in them. We have no alternative but to become much closer to the Lord by the end of this year than we are now. We must grow in faith, love, joy, peace, patience... We must also grow in the power to demonstrate these to the world, which is going to be increasingly desperate for them.
The Great Sign
The greatest sign of the end of the age will be the church becoming what she was created to be, while walking in all she is called to walk in. She will become a bride worthy of the King, without spot or wrinkle, passionately in love with the Lord, and full of love for one another. She will likewise walk in unprecedented power, doing the works that the Lord did and even greater ones just as He promised (see John 14:12). When we see the church becoming like the Lord, and doing the works that He did, then the end will truly be near.
This year will be a year for some of the most rapid spiritual growth that the church has experienced since the beginning. We saw many great miracles in past years, but we are about to see much greater ones. However, the reason we see miracles is because we need them. Even so, it will be worth it to get closer to the Lord and to see His kingdom coming. Never forget that when we see these things happening, it is the time to look up and rejoice because our redemption is drawing near!
The recent earthquake and tsunamis that struck so many countries in the Indian Ocean are taxing the whole world’s relief efforts. In the loss of human lives, it will go down as one of the worst natural disasters in human history. These disasters and the others which will be coming do have prophetic significance that we need to understand and are highlighted in a crucial prophecy for our times in Joshua 3:3-4, 14-17:
“When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God with the Levitical priests carrying it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it.
However, there shall be between you and it a distance of about 2,000 cubits by measure. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you shall go, for you have not passed this way before.”
So it came about when the people set out from their tents to cross the Jordan with the priests carrying the ark of the covenant before the people,
and when those who carried the ark came into the Jordan, and the feet of the priests carrying the ark were dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks all the days of harvest),
that the waters which were flowing down from above stood and rose up in one heap, a great distance away at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan; and those which were flowing down toward the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. So the people crossed opposite Jericho.
And the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel crossed on dry ground, until all the nation had finished crossing the Jordan.
In Scripture, the Jordan River often represents death, which is why both Jesus and John the Baptist baptized there. The Jordan River also empties into the Dead Sea. There was a reason why the Lord commanded the ark of the covenant to be carried across the Jordan “about 2,000 cubits” ahead of the rest of the people. The ark represents Jesus and the cubits represent years. This was a prophetic statement that the Lord would pass through death to His Promised Land “about” 2,000 years before the rest of His people.
The Lord said that “...the harvest is the end of the age...” (Matthew 13:39), and we read in Joshua 3:15 that “...the Jordan overflows all its banks all the days of harvest...” This speaks of how death will be overflowing all of its banks all of the days of the harvest, which is the end of the age. Because of this we can expect such natural and human disasters to increase during the coming times.
As all of the Lord Jesus’ own prophecies concerning these times make very clear, we are coming to the greatest times of trouble the world has ever known. However, the good news is, if we have built our lives on the kingdom which cannot be shaken, we will not only survive what is coming, but we will be building in the midst of it. This is actually the time when the church is going to cross over and begin to possess its Promised Land. Even so, death will be all around us, overflowing “all of its banks.” For this reason we must learn to keep functioning and pressing ahead, even when a thousand fall on one side and ten thousand on the other.
In Joshua 3:16 we are told that the waters of the Jordan “…were flowing down from above stood and rose up in one heap, a great distance away at Adam…” This could have been translated that the waters of the Jordan “were rolled back all the way to Adam.” It was no accident that this little town was named “Adam,” just as there are no accidents at all in Scripture. This was a prophecy that when God’s people begin to pass through this baptism in the Jordan, we will begin possessing all of the promises of God that we are called to inherit, and death will be rolled back all the way to Adam! This means that all of the death that was the consequence of the Fall will be reversed. The purpose of the coming kingdom is to reverse and restore the whole earth from all of the consequences of the fall of man.
For now we must prepare ourselves for increasing great natural and manmade disasters as we get closer to the end of this age. We will need to learn to cope with death all around us and keep on pressing ahead. Just as no general can be successful if he is overly concerned about casualties, we, too, will have to learn to cope with death. We will even have to send forth missions and missionaries who we know will not return, not being overly given to grieving or mourning the dead, in order to save the living from an even greater, eternal disaster.
Israel’s inheritance was the land, and they dispossessed the people who were on it. Our inheritance, which is also the Lord’s, is the people. Even though the Jordan will be overflowing its banks and death will be all around us, the power of His indestructible life will be flowing through us to reap the greatest harvest that the world has ever known. We must not sleep or be distracted while the treasure of the earth is ripe for reaping.
Victory Over Death
Baptism is a ritual performed to emphasize an important spiritual reality. One of the great and tragic mistakes of historic Christianity since the third century has been to substitute rituals for the realities that they represented. The ritual of baptism was meant to convey the commitment on the part of the one baptized— that they would die to themselves to live to Christ. After the third century, one could be baptized in place of living the crucified life, removing the life and power of the cross from the church.
You can dunk someone in the water all day and not have them partake of the death, or resurrection, of Jesus. There is nothing magical about the water. The power is in the crucified life. The baptism is performed as a commitment to live the crucified life in order that we might also be resurrected with Christ as we read in Romans 6:4-5:
Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have become UNITED with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection (emphasis mine).
We must note here that in this text there is no mention of water! This is not speaking of water baptism, but of what water baptism represents— the crucified life. As Paul further conveyed in Romans 6:5: “For if we become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection.”
What did the Lord mean when He stated the following? “I have come to cast fire upon the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!” (Luke 12:49-50) Was the baptism that was distressing Him simply immersion in water? Of course not. He was referring to His impending crucifixion. That crucifixion is also the meaning of our baptism.
Jesus was likewise referring to the baptism into His crucifixion when James and John asked to be seated on His right and left in the kingdom. He said, “You do not know what you are asking for. Are you able to drink of the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” (Mark 10:38).
It is a basic spiritual principle that death is the path to life in Christ. We are called to live now by the power and authority of the resurrected life of Christ, but by its very definition one cannot experience a resurrection without first experiencing a death. To be baptized with His baptism is to be conformed to the purpose of His death, the laying down of our own lives for the sake of others.
When the church reduced the truth of the crucified life to a mere ritual, this robbed the Lord of our consecration, the church of its salvation, and stole from the world the power of the gospel. There are many Scriptures that make the meaning of this very clear. The following are just a few of them, which I encourage you to read carefully as their importance is literally life and death:
For if we died with Him we shall also live with Him;
if we endure, we shall also reign with Him… (II Timothy 2:11-12).
The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God,
and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him (Romans 8:16-17).
That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;
in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3:10-11).
For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake (Philippians 1:29).
Therefore, we ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure.
This is a plain indication of God’s righteous judgment so that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you are suffering (II Thessalonians 1:4-5).
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing;
persecuted but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh (II Corinthians 4:8-11).
The Lord made it clear in His Word, if we are to partake of His life we must also partake of His death “…that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him…” (II Corinthians 5:15). Any other teaching is a false gospel and an enemy of the cross. Death separates the things that are natural from the things that are spiritual. Again, to have a resurrection there must first be a death. If we want to walk in the resurrection life of Jesus daily, we must be willing to lay down our lives for Him daily. As the Lord Jesus Himself testified:
“If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it” (Matthew 16:24-25).
That the Lord intended our baptism to be the daily reality of a crucified life there can be no question. Such a life that dies to itself and its own selfish interests is the most free and powerful life of all. This is what the Lord will give to us in exchange for our life—the greatest freedom and power to do good that we can know.
The Liberty of Death
Because Israel had to cross the Jordan River to enter their Promised Land, this also speaks of how we must enter into the baptism of the cross before we can attain the promises. This is where the church has now come. We are at a crossing. If we will enter into the true baptism, the crucified life, which means that we live each day for Him and not just ourselves, we will start to possess all of the promises of God for His people.
We must also keep in mind that death is the greatest liberation that we can ever know. The devil uses fear to bind just as the Lord uses faith in the truth to set people free. What does a dead man fear? If we are dead to this world, there is nothing the world can do to us. It is impossible for a dead man to have fears of failure, fears of rejection, or even fear of the dark. To the degree that any fear still has its grip on us is only in relation to the degree that we have failed to go to the cross. The cross will set us free!
A dead man does not lust, covet, feel anger, seek revenge, or even feel lonely. There is no freedom that we can ever have greater than that which comes from dying to this world so as to be alive to Christ. This is what Israel learned from their first baptism—the crossing of the Red Sea, as we read in I Corinthians 10:1-2:
For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;
and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.”
When Israel entered into this baptism in the Red Sea, it resulted in the destruction of the enemies that had kept them in bondage for so long. As Pharaoh and his army were a biblical model of Satan and his hordes who seek to keep God’s people in bondage, we see that baptism is the one place where they cannot follow us and will result in their destruction. When Israel entered into that baptism, they were to never see those enemies again. Many of the things that have bound us for so long will likewise be destroyed when we enter the true baptism—the crucified life.
The Second Baptism
So does the Jordan River represent a second baptism? In a sense it does, though this is not to imply that there needs to be a second ritual of baptism. It reveals how we must go back to the basics and review and recommit to them before we cross over and start possessing our Promised Land.
Deuteronomy means “a second law,” and the Book of Deuteronomy was the result of Moses reviewing everything for Israel that was required of them before they crossed over to possess their land. We need this review now. We also need to recommit to the baptism to which we are called to follow the Lord.
After Israel’s baptism in the Red Sea, they went through many things during their journey through the wilderness which matured and taught them the ways of the Lord. As we read I Corinthians 11, the church has been going through a similar journey. Now that we are about to cross our Jordan River, we, too, can expect a time of reviewing the basics first.
For this reason the church can again expect an emphasis of the cross. There is a baptism when we leave Egypt and a baptism when we enter the Promised Land. This is a message that the cross is both the beginning and the end of our journey. The cross sets us free from the world (Egypt) and is the door to entering into our inheritance in Christ. The wise are forever mindful that the cross is everything. However, the cross does not just represent death—it is the door to resurrection life, which is represented by the Promised Land.
The Great Change
More than two decades ago the Lord spoke to me and some of my friends that the cross would be popular again, which would be the time when the church truly crosses over and begins to possess its Promised Land. We have come to that time. The focus of the advancing church will become more and more centered on the cross.
There are a couple of basic differences in these two baptisms that we need to understand. As we read in Exodus 13:17-18 and 14:1-4, Israel did not willingly go through the Red Sea. They basically had to be tricked and cornered into it so that they did not really have a choice.
As we look back on most of the trials that have been used to fashion our lives, we will probably have to confess the same thing—we did not choose the trials, but were cornered into them so that the only way out was to die to self. The Lord is gracious to align our circumstances, and there is absolutely no way out but to lay down our lives and conform to the image of His death.
In the Jordan River baptism, the people were anxious to go through it to get to their Promised Land. Likewise, the church is going to willingly embrace the cross again for the sake of walking in her purpose. The mature and those who have now grown in faith do not have to be tricked or trapped into their baptism—they willingly choose to take up their crosses. The mature do not run from the cross, but to it.
Another basic difference between these two baptisms is that in the Red Sea baptism the enemy was chasing Israel and was destroyed because the people entered into their baptism. The second baptism represented by the Jordan River begins our pursuit of the enemy, to drive him out of our land. Once we cross our Jordan River, we are going to go from being attacked by the enemy to being the attackers of his strongholds.
Our Inheritance
There are many powerful and important lessons that we must therefore learn from the biblical, prophetic models concerning what is now taking place. However, just as no map can perfectly match the territory it represents, biblical models are just that—models from which we can derive important guidance, but are not intended to perfectly match the reality. For this reason, we do need to keep in mind the differences between the biblical, prophetic models of Scripture and the realities they represent. For example, in the biblical model, Israel was to utterly destroy the nations that were in their land. However, we are not called to destroy the nations, but save them by destroying the evil that has them in bondage. The nations themselves are a part of our inheritance in the Lord.
The Great Commission was to make disciples of all nations, not just individuals. When the Lord returns, He is going to divide the nations into sheep and goats, not just individuals. It is being decided right now which nations will be “sheep” and which will be “goats.” This, of course, does not at all mean we are to abandon the gospel of salvation. Nations will be changed by saving and teaching individuals the ways of the Lord. However, we must begin to develop national and international strategies which will impact nations with the gospel, not just individuals.
There are also some differences in where the church is now and where it was in the first century that we need to understand. There are many foundational things that will never change and will always be a basic part of the church’s vision and purpose. But there are also some differences at the end of the age. Just as Joshua instructed Israel in Joshua 3:4:
“However, there shall be between you and it a distance of about 2,000 cubits by measure. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you shall go, for you have not passed this way before.”
Those who follow the ark, which represents the Lord, by “about 2,000” years, will be going a different way than the church has gone before. Many things are the same, but many are not and we need to understand the differences.
Before the end of this age can come, the gospel of the kingdom must be preached. This has not yet been done. Until now we have basically preached the gospel of salvation, which is how to get out of Egypt. This is essential and it will continue to be the banner of the cross that we march under, always preaching the gospel of individual salvation, but we must also begin to preach the gospel of the kingdom. The kingdom of God is at hand! The King is coming and He is coming to take over. He is sending us before Him to prepare His way.
The Prevailing Heart
As we discussed, in the baptism represented by the Red Sea crossing, the Israelites did not go willingly. Basically, the Lord had to give them no alternative because of the enemy who pursued them. However, the baptism represented by the crossing of the Jordan was a voluntary one and would begin their pursuit to drive their enemies from their land. This was not just because the circumstances had changed, but the people had also changed during their long sojourn in the wilderness.
The church has likewise seemingly wandered in the wilderness for nearly two thousand years. Like Israel’s trek through their wilderness, this time was not wasted. A great transformation has been taking place in the people. It was one thing to get the people out of Egypt, but it took much longer to get the Egypt out of them. Likewise, there are people who may have apparently just been drifting through life rather aimlessly, but God has been doing a deep work in their hearts, and this time has not been wasted. They are a people prepared for the great challenges ahead that will prepare the way for the coming of the kingdom of God.
The change comes from a life seemingly composed of being chased and harassed by the devil and deep dealings of God in our own hearts, to the mentality of a conqueror. This does not mean we are now perfect, and the conquest ahead will help to continue the work on our character, but there will be a great difference in the conflict. Instead of battling the enemies within, who have kept us in bondage, we will begin battling the ones without, who are keeping others in bondage.
We must never forget that our conquest is not the greedy pursuit of personal gain and advancement, but our treasure is the liberation of souls that are now in the bondage of darkness. Our purpose is to see the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ set the captives free. We are called as true freedom fighters. Our success in this life will be counted by the release of the captives the devil has had in bondage to do his will.
So we can now expect a big change to begin to take place in the church from just seeking to be set free ourselves, to setting the nations free. On the other side of the Jordan, Israel may not have looked very different from the group who had left Egypt, but on the inside they were very different. They were no longer just recently released slaves—they were conquerors! Right now, by appearances the church may not look very different than it has for many centuries—but it is! We are no longer just recently released slaves—we are warriors with the greatest cause, preparing for the greatest battle!
I have been asked to speak to a few NFL teams just before their games. The intensity of the focus on their faces was like nothing I had ever seen. In 1990, I was speaking to the Denver Broncos before an important Monday night game with their rivals, the Kansas City Chiefs, and the Lord drew my attention to their “game faces.” He then said to me, “When you see that kind of focus on My people, the time is at hand.”
Since that night I have looked for this focus on the faces of God’s people everywhere I go. For years it seemed in most churches they were more like kids in detention hall after school than a rising, conquering army. However, in the last four years I have begun to see the increasing focus and intensity, which I know means the great advance is now close. The day is not far off when Christians will be as focused and intense about their place in the body of Christ as any professional athlete is about his or her profession.
When you see those football teams just before a game, you think that if they are not released on their foe very soon they will begin to hurt each other! That is actually what sometimes happens in churches. When we build people up and then do not release them on the enemy, their intensity is released as frustration on other believers. This is the cause of many church splits and other devastating problems. It is now time for us to engage the enemy! We need church builders, and this is a job that some will always need to be occupied with. However, it is now time to turn our attention away from just building up ourselves to building the kingdom.
The worst enemy of Christianity is complacency, or as the Lord put it, lukewarmness. This is the greatest delusion and deception of all. How could anyone truly know the Lord, the Consuming Fire, and not be on fire? This is why His true messengers are “flames of fire.” Lukewarmness is not possible unless the delusions of the cares and worries of this world have choked out the seed of His Word in us. There is nothing that can shake someone out of complacency like war. If there is ever a greater focus than seen on a professional football team before a game, it will be on the faces of soldiers before a battle.
When King David, one of the greatest souls to ever walk the earth and one of the greatest pursuers of God of all time, stayed at home during the time “when kings go out to battle,” (see II Samuel 11:1) he fell into adultery and opened the door for some of the worst problems of his life. When it is time to fight and we do not fight, we are almost certain to be overcome and defeated by the enemy in some way. It is now the time when we must go on the offensive and start looking to missions that do not just selfishly build our own church, but will begin to take territory for the kingdom of God. If we will do this, our churches grow and become much stronger than they are now.
Human beings were created with a need for adventure. There is no greater adventure in this life than the true Christian life. Youth especially need adventure, and if they are not captured by missions in some form, they are very likely to be captured by the spirit of the world.
There is nothing more boring than religion. C.S. Lewis once remarked that one definition of hell was to sit in an endless church service without the presence of God. Such services are from hell. It is time to bust out of the four-walled prison of present church life and begin our conquest. We must start to use the divinely powerful weapons that we have been given to engage the enemy and start taking the land that is rightfully ours.
NOTE: This Prophetic Bulletin was taken from a series of messages I wrote for our Word for the Week posted on our website this year. For a more in-depth study of this prophecy, you can join us weekly at www.morningstarministries.org.