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The Big Wave is on its Way

By Dave Walker | September 21, 2020 | Comments 0 Comment

God is preparing His church

The virus has taken its toll

South Africa, like many parts of the world, is in dire straits after the lockdown. In fact, the economy was in bad shape before lockdown, racial tensions were fuelled by a radical political party, and violent crime was rampant. The virus has just exacerbated that. I’m sure many countries have suffered similarly.

Nevertheless, there is great excitement in my spirit.

But God is using this time

God is using this time to prepare His church for something great.

Never before have there been so many prayer initiatives, starting as early as March with calls for global prayer. And never have the opportunities for whole communities and beyond been stimulated to join online in ‘corporate’ prayer.

From the start of lockdown Dr Arthur Frost has been holding an online breaking of bread and prayer daily — that is, every day since the end of March till now — for the nation od Soth Africa, , with thousands joining him.

Chief Justice Magoeng Magoeng, an outspoken Christian, has arranged ongoing prayer and fasting initiatives, with the reading of appropriate scriptures every day. See here.

Many church leaders are calling the nation to combined prayer and repentance in an online meeting.

There are so many initiatives it is difficult to participate in them all.

God’s people are showing Him to the world

While God’s people are turning to Him in prayer, they are also being His hands, feet, and voice to those whose lives the virus has devastated. Millions of food parcels and practical help has been given to those in dire need. Comfort has been shown to the bereaved and retrenched. Hope has been instilled in the fearful. As I say, in God in the ICU, when we pray for someone in need, we should listen to God’s response. Could it be we are the answer to our own prayer? Certainly, in South Africa, the church has taken this seriously.

God has taken the initiative

However, it’s the prayer that excites me most. Whenever God is about to pour out His Spirit, he stimulates His people to pray. God is clearly at the centre of the prayer initiatives.

Let’s learn from the surfers

I’ve hung around surfers a bit and learned their big wave compatriots. They can predict when the big waves will hit a coastline weeks before they do so, and make their arrangements to be there when they hit.

I feel a bit like one of those guys. I sense a swell in the spirit ocean that is heading inexorably to shore. There’s a wave of revival heading for our coasts. Let’s be like the big wave surfer who prepares himself and makes sure he’s in the right place when the wave makes landfall.

When revival comes, let’s be ready to embrace everything God has for us. It is going to be an awesome, exhilarating time as He prepares His Bride for His return.

PERSEVERING, ENDURING AND WAITING

By Dave Walker | September 7, 2020 | Comments 0 Comment

Ensuring you finish well

As lockdown in its various forms, drags on and we wonder if we will ever get back to normal — and what that ‘normal’ will look like — I’m reminded of a recurring theme throughout the Bible. That theme is perseverance, with its sisters, waiting and endurance.

Derek Prince makes the distinctions clear, and each one is relevant to our situation.

Perseverance: Keep doing the right thing in spite of..

Perseverance is continuing in our pursuit in the face of adverse circumstances. How vital that is in these times. Physically it is so tempting to drop our guard and neglect social distancing, mask wearing and sanitising when it gets irritating and tedious. Spiritually, when we’re feeling depressed and God doesn’t seem to be coming through for us, it’s tempting to neglect our time with Him — to allow our spiritual disciplines to lapse.

This hit me in an unexpected way. With our church providing daily devotionals, an online prayer time with hundreds of our congregations participating, and an online church service, I’ve found my personal one on one time with the Lord taking a back seat. And yet I desperately need that time to hear from God personally, meditate on His Word and pray – just me and God. This is when the Bible urges me to persevere in what I’ve always done. I’ve had to deliberately discipline myself in this, making an appointment with God early in the morning and sticking to

Endurance: Don’t buckle under pressure

Endurance, Derek Prince says, is not buckling, and giving up under difficult circumstances. It is tempting to give up on God when He doesn’t seem to be coming through for us. When we can’t see how Romans 8:28 can possibly be right when it says, “All things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose.” and we’re going through such hell with a job loss or loneliness or illness. But the Bible calls us to endure to the end — and there will be an end, when God who, perhaps imperceptibly, has been with us through it all, will show us His faithfulness.

In my book, Prayer, Medicine and Miracles, I describe how messy a cleft lip repair looks halfway through the operation. Imagine if the mother had to see what the surgeon is doing at that stage and, in horror at the appearance of her child, snatched it away from him. She would then live with a deformed child, blaming the surgeon, who, if she’d only waited, would have had a beautiful lip in place of an ugly cleft. Sometimes, I think, when we fail to endure, this can happen to us as we do not allow God to finish the work He started.

Waiting: Anticipating a good outcome

Waiting is more a case of being expectant. In these amazing times, I’m eagerly waiting to see what God is doing. As those in the world become lovers of money, more and more narcissistically lovers of themselves and hooked on pleasure-seeking in all its forms; as children are being encouraged by educational authorities to disobey their parents (see 2 Tim 3:2); as Christians are being persecuted even in the West; as violence and aggression escalate, it seems we are nearing Christ’s return. Of course, we don’t know the time, but we can read the signs, and I’m waiting with eager expectation. But our citizenship is in heaven and we eagerly await a Saviour from there… (Phil. 3:20)

It’s the expectation that fortifies us to endure. Jesus, for the joy set before Him — the eager expectation of our being united to the Father — endured the Cross, scorning its shame (Hebrews 12:2)

So, no matter how long the road, or how invisibe the end, let’s persevere in doing good and maintaining a close relationship with the Lord; let’s endure the hardship, trusting God to see us through and to work it for our good; let’s wait with eager expectation to see what God is doing through this pandemic and all its ramifications, anticipating that this, in a sense, is the beginning of the end.

Derek Prince, when asked what he would say, in one sentence about God, said this: “God is faithful.”

That means, in everything He is true to His loving nature. You can trust him to come through, no matter what.

Social Distancing and Prayer

By Dave Walker | August 18, 2020 | Comments 0 Comment

How is it affecting your prayer life?

We can no longer connect physically as we pray

In these days of social distancing (which, as someone has rightly said, should be called spatial distancing, since our social interaction should still be close), we have little opportunity to pray with others. Much of our prayers need to be offered from a different location from that of the person for whom we are praying.

While that is, in fact normal practice for much of our prayers — we ask others, for example, in church or via social media to pray for those whom we know need our prayer —, I miss not having the opportunity to lay hands and pray directly with someone, rather than just for them.

Jesus prayed at a distance for healing

Praying from a distance is not new. Jesus, on three recorded occasions healed from a distance. The centurion asked Jesus just to say the word and his servant would be healed, and He did. (Matt. 8:5-13); a royal official asked Jesus to come and heal his dying son and Jesus merely told him his son was well (John 4:46-54); the Syrophoenician woman remonstrated with Jesus and He healed her daughter from a distance.(Matt; 15:21-28).

In my Quiet Time, I am used to praying for my family and friends who are far away, but I have to confess when it comes to corporate prayer, though I know there are sometimes hundreds of others praying with me on Zoom or YouTube, it doesn’t feel the same as when we are in the same room and I hear the murmur of voices echoing around the room.

We can employ our imagination as we pray

It is then that I use my imagination as I think God intended us to use it. I believe He has given it to us to picture the invisible. Now, as we pray in our weekly times of ‘corporate’ worship and intercession, I picture all those on Zoom, Facebook and YouTube joining with the angels in heaven — all of us before the throne of grace in praise and intercession. I have often pictured angels joining in with our prayers, so it is not a big step to picture our church members participating with them.

The norm for Jesus was to be present when He healed

Nevertheless, as Garth Wiebe points out in his blog, only once did Jesus pray from a distance of His own initiative. Otherwise, when He healed in this way, it was at the request of the centurion and because the Syrophoenician woman was not a Jew. So, the norm was for Him to be present and I must say, I have found there is such a different dynamic praying with a person rather than just for them. Nearly always, as I was in practice, when I prayed for my patients, I laid hands on them. In fact, I describe in God in the ICU how a young boy was not responding to treatment until I asked the whole family to come into the ICU and lay hands on their son or brother. Then God responded miraculously.

Now, the closest one can get to a personal prayer encounter is to pray over the phone with someone. I have felt the Holy Spirit’s presence on occasions as I have done this.

God is not restricted by time or space

But I’m so glad God is not restricted by time or place or method. Let’s, by faith, not slacken off with our prayers. Let’s continue to pray for healing for our sick — particularly those who have been infected with Covid 19 — for protection for those on the frontline in fighting this pandemic, for godly decisions for our leaders, secular and spiritual, and for ourselves that we may make our petitions with thanksgiving in our hearts so that the peace of God, which passes all understanding will keep our hearts and minds in an intimate knowledge of our wonderful, faithful God.

Be Part of the Remnant

By Dave Walker | August 4, 2020 | Comments 4 comments

Trusting God Implictly

We are often tempted to seek worldly ways out of our problems

How patient our God is in dealing with His people. Throughout Biblical history and even up to the present, we have failed to believe in Him and sought other ways to sort out our problems, despite His constant exhortations to trust Him.

“In repentance and rest is your salvation; in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.” (Isaiah 30:15)

“Who is among you who fears the LORD, who listens to the voice of his servant? He who walks in darkness, and has no light, let him trust in the name of the LORD,” (Isaiah 50:10)

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding (Prov. 3:5)

God deals in remnants

Yet, whenever God’s people turn away from Him, instead of towards Him in times of trouble, there is always a remnant who stays faithful.

God deals in remnants — those who remain true to Him.

I do believe He is sorting out His remnant in these trying times. He is preparing a people who will trust Him despite the darkness around them, as Isaiah urges us to do in the passage above.

God blesses those who trust Him implicitly

What wonderful promises He has throughout His Word for those who trust Him implicitly.

Think about this: No matter what happens to us, if we trust God unreservedly, we are always on the winning side. If things go well, we can praise Him for all He does. When things don’t go so well, we can praise Him for walking with us through them — and in my experience, He does that in wonderful ways. I describe in my book, God in the ICU, how He was present so powerfully as my darling wife lay dying. He did not heal her — He told me He would not — but so tangible was His peace, that I accepted it with the quiet assurance that it was all going to be okay. Even as we contemplate dying, we are victorious if we trust Him, for as one man who was threatened with martyrdom exclaimed, “You cannot frighten me with heaven.”

I was speaking to Him in my Quiet Time one morning and saying, “Lord, I’d love to be with You. I’m not afraid of dying, but I’m concerned about leaving my wife all alone.” and I felt His whisper saying, “Don’t you trust Me to look after her?”

I realised, even in that, there was security in trusting Him, and exclaimed, “Yes, Lord. Of course. I can do that.” And from then on, I had perfect peace.

There is a wonderful teaching and testimony here if you want to take this further.

Take heart. God loves to have you trust Him unreservedly

How are you managing under lockdown? Are you managing to put everything into God’s hands and be part of the remnant? It’s a decision — an act of the will to trust, to have faith in Him. If it’s a struggle, I’d encourage you to look up all the scriptures that exhort us to trust Him in all circumstances, and those which tell of His faithfulness to provide for those who do. You might be surprised at how many there are. You’ll find ten of them here.

Deciding to trust God to provide is a great way to worship Him. We don’t always have to sing. If you decide, in your heart that He is able to look after you in every way, I have no doubt it will be God’s turn to sing.

The Wrath of God

By Dave Walker | July 18, 2020 | Comments 1 comment

Can this be reconciled with His love?

Before Covid 19 had even come onto the scene, I had been meditating on the judgement of God. I’ve been going through Isaiah and Jeremiah and it is filled with all sorts of dire pronouncements of what God will do to a disobedient people.

Of course, it means that God, who is righteous in all His ways will not tolerate evil, and must judge it. For a good explanation of this, see https://www.christianity.com/wiki/god/what-is-the-biblical-understanding-of-the-wrath-of-god.html . However, this can still make God seem like a harsh judge, when He says “I will pour out my wrath and such and such (all of the most terrible things) will happen to you.”

The perfection of God’s laws

I was struggling to reconcile this with the nature of God as portrayed by Jesus, until I started meditating on God’s laws. Psalm 19, after talking about the way the heavens declare God’s glory, waxes eloquent on the laws of God: His law is perfect, reviving the soul, His statutes are trustworthy, His precepts are right, His commands are radiant and His ordinances are sure.

Then I looked around me and marveled at the way God’s laws of nature keep everything in perfect balance. No one law contradicts another. The laws of gravity, friction, certrifugal force, expansion of gases etc, all work together in harmony to produce the wonderful world in which we live. His mathematical precision is such that all of creation is based on one constant, which gives us the pattern of construction for everything from molecules to galaxies.

There are physical consequences for breaking a physical law

Yet if a law is to be a law, there must be consequences in defying it. If one tries to defy the law of gravity, saying “It does not apply to me,” and steps out of a fourth story window, there will be fatal consequences. And because God made the law in the first place, one could say God caused the person to fall to his death. Similarly, if one tried to apply the law of friction to a frozen pond, one could end up with a bruised bottom and a deflated ego. Again, because God created the law, He must also be responsible for the consequences of defying it.

This must also apply to God’s spiritual laws

Because we understand this about physical laws, we don’t blame God for being heartless and vindictive when these things happen. However, God’s spiritual laws must also have consequences if they are defied, otherwise they would not be laws. As I read Isaiah and Jeremiah, I thought I had an insight into the heart of God, who was desperately warning His people of the consequences of disobedience. He is taking responsibility for the consequences, and so we read passages like Jeremiah 17:4 “Through your own fault you will lose the inheritance I gave you. I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not know for you have kindled My anger and it will burn forever.” He takes responsibiity for the consequences they will suffer, though it is not His desire for them.

I have heard people say, God will never bring judgement on men, for He is a God of love. Yet, as the One who has created the universe with such perfect laws, He must design consequences for defying those laws, otherwise they would not be perfect laws. Imagine if the law of gravity worked sometimes and at other times did not. Of necessity this consistency must also apply to the spiritual world.

God desperately does not want us to suffer the consequences of disobedience

Yet, although God takes responsibility for implementing the consequences of defying His laws, it is the last thing He wants for His creation.

“‘As surely as I live,’ declares the Lord, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they should turn from their wickedness and live.” (Ezekiel 33:11)

“Therefore I wail over Moab, for all Moab, I cry out. I moan for the men of Kir Hareseth. I weep for you as Jazer weeps, oh vines of Sibmah.” (Jeremiah48: 31,32)

There are ways we can lessen the effects of disobedience

Taking this further, there are ways in which something can mitigate the effects of defying a law. A powerful upward draft or a soft landing surface, for example can lessen the disastrous consequences of a fall. Likewise, it seems God has designed certain activities to mitigate the effects of His judgement. Repentance can actually reverse the judgement, as was so spectacularly shown in Ninevah as a result of Jonah’s preaching. See also the quote from Ezekiel above.

Other than that, the main activity God has designed to lessen the consequences of disobedience is prayer. This is vividly portrayed in His heartfelt exclamation, “I looked for a man who would…. stand before Me 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 …” (Ezekiel 22:30)

So whether we believe Covid 19 to be the judgement of God or sent by Satan, the response is the same. We need to pray. Let’s unite in prayer, confident that this is the response God longs to see from us.