In the context of the escalating darkness, the greatest outpouring of the Spirit is going to be fully manifest across the nations. It is already increasing in the nations.

Putting This Season into Perspective

by Mike Bickle
7/28/20 Current Events

It is time for the Body of Christ to start grappling with some areas and issues in the Bible that we have not really focused on much in the last few decades or longer. Many today are talking about the season we are in between COVID-19, the global economic crisis, and the civil/racial unrest. Many are talking about a new normal—meaning, using technology in a new way and relating in some different ways. Maybe economics will be done a little differently or maybe radically different. I think these are important to consider. Yes, surely the new normal is going to be different in some of those ways.

When I talk about a new normal and “not going back,” I am speaking from a historical, big-picture point of view of where we are. I believe we have crossed over a line in terms of the Lord’s biblical end-time story line accelerating in a new way across the nations. We are not going back to where we were before (and not just in the way we do technology and spend money or in how we relate). History is moving on a faster track. The pace is picking up. We have crossed a line of demarcation. In that sense, we are not going back, ever, to how things were before. We are entering into a very significant prophetic hour of history that will be characterized by both escalating darkness and escalating light—even the greatest revival in history, that will far surpass what happened in the book of Acts. Isaiah prophesied that when deep darkness covers the earth, the glory of God would rest on His people (Isaiah 60:2).

I think of the period from the beginning of World War I to the end of World War II, from 1914 to 1945, just over 30 years. Over 200 million people died by unnatural causes in that 30-year period between the Spanish flu and the two world wars. For those 30 years, the intensity of the trouble and the increase of the death toll were like no other time in history.

It has been seventy-five years since that thirty-year period. Certainly, there have been conflicts around the world, but globally speaking, there has been a general positive increase, a general growth of prosperity. Obviously, there were exceptions, some horrible exceptions of localized famines, civil wars, and other real traumas and needs. Overall, the human family has been progressing forward in a quite positive way for the last seventy-five years. Again, with some real setbacks here and there, but for seventy-five years we have not experienced the level of intense global trouble comparable to those previous thirty years.

We are entering another season of “birth pangs,” as the earth groans and a millennial new-world order is being birthed related to the return of Jesus and all that is to follow. This seventy-five-year “reprieve” is coming to an end. The coming birth pains will continue to be more and more intense, and the reprieves between them will be shorter.

Currently, we are in a global pandemic. There are economic pressures that are going to intensify. Social and racial strife has taken center stage now. Add to these natural disasters, which the Bible also makes very clear will increase. The locust plague began on the horn of Africa, swarmed through the Middle East, and is currently devouring western India. On the tails of the pandemic lockdown, this is resulting in more than food insecurity. Famine looms. Birth pangs.

Add some earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons, and hurricanes. Then, on top of that, add violence, whether it is civil violence in cities and civil wars in nations or military invasions. Add on top of that an increase of persecution against the gospel, against believers. Persecution is happening now in various parts of the earth, but it is not widespread yet. Finally, add in escalating sin. Sin and evil are growing, but the level of the demonic activity and the new norms of darkness in the culture ten and twenty years from now will be far greater.

In the context of the escalating darkness, the greatest outpouring of the Spirit is going to be fully manifest across the nations. It is already increasing in the nations. Many in the Western world do not see it up close, but on the global level more people are getting saved, more people have prophetic dreams and visions, more healings are happening, and the gospel is going forward in greater numbers than any time in history by far. The advance of the gospel will continue to really escalate.

So what is happening now? Birth pangs before the return of Christ, the birth of the millennial age, and the age to come. And God is creating the optimum environment to bring all into the valley of decision where each person will have to decide for Christ or against Him. This will lead, ultimately, to Jesus returning and driving evil off the face of the earth. That is the context of what is happening in this hour of history, an increase of the biblical end-time scenario. Yes, the Lord is setting the stage for the most glorious hour of human history, which will include the billion-soul harvest and the transformation of the Body of Christ to a prepared Bride, culminating with Jesus’ turn, appearing as the King of kings over the whole earth.

How are you preparing your heart to receive Jesus as the King over the whole earth?

For more on what is happening in our day, we recommend NOW with Mike Bickle, a series of videos addressing current events. Watch the playlist.

Mike Bickle

position

  • Founder, IHOPKC

Mike Bickle is the founder of the International House of Prayer, an evangelical missions organization based on 24/7 prayer with worship. He is also the founder of International House of Prayer University, which includes full-time ministry, music, and media schools.

Mike’s teaching emphasizes growing in passion for Jesus through intimacy with God, doing evangelism and missions work from the place of night-and-day prayer, and the end times. He is the author of several books, including Growing in Prayer, Passion for Jesus, God’s Answer to the Growing CrisisGrowing in the Prophetic, and Prayers to Strengthen Your Inner Man.  Mike and his wife, Diane, have two married sons and six grandchildren.

Tell us what you think