Fire On Your Head

By David Ravenhill, www.davidravenhill.net

If you are unfamiliar with the words of this title, let me remind you that they were spoken by Jesus in response to Peter’s rebuke of him. Ahh! Now you recall the incident. Jesus has just asked the disciples what people were saying about him. “Some say you are John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or one of the prophets…” they explained. Jesus went on to tell them that he was going to Jerusalem where he would suffer many things, including the fact that he would be killed. Peter immediately rebuked him for his ‘negative confession’. After all, this was the last thing the disciples had in mind for their beloved master and potential King.

There is little doubt that the disciples fully expected Jesus to overthrow Rome’s dominance and reinstate the Kingdom to Israel by some miraculous display of power. This talk about suffering and death was the furthest thing from their minds. They were looking for a coronation, not a crucifixion. They were anticipating a time of celebration, liberation, and restoration. Not a season of suffering, rejection and opposition. Following his rebuke to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!” Jesus added, “you are a stumbling block to me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s”.

Could it be that the Lord is saying the same thing to the American Church? Like the disciples of old, we have had our hearts set on a Republican ‘coronation’. We prayed earnestly, fervently and passionately that God would answer ‘our interests’. Numerous prophetic words circulated that God was about to turn the tide of popular opinion and give us what ‘we’ wanted – King McCain and Queen Palin.

I’m absolutely convinced that God has His best interests at heart, and that no amount of pleading on the part of the Church is going to change HIS mind. Seldom if ever does the Church thrive during times of prosperity. God warned Israel over and over again that after giving them the Promised Land that they would soon forget him. America has forgotten their God while enjoying a land that ‘flows with milk and honey’.

Yes, things are about to change. I believe we are heading into some rough weather. A major depression looms on the horizon, not to mention a growing movement of hatred against the Church. We have seen only the beginning as an estimated one million gay activists took to the streets recently in protest of their rights to gay marriage. We are going to experience increased pressure from society to accept more and more of their liberal values as the norm. Rejecting them will only further their hatred of the Church. Another time bomb is the growing threat of the militant Muslim agenda already at work throughout our nation.

Jesus warned us about these things by stating “You will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake”. We refused to believe him, believing instead that as Americans we have a Constitution and a Bill of Rights that will come to our defense. Times are changing. America is changing. The Church needs to prepare for persecution, suffering, opposition and rejection.

By now some of you are about to rebuke me for my negative talk. Let’s face it. Whose interests are we really concerned about? God’s or our own? I believe the Church’s best days are still to come. There is nothing like opposition, rejection and persecution to fertilize the growth of the Church. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a sadist who delights in torturing myself, nor do I sleep on a bed of nails or wear a horse hair shirt. I am , though, sufficiently familiar with God’s Word and His ways to know that He will do whatever is necessary to bring forth his purposes. Even if that means putting his interests before our own.

It’s time for some of you to read again the Prophet Habakkuk. This prophetic intercessor cried out repeatedly for God to intervene and do something. Israel was filled with violence, destruction and every type of evil. Everywhere he turned, he saw justice perverted and the Law ignored. Feeling that God was ignorant of what was going on he reminds God repeatedly of what he is seeing. He even seems to blame God for not listening or caring. God eventually responds that He is at work and is raising up the Chaldeans. Habakkuk can barely believe what he is hearing. Let me interpret this for you if I may. Intercessors all over America have been crying out for God to do something, believing that God would turn the nation toward McCain. Instead, God says, “ I am doing something. I’m raising up Obama.”

The last three verses of Habakkuk are so timely for the American Church.

“Though the Republican Party does not win, and there is no hope of a future conservative Supreme Court. Though the Senate and Congress are controlled by the Democrats and taxes will go through the roof. Though we may well be entering another Great Depression with huge unemployment, and the rationing of food due to famine…..

YET will I rejoice in the Lord
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.
The Lord God is my strength
And He makes my feet like hind’s feet,
And He makes me walk in high places.”