…making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

Ephesians 5:16

The days are soon upon us where a distinctive separation between converted believers and regenerate Christians will be made evident as never before. What is taking place in our governments in this nation and other affluent countries is going to shake everything we know to be stable; everything so many take for granted will be replaced with an aching void and a melancholic sentimentality. It will be a time when converted believers compromisingly subject themselves to the world’s mold and pressure, disclosing where their true loyalties lie, while the regenerate will incandescently shine all the more prominent – though being outcasts of society.

In the Scriptures, we are commanded not to be alarmed or to panic as events leading up to Christ’s imminent return unfold, but there is only one way in which we shall not be vexed and overcome with trouble, and that is through the Creator of these rolling spheres Who said, “In Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

We live in an era where many regenerate Christians have been lulled to sleep by the subtle seduction of the world. The ways of this age are not always immoral; they can be of the ‘highest’ ethical order, a righteousness that attains the impressive measure of the Pharisees, but an abomination in God’s eyes. The epitome of Christianity is not abstinence from immorality but an immovable, uncompromising and incomparable devotion to Christ. I vividly remember spending time with a very influential pastor, who was removed from office, lost his marriage and the trust of hundreds of people. It was devastating to personally witness these events, especially with someone whose spiritual calibre would tower many in the ministry today, nevertheless – what really grieved me to hear (while he was adapting to a life of single marital status, a non-influential position in the Church – even to non-attendance) was that although he had not reverted to gross immoral conduct, he had succumbed to living low-key spiritually; the dynamism and closeness he had with God was no longer there. He was of the rarest leaders I have ever met, and under whose ministry I had sat and grown for a number of years. His fervency for the Lord had cooled significantly, but he wasn’t living immorally. That to me, in all of my life’s experience so far, is the most inconsolable encounter – to see a spiritual giant fall and not get back up!

So many Christians are too content and comfortable with a ‘clean-moral-living’ lifestyle while suffering at a low spiritual ebb, unable to discern the times that are upon us. Thousands are commenting on the state of the world today, but their own spiritual state is an absolute contradiction. Many prefer to pursue their ball games where God ought to be pursued in prayer; where fasting has become so foreign, barbecues have become so frequent; instead of laying up treasure in heaven there’s a whole lot more buying and selling; socialising has replaced spiritual fellowship; we’re more familiar with the face of man than the face of God. But that’s acceptable so long as we live ‘clean’ lives – but don’t bring sacrifice into it; that’s going too far… In the name of God what has become of us?! Where are the C.T. Studd’s whose lifestyle was, “If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.”? It was men of such stature who witnessed God at work in the lives of individuals and nations. Let us drop the worn-out excuse of saying ‘Jesus has paid it all, we cannot add to what He has already done…it’s all of grace’. Of course it’s all of grace! but if there is any trace of His grace in our lives we ought not to be offended if someone says, “show me your works (fruit)” – the verdict demands evidence.

It was Leonard Ravenhill who said, “God is not writing the last chapter; He’s writing the last page!” We have little time left as well as little liberty – what are we doing with what we still have, are we ‘making the best use’ of  it? Are we expending our energy on the best things – not the good things; they can be the devils ploy? Oswald Chambers said, “The good is the enemy of the best.” Have we come to realize that? Many of our battles are fought where we have no business, and many wonder why so few are won. It’s because many fight in the realm of flesh and blood. I am amazed that Christians are still fighting for prayer to be reinstituted in schools, that bibles be accessed again in the military and hospitals. Well, are we praying at home, are we getting to know His Word at home? We moan over the fact that our religious rights are being publicly removed, but we will not groan before God in prayer. We get angry when our government publicly denies our Bible and yet this generation of Christians get irate when God sends His men to preach His Word that wounds our pride, letting us know we‘re out of God‘s stride! All this zealous protesting does not mean a thing in God’s eyes; there’s nothing of the spirit of Protestantism in it anyway, but God sees the hypocrisy and sham of it all!

How do Christians manage under heavy and violent persecution in other countries besieged with Islam? Do they protest? Do they have marches, demanding this and that? They would have there heads severed, and still do anyway for following Christ, but they know how to come before the Throne of Grace and pray! We still have so much liberty in America that if suffering Christians in Egypt, Pakistan, Indonesia and India – many who have had acid thrown into their face, others whose limbs have been hacked off, whose wife and children were butchered before them, whole neighbourhoods, villages and towns wiped out (all because they really do love and obey their Lord and Master, Jesus Christ) – if they were to have our freedom and opportunities that currently exist, it would be seen as nothing short of a miracle and in answer to prayer to take the gospel into other remote areas, not to enjoy the luxury of freedom (as many in America would and even do so) but rather as open doors to save others from hell, and yet we squander what we still have! We ought to be repenting not protesting – Shame on America – shame on American Christianity rather! How dare we moan and complain! We know nothing of persecution pertaining to Christians in our western cultures, nothing whatsoever. Keith Green sung, “We’ve never been so well fed and yet we’re still so dead!” The greater shame lies in the fact that so many make excuses and justify their laziness. We nod our heads and say our ‘amen’s’ when we’re almost challenged out of our seats by anointed preaching, playing the game, but no sooner than when we get up from off our chairs there’s been no genuine change within; we’re still the same old mediocre bunch of Christians quite content to carry on as we were.

God does not prosper us with freedom so we can just sit back and soak up the sun of ease with a ‘spare rib and soda in our hands‘. Tozer said that many Christians treat this world more like a playground than a battleground. Many do not realize the days are evil – America does not have a right concept of the word ‘evil’ because if it did it wouldn’t be sitting on its backside doing nothing – and don’t think that moral people have no inclination as to how corrupt this world is; there are many who could lecture a few Christians on how wretched this age is! The imperative aspect is, are Christians aware of the spiritual war – a war behind the scenes of what the average person with political common-sense cannot see? There aren’t many Christians who can rightly discern the days we are in, and I don’t mean judging the times alongside an eschatological time chart; many have done so over the decades and have proven to be embarrassingly way off track. God is not so much concerned in either one of us having the correct viewpoint on end times (whether pre, post or a-millennialist) as much as ‘living in the light of His coming’ – being prepared any moment for His appearing.

Being concerned in and of itself about our times is not enough either. Granted that some concern may lead to ‘action’ but does it end in fruitlessness and foolishness? Listen to Paul again in Ephesians 5:16-17, “making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of he Lord is.” How many of us are discerning the will of God now, and how many of us are seeking without resting until we know it? Are some of us trying to persuade ourselves that what we’re doing is the right thing or are we convinced that we are in the will of God? No Christian ought to be happy until they know the smile of God upon them – and I don’t mean financial opulence, but His approval of our lives.

Are these precarious times unnerving us and upsetting our spiritual equilibrium? Are we taken by surprise, and have we forgotten what the Son of God revealed, that we will have trouble in this world? One thing for sure is that if any of us are living godly lives – not our way but God’s – then we can count on suffering persecution; if we are living a compromising, middle-ground and mediocre lifestyle, then we are ‘safe’ and out of harms way – and that’s exactly where the devil wants every child of God! There are two ways in which the world responds to the light of God within us: they either hate or love us. What is concerning today is that hardly one of those two responses are known among Christians; there is a prevailing vagueness, and that should greatly disturb us. I believe that’s the only time a Christian should be anxious – when they’re out of sink with God; and it is questionable as to whether or not anyone of us are genuinely born of the Spirit of God if we can get along fine with our lives, not knowing peace and contentment as a result of communion with Him and a close walking with Him; if we are miserable until we encounter that state of communion, then we can be assured we are His and that He is indeed the Shepherd of our souls.

Are we so taken up with Him that we are ready at any moment to make ‘a defence to anyone who asks us the reason for the Hope that is within us’? Or are we so discouraged in these evil days that anyone in the world looking at us could say ‘they are no different from us; they are fearful, terrified, insecure, uncertain and misguided’? Or can we say with Paul, “I know Whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard until that Day…”? God will shake everything that can be shaken until all that remains cannot be shaken, and that is the one thing God is educating those who have ears to hear: are we banking and staking our all on nothing but Jesus Christ, the Rock that cannot be shaken? Let everything else go – the economy, a nations institution, its liberty, its strength, its pride, because every single thing that is built upon anything other than Jesus Christ will crumble and fade to nothing; it applies to all of us individually as well as nationally.

“God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the sea,
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling.
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitations of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved…
The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
He utters His voice, the earth melts.
The Lord of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our fortress.”

(Psalm 46)

We will encounter no absolute peace in anything but Him. All around us can be utter chaos while all the time we are being held together by the God of peace – “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because He trusts in You” (Isaiah 26:3). You notice in Colossians 3:2 Paul said, “Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth.” That’s not to say we never mind the aspects of daily living, but that rather our thoughts are governed with a heavenly perspective, and if our minds are not disciplined in this way, then when the hard times hit we will be plagued with anxiety and insecurity, not knowing whether we’re coming or going. One of the amazing things about the Christian life is we can know peace despite the manner of circumstances we may be in; we do not have to wait until we reach a location of tranquillity. This is what birthed many of our great hymns, that so many are inclined to look upon as mere poetry – nothing of the sort! Listen to Spafford:

‘When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows, like sea-billows, roll,
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul’

Horatio Gates Spafford had not long lost his daughters who drowned while sailing the Atlantic, and over the location where the ship was known to have sunk, Spafford composed his hymn. Seldom do we find such depth and heart in our modern chorus’ today. Do any of us wonder how Peter was able to sleep in prison, fastened to a guard either side of him, knowing that his execution awaited him the next day? There’s only thing that enabled Peter to sleep and that was the conviction that ALL was well. How many of us can say that today – do we have that assurance? The apostle Paul composed many of his epistles in prison that have blazed through the centuries of time, but I guarantee that when we read them we hardly think of the chains that bound his hands as he wrote. John Bunyan composed some of his greatest writings in prison, and with all the freedom that America still has today – not one of us can put together something of that grandeur!

These apostles, these men knew God, and they knew Him intimately – a word today that has been twisted and perverted, and a word that is seldom used within our churches because so few encounter the nearness of God, since so many are content to live that far away. We are in desperate need of a vision of God, where the reality, majesty and awesomeness of God is infused into our hearts again. There’s only one kind of vision that is prevalent in the church today and that’s television as Ravenhill once said, and that is still so true today; many would rather have the big shot screens at the front of churches to view the pastor, the ‘celebrity’ singers and music groups or to view a midweek movie rather than catch a glimpse of the splendour of the risen Christ; many would rather be entertained than engage in prayer seeking the face of God. How many of us have recently prayed, ‘Lord give me a baptism of prayer’ or ‘teach me to really pray.’? Robert Murray M’Cheyne said “Pray to be taught to pray.” Prayer is a duty and an effort today, and the thought of praying for an hour after one hours bible study is a deterrent for the majority that attend church nowadays. Let us be honest, when was the last time – if there ever was a time – when an hour of corporate prayer would seem like 5 minutes because heaven came down and time was of no essence? How long has it been since any of us attended a prayer meeting where nobody had to look at their watches or the clock in order to get home in time and not miss the latest episode of the 3^rd season’s TV drama craze, or to catch the 2^nd half footballs semi-final match – or anything else trivial for that matter? I wonder how many would stay in the prayer meeting if the Holy Spirit brooded powerfully until early hours of the morning? In such conditions, everything else is forgotten as eternity suspends and transcends time. But if we’re not given to prayer how can we expect the Holy Spirit to move in our midst, and how can we expect to be fluent in prayer unless we are frequently in prayer?

The prevalent mentality today is to be dressed in the armour of God, to wrestle against the spiritual forces of evil, and that’s where many leave off; hardly anybody mentions the necessity of prayer. Prayer is what fashions us to fight; without prayer we may as well be clothed in Saul’s battle dress. Prayer not only seals the armour; it is the armour that clothes us with a right mind! ‘Praying at all times’ why? Because the days which we are in are heinous, and if we were truly aware of the density of evil that pervades our society we would be driven to prayer. Many know about God through theology but how many know Him through prayer? Apologetics won’t strengthen a church to convince and convict the world, but a church that truly calls upon the name of the Lord through prayer will be clothed in power to refute and tear down any argument the world brings against the hope that she has been called unto; it is a power no opposing man or woman can reckon with. The results of effective prayer will bring a tyrant, a rebel and a gang leader to their knees before the Living God. Prayer is what clothes the church in her right mind, to be heavenly minded and daringly minded to withstand everything the gates of hell may throw at her. “God does nothing but in answer to prayer.” are the words of John Wesley that some theologians today may find much to ‘disagree’ with, but let’s not forget that he spoke such truth as a result of seeing God move powerfully because he earnestly sought Him through prayer; we are strangers to prayer and the so the acts and ways of God are foreign to us. We live in a day where we are dead-serious in the arena of theology but seriously dead in the realm of prayer; heavily clothed in doctrine but naked in prayer. No matter how well versed we are in the Scriptures, The Westminster Catechism of Faith and Systematic Theology, if our prayer life suffers then we will be no match to stand against the powers of darkness in the ‘evil day’; we forget the devil is a master theologian and he will do all he can to make us masters in this area too, but he will do all he can to prevent us from mastering the art of prayer. Queen Mary of Scotland – nicknamed ‘Bloody-Mary’ – as powerful as she was, feared only one thing and that was the prayers of John Knox. I wonder whose prayers are just as effective today to turn around national and world events? God hasn’t changed.

These words by Leonard Ravenhill bear significant weight to the days we are in and may well be approaching, “Either we learn to concentrate in prayer or we’ll be praying in concentration camps. Don’t say it can’t happen – it will!” I repeated those words to a very respectable man last week and he replied, “And I will add to that – they will not be able to stop me praying in a concentration camp…I don’t fear death.” While there is bravery and boldness in his response, there is something I was mindful of afterwards: what about the people we will be unable to reach with the gospel who are heading fast on their way to hell if we were imprisoned for our faith? In these evil days, we still have ample freedom to live daringly in the hands of God. May God drench us with a spirit of earnest prayer that would rend the heavens and make His presence and glory known, calling many out of evil to live for Him.