The Hidden Power Awakening America’s Spirit

In recent times, many have sensed a stirring in the spirit of our nation, a divine movement that goes beyond mere emotion or desire. This is a call to recognize the profound changes happening all around us, as God begins to awaken the hearts of His people. In this blog, we’ll explore the spiritual principles that underpin this awakening, focusing on the themes of humility, authenticity, and the hunger for righteousness.

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The Move of the King

Pastor Bill Brannan emphasizes that we are living in exciting times, where the Spirit of God is actively speaking to His people. Many individuals have shared dreams and visions, confirming that God is indeed at work. This movement is not just confined to America; it may be a global awakening. As God turns the hearts of fathers to their children and vice versa, we see a restoration of relationships and a rekindling of hope.

However, amidst this divine movement, it’s easy to get caught up in the negativity and despair that often clouds our view. Just as the prophet Elijah felt disheartened after his confrontation with the prophets of Baal, we too can feel overwhelmed by the challenges we face. Yet, just like God reassured Elijah, He reminds us that He is still moving, even when we can’t see it.

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Understanding Our Identity

The current civil war isn’t just a political struggle; it’s a battle of ideas and values. People are searching for meaning, purpose, and identity in a world that often feels chaotic. This search leads them to question the nature of truth and morality. As Christians, we are called to awaken the spiritual and moral imagination of this generation through Jesus Christ, showing them a world governed by love, grace, and truth.

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The Model: The Sermon on the Mount

One of the most profound teachings of Jesus is found in the Sermon on the Mount. Here, He lays out the principles by which the Kingdom of God operates. This is not just a collection of moral guidelines; it’s a radical way of living that transforms both individuals and communities. The Beatitudes serve as a foundation for understanding how to embody the values of the Kingdom.

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The Beatitudes: A Call to Action

The Beatitudes call us to a higher standard of living, one that reflects the heart of God. For instance, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” This statement encapsulates the essence of our spiritual journey. When we cultivate a deep desire for righteousness, we open ourselves to the fullness of God’s blessings.

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Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness

Hunger and thirst are powerful motivators. They drive us to seek out what we need for survival. In the same way, our spiritual hunger compels us to pursue a deeper relationship with God. This pursuit is not passive; it requires intentionality and effort. As we lean into our hunger for righteousness, we can expect to be filled with the goodness of God.

The Power of Gratitude

Gratitude is another key aspect of this spiritual awakening. When we focus on the blessings in our lives, we shift our perspective from one of lack to one of abundance. This shift allows us to see the goodness of God in every situation, fostering a heart of thankfulness that glorifies Him.

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The Importance of Authenticity

In a world filled with facades, authenticity is a breath of fresh air. We live in a culture that often values appearances over reality. Yet, the Kingdom of God calls us to be genuine and true. When we are authentic, we create space for others to be real as well, fostering a community of acceptance and love.

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Blessed Are the Peacemakers

Jesus teaches that “blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” This call to peacemaking goes beyond mere conflict resolution; it’s about embodying the love of Christ in our interactions with others. In a society rife with division, we are called to be instruments of peace, bringing reconciliation and healing wherever we go.

The Role of the Church

The church has a vital role to play in this awakening. We must be a light in the darkness, a beacon of hope for those searching for truth. By embodying the principles of the Kingdom, we can impact our communities and the world at large. This is not merely a responsibility; it is a privilege that we must embrace.

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Conclusion: A Call to Action

As we reflect on these truths, let us remember that we are participants in a divine movement. God is awakening His church and calling us to a deeper relationship with Him. Let us cultivate a hunger for righteousness, embrace authenticity, and strive to be peacemakers in our world. Together, we can be a part of the great awakening that God is orchestrating in our time.

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Join us on this journey of faith as we seek to live out the Kingdom principles in our lives and communities. Together, we can help awaken the spirit of America and beyond.

A Move of the Kingdom of God is Dawning in America, Pt. 2

(Preaching Outline)

1)      We are living in exciting times!  I believe there is a move of God going on to restore the fear of the Lord to America, it is not going to come from the White House, but God’s house, and my prayer for the New Year is that we will be a part of it.

a)      America is in the midst of a civil war, not a war of guns, but a war of ideas, values and identity.  This war is not going to be won by politics, but through the gospel of Jesus Christ and the message of the Kingdom of God.

b)      We have to awaken the moral and spiritual imagination of a spiritually dead nation, and a slumbering church.

2)      The model for a move of God.

a)      The dawn of the Kingdom of God in the gospels:

i)        A world being healed

ii)      Beatitudes – The laws governing walking in the Kingdom of God

iii)    The Similitudes – The incredible calling and destiny of the church.

iv)    Recovering our biblical heritage from both the Old and New Testaments (Did not come to destroy but fulfill the law.)

v)      Breaking free from the traditions of men that rob the world of the Kingdom of God.

3)      Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (6)

a)      Passion, ownership, motivation.

b)      Matthew 7:7–8 (NKJV) — 7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

4)      Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God (8)

a)      Seeing and becoming

b)      Generally seen as undivided – pure

i)        Matthew 6:22 (NKJV) — 22 “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.

ii)      Matthew 6:24 (NKJV) — 24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

iii)    Worry is listed as the primary reason for serving mammon

c)      A right spirit – Authenticity and gratitude

d)      Hebrews 12:14–15 (NKJV) — 14 Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: 15 looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;

i)        Blessed are the peacemakers – sons of God (9)

e)      What does holiness look like?

f)       To be holy is to love your neighbour and to love the stranger. It means not stealing, lying, or deceiving others. It means not standing idly by when someone else’s life is in danger. It means not cursing the deaf or putting a stumbling block before the blind, that is, insulting or taking advantage of others even when they are completely unaware of it – because God is not unaware of it.[1]

g)      It means being honest in business, doing justice, treating your employees well, and sharing your blessings (in those days, parts of the harvest) with others. It means not hating people, not bearing a grudge, or taking revenge. If someone has done you wrong, don’t hate them. Remonstrate with them. Let them know what they have done and how it has hurt you, give them a chance to apologise and make amends, and then forgive them. Above all, “be holy” means: Have the courage to be different.[2]

5)      The inspiration of Martin Luther King, Jr.

a)      He tapped into the heartbeat of what people were concerned about and used that as a vehicle to enculture biblical values and further the kingdom of God.

b)      We need to find the cultural wave to drive the gospel of Jesus and the Kingdom of God: I’ve been wrestling with where that touching point is in our culture today:

i)        Loneliness & Isolation

ii)      A loss of hope for the future

iii)    Heath issues

iv)    Economic issues

c)      Let’s look at some of the ways King called the church to embrace the move of God in his day:

d)      But if the church will free itself from the shackles of a deadening status quo, and, recovering its great historic mission, will speak and act fearlessly and insistently in terms of justice and peace, it will enkindle the imagination of mankind and fire the souls of men, imbuing them with a glowing and ardent love for truth, justice, and peace. Men far and near will know the church as a great fellowship of love that provides light and bread for lonely travelers at midnight.[3]

e)      Sometimes someone from the outside can change the self-image of an entire group. One of the most moving films I have ever seen was produced by the BBC to accompany the opening of the Paralympic Games in London in 2012. Called The Best of Men, its subject was Dr. Ludwig Guttmann, a Jew from a traditional Jewish family, who by 1933 was one of Germany’s leading neurosurgeons. …(asked to head a medical facility for the treatment of paraplegics.) When Guttmann arrived he was horrified by what he saw. The paraplegics, most of them soldiers injured in the war, were being kept horizontal in their hospital beds and heavily sedated. They were young men in their late teens and early twenties, yet the received medical opinion at the time was that, since they would never recover and never be able to walk, the most humane thing to do was to ease their pain until they died. At that time their life expectancy was between three and six months. Guttmann realized that, though motivated by kindness, this was the worst possible way to treat the men. He was convinced they had a future, and his task was to find a way to help them make it. The first thing he did was to cut back their sedatives by half, because this was what was keeping them totally immobile. It hurt. Then he got them to sit up in their beds, and this, too, hurt. Then he started throwing balls at them so that they were forced to play catch, and this hurt. The other doctors and nurses, not understanding what Guttmann was trying to achieve, accused him of cruelty. The film showed Guttmann being summoned by a fellow doctor to a tribunal. “These are moribund cripples,” the doctor said, looking at Guttmann. “Who do you think they are?” Guttmann, looking him steadily in the eye, said, “They are the best of men.” Hence the name of the film.[4]

f)       In spite of the noble affirmations of Christianity, the church has often lagged in its concern for social justice and too often has been content to mouth pious irrelevances and sanctimonious trivialities. It has often been so absorbed in a future good “over yonder” that it forgets the present evils “down here.” Yet the church is challenged to make the gospel of Jesus Christ relevant within the social situation. We must come to see that the Christian gospel is a two-way road. On the one side, it seeks to change the souls of men and thereby unite them with God; on the other, it seeks to change the environmental conditions of men so that the soul will have a chance after it is changed. Any religion that professes to be concerned with the souls of men and yet is not concerned with the economic and social conditions that strangle them and the social conditions that cripple them is the kind the Marxist describes as “an opiate of the people.”[5]

6)      The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority.[6]Blessed are the peacemakers

a)      They did not listen “because their spirit was broken and because the labour was harsh.” In other words: If you want to improve people’s spiritual situation, first improve their physical situation. That is one of the most humanising aspects of Judaism. Maimonides emphasises this in The Guide for the Perplexed.1 The Torah, he says, has two aims: the well-being of the soul and the well-being of the body. The well-being of the soul is something inward and spiritual, but the well-being of the body requires a strong society and economy, where there is the rule of law, division of labour, and the promotion of trade. We have bodily well-being when all our physical needs are supplied, but none of us can do this on his own. We specialise and exchange. That is why we need a good, strong, just society.[7]

b)      What was unique about the society envisaged by the Torah is that every individual mattered. Justice was to be paramount. The rich could not buy special treatment and the poor were not left destitute. When it came to communal celebrations, everyone – especially the orphan, the widow, the stranger – was to be included.[8]

7)      Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. (7)

a)      Ancient Greece, like Japan, was a shame culture. Judaism and the religions influenced by it (most obviously, Calvinism) were guilt cultures. The differences between them are substantial. In shame cultures, what matters is the judgment of others. Acting morally means conforming to public roles, rules, and expectations. You do what other people expect you to do. You follow society’s conventions. If you fail to do so, society punishes you by subjecting you to shame, ridicule, disapproval, humiliation, and ostracism. In guilt cultures what matters is not what other people think but what the voice of conscience tells you. Living morally means acting in accordance with internalised moral imperatives: “You shall” and “You shall not.” What matters is what you know to be right and wrong. People in shame cultures are other-directed. They care about how they appear in the eyes of others, or as we would say today, about their “image.” People in guilt cultures are inner-directed. They care about what they know about themselves in moments of absolute honesty. Even if your public image is undamaged, if you know you have done wrong, it will make you feel uneasy. You will wake up at night, troubled. “O coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me!” says Shakespeare’s Richard III. “My conscience hath a thousand several tongues / And every tongue brings in a several tale /And every tale condemns me for a villain.”4 Shame is public humiliation. Guilt is inner torment.[9]

b)      We can be right and still so wrong: Cancel culture, DEI and affirmative action culture.

c)      So different than a color blind society that judges people on the content of their character.

8)      Do not be conformed to this world

a)      Romans 12:1–2 (NKJV) — 1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

b)      This hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists. Our planet teeters on the brink of atomic annihilation; dangerous passions of pride, hatred, and selfishness are enthroned in our lives; truth lies prostrate on the rugged hills of nameless calvaries; and men do reverence before false gods of nationalism and materialism. The saving of our world from pending doom will come, not through the complacent adjustment of the conforming majority, but through the creative maladjustment of a nonconforming minority.[10]