Jim Bakker Show

When Jesus was preparing to go to the Cross, he was surrounded by his own disciples who had walked with him for 3 years.  They had all felt his presence in the most tangible way possible, witnessed his miracles, and were taught one-on-one by him.  They were there when he multiplied the fish and the loaves of bread to feed the 5,000.  They were there when he healed so many people and drove out demons.  They had pledged their loyalty to him and made great swelling statements of how they would stand by him.  Yet, not one did when the going got tough.

Simon Peter even said that he would go to his death for him.  Yet Simon temporarily failed in his weak and fearful flesh when things got really rough, and he even denied knowing Jesus.

Luke 22:31-34 “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” But he said to Him, “Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!” And He said, “I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me.”

Oh, Simon still believed that Jesus was who he said he was – but he couldn’t hang onto the courage to stand up for him with other men when his own life was threatened.  He lied when he said he didn’t know Jesus – he failed in his confession because he was afraid.  He went from fearless to fearful in a matter of hours.

Before all this happened, Jesus told Simon that it was going to happen – and it did – just the way he said it would.  He also told him something that saved his spiritual life.  Jesus told Simon that he had prayed for him that his faith would not fail as a result of his own sinful failure and lack of courage.  Denying that Jesus was the Christ was a terrible blasphemous sin, especially considering that Simon had pledged his life to defend Jesus just hours before.

Satan wanted to destroy Simon by causing him to lose his faith because he had lost his courage.  Simon had wept bitterly when he realized what he had done.  He was completely broken – and that’s when Satan would have finished the job with a great big heap of condemnation if Jesus would have allowed it.  Condemnation is always the first response of a wicked agenda.  Complete destruction of one’s faith can result by condemning an already broken-hearted sinner.

The trials of the Revelation Days ahead are going to get rough.  People who have stood strong and powerful in their faith in earlier times, may be assaulted by Satan himself.  Our brothers and sisters are a huge target of a common enemy.  We need to keep in mind that “but for the grace of God, there go I.”

We need to pray fervently and beseech the Lord for our brothers or sisters that have grievously failed.  That should be our first response.  Our hearts should break and our spirits should grieve that a comrade has fallen.  There should never by any other response from Christ followers except to intercede so that their faith not fail, as Jesus set the example with Simon Peter.

Then Jesus said something wonderful to Simon.  He said “when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”  Jesus knew that Simon would deny him, then repent and turn around, then preach a few days later at Pentecost and 3,000 would get saved by one message!  He knew that his faith would not fail and that he would then have the opportunity to strengthen others in the same way Jesus had strengthened him – by praying for him!

You can come back again from any kind of failure.  You can be forgiven and you can, once again, operate in the fullness of your anointing and calling.  Peter did – you can too.  Don’t be deceived by angry and proud voices if they tell you that you can’t come back.  We have a very relatable story about one who did – in Simon Peter.  Losing your way is not the same as losing your faith.

Let’s remember how to go to war in the spirit for one another, even when we fail.  Failure doesn’t mean that we are condemned – it means that we are weak.  Yet, we have an advocate with the Father – Jesus.  If Jesus is interceding for us, should we not do the same for one another?

God is going to use the weak and the foolish things of this earth to confound the wise in the days ahead.  I have a rock-solid witness in my spirit that he will.  When God showed me in prison that he still loved me after my failures and that he would never, never, never leave me or forsake me, I knew that my faith was not going to fail.  It had been shaken but it had not failed.  It didn’t fail because of the prayers of God’s people – and the faithfulness of a loving God.

In the days ahead, let’s all remember to pray for one another that our faith not fail.  Let’s remember that we are but flesh too, and that given different circumstances, it could be that “it’s not my brother, not my sister, but it’s me oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer.”

Jesus is pulling for you, and we are too!

Love,

Here we go into a new year!  This is not just any new year, but 2012, which I believe is a pivotal year in the “Beginning of Sorrows.”  This year could be our last full year to get our houses in order.  God has spoken to me that this will be a year of great CONFUSION in the world.  God needs His Church to be in full force for what is coming!

These are the days of 2012, they have arrived with all the ominous warnings of ancient prophets, contemporary watchmen and Biblical prophecies of being prepared (spiritually and physically) for the months ahead.  People have been talking about 2012 for centuries, and now it is upon us.  We’re not on the precipice or the verge or the brink.  We are there!

“What does it all mean?  Can somebody please break it down?”

This week on your TV, Rabbi Jonathan Cahn and I will be discussing his new book, The Harbinger.  You can also view these broadcasts in the Video Archive section of our website. I want everyone who can to tune in – this is  one of the most important series I’ve ever done and I don’t want you to miss it.  Time is very short and unless we are fully aware and spiritually tuned to prophetic events, even those who have been in the Church all their lives might miss the signposts of the most important time in the history of the world.

The word “harbinger” means a sign, omen, warning, herald of something to come.  Rabbi Cahn unravels the prophetic events surrounding the great 9/11 calamity and warns us of what is coming next.  He left most of us speechless with his teachings regarding the judgments of God upon this nation.

The World Trade Center bombing on 9/11 was a warning from God.  That warning went unheeded, and for the most part, it was responded to with prideful defiance and a powerful denial of its purpose.  Why does God send his judgment as a warning to a nation?  It is for one reason and one reason only – so that they will repent, turn around, and honor Him.

I remember the outrage of the world and especially of some in the Christian community, when anyone dared suggest that perhaps God was warning this nation through the devastation of 9/11.  “Why God wouldn’t do that!  He’s a Good God!”  Yes, God would and God did…  BECAUSE He is good and He doesn’t want any to perish in their sin, not even one.

Though this nation was founded upon Godly principles, we have turned away from His ways and now we must turn back – or we will receive the full wages of our sins (Romans 6:23).  I believe even at this eleventh hour, if we put 2 Chronicles 7:14 into radical action, we could stay the hand of God in His righteous judgment of this nation, and lessen the misery of the consequences of our rebellion.

“Then if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves, if they will pray and seek me and stop their evil ways, I will hear them from heaven. I will forgive their sin, and I will heal their land.”

At this time, however, the prophetic clock is still ticking away and the events preceding the Second Coming of Jesus will happen (are happening), just as it says and is foretold in Matthew 24, Luke 21, countless other Old and New Testament passages, and especially in the Revelation.  We are not going to change the prophetic unfolding of End Time events, but we can change what judgments are meted out and we have a choice how God deals with us individually and as a nation, based upon our responses to His warnings.

The economies and the governments of this nation and the world are falling apart, natural disasters are at an all-time high, and the whole of humanity is ready to plunge right into the doomsday scenario that is presented in the Book of Revelation.  Food could disappear off grocery shelves in a matter of hours.  Electricity and gasoline may be completely unavailable.  The world is on the brink of World War III.   Iran and Israel are  poised to unleash weapons of mass destruction at each other, not to mention the U.S., Russia, China, and others. THE STAGE IS NOW SET for the arrival of the antichrist.  We are on the very threshold of more calamity than the world has ever seen before.

The antichrist will use everything in his power to try to get Christians to deny Christ and renounce their faith.  Some people think we, as Christians, won’t have to go through that part of the tribulation – that God will take us all out of here before it comes down to that.  But what if He doesn’t?  What if we are so dull in our spiritual senses that we’re like that proverbial frog in the pot – you back off a little at a time from God’s standards and before you know it, you’re in hot water.  Could we even recognize our spiritual condition that has been so compromised with the world that it feels normal?

You can if you stay in God’s Word!

How then, should we try to live?  When the world comes apart, people everywhere will flock to the churches for answers.  There will be a last great awakening – a last great harvest of the ages.  We need to have ourselves ready spiritually and physically, and be ready to show others our faith in Jesus, the One that purchased life eternal for us on the Cross over 2,000 years ago.  That requires some practical preparations like food and water so that we will be able to minister the Gospel and help to bring souls into the Kingdom for all eternity.

As Christians, we sometimes forget that this life is but a vapor (James 4:14) and there’s an eternal life that quickly follows.  Eternal means everlasting, unending, perpetual, endless, ceaseless, and timeless.  That’s the life that God wants to spend with you, not just this life only.

You can’t go wrong serving God with all your heart, all your mind, all your strength.

Get into the Word!  Know God’s Word!  Be ready to recognize the enemy’s movement and his tactics.  Know what righteousness is.  “Be ye Holy as I am Holy!”  (1 Peter 13-16)  We have made far too much of ‘religion’ and far too little of ‘holiness’.

There will be a lot of people running “to and fro” in the church world too – Confusion – and that means in a spiritual sense as well as a natural sense.  Don’t be confused.  Know what God says! (2 Timothy 4:3)

Some might say “well, if it gets that difficult, I’d rather just go be with Jesus.”  Do I need to remind you of Luke 12:47 or any of the other parables that deal with this kind of attitude?  “And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes… for to whom much is given, much is required.”

You don’t have to store food, but it will be easier for you to avoid entering an antichrist system if you do.  You don’t have to get as healthy as possible by eating right and exercising, but you can minister to more people in the Times of Trouble if you do.  You don’t have to have survival plans and equipment, but what good are you to a dying world if you’re dead too?!  “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.”  Matthew 9:37 NAS

There is also a dangerous philosophy of waiting until the last minute to get right with God and to get prepared – not only by the world but by Christians.  The twinkling of an eye is not much time, people!  It’s faster than you can snap your fingers!

So, get ready for the ride of your life!  We are about to enter a time when you need to be rock solid about your priorities, and nothing will deter you or cause you to waver, or even be distracted.  I’ve been telling people about the CONFUSION the enemy is going to throw at us this year.  It will take all of our resolve and great faith, coupled with God’s Amazing Grace to get us through.  If I could break it down to the simplest of terms, here is what I am endeavouring to do and I hope you will too:

1. Get yourself still so you don’t have so many distractions
2. Study your Bible
3. Hear from God
4. Do what God says!

Join us on TV this week too, if it’s at all possible.  Rabbi Cahn will take our world’s events and break it all down for you.  I’m confident this series of shows will leave you as speechless as it did all of us at Morningside when we taped them on Grace Street – but it will leave us more aware than ever before.

Love,