Arni Klein
of Emmaus Way
As some of you know, last month a delegation of five
from our congregation in Tiberias were ten days in the Far East taking part in
six days of worship on a 19-story cruise ship along with 3000 believers and a
crew of 2000. It was an unprecedented complex experience with ramifications at
personal, corporate and global levels. Shortly before the trip began, I was
reminded of how deeply the world was impacted by what took place in that region
fifty years earlier and was impressed that this company of worshipers had been
called and commissioned by the Lord to do something in the spirit realm
designed to have a significant and far-reaching effect.
People’s perceptions and beliefs about the Vietnam War
varied from one end of the spectrum to the other. Many were convinced that our involvement was
wrong and immoral. Others believed it
was a righteous cause justifying the high price paid in human lives. There are many stories of how individual
lives were saved by the US involvement in the region. It is not our intention here to take a
position on the motives, methods or morals of those making the decisions, or
the ultimate effect it had on those directly involved in the conflict. Regardless of the truths about underlying
elements and individual ramifications, the war divided the US like no other
single event of our day. The civil rights struggle, the exposed corruption in
the government, and the string of high-level assassinations were all factors
that also affected the spiritual atmosphere of the nation. But none polarized and mobilized the
population, as did the war in Vietnam.
The resultant societal breakdown was a primary factor
in opening the way for a spiritual revolution that brought a mass of young
people into the Kingdom of God.
Alongside the positive aspects of the spiritual awakening, many ungodly
spiritual forces found expression that caused or enabled a generation to set
aside long-accepted Biblical principles and beliefs. ...
The sheer magnitude of the cruise, the likes of which
has probably never taken place anywhere on the open seas, and surely not in the
place we were, is something not to be considered lightly. To coordinate something like this out of
purely human desire, not to mention getting visas for some 1700 Mainland
Chinese, would be unlikely if not practically impossible. There were some challenges and difficulties
along the way, but we can testify that the Presence of God manifest throughout
the entire journey took us to places where words and sounds and any manner of
human expression fell short of being able to adequately respond to His beauty
and glory. In the light of it all, we are constrained to believe that something
of global significance took place.
... For two weeks I was unable to
connect with daily life or focus on anything except to mull over the
cruise. I was aware that my spirit was
reaching out to lay hold of what this was from God’s perspective. I had no choice but to be still. My time was not my own.
Some days into this waiting period, a friend forwarded
me a word delivered by someone known as a prophet spoken over a particular
nation. The word declared that over the
next three years God was going to pour out untold blessings and wonders over
this people, and that they would become the very platform for worldwide
revival. In all that was related, there
was nothing about the people needing to do anything. There was no call to
repentance, change, or any manner of preparation. As the “prophecy” stood, it was solely a
matter of God deciding that on a certain date, by a sovereign act, for no
apparent outward reason, heaven was going to open. It left me feeling grieved in the
spirit.
Words such as these have become normal and common
within the Charismatic body, at least in the West. Remembering back forty years, in the
movement’s early days, it was not so.
But as time progressed, the focus on self, our identity, our calling,
our portion, our anointing, our authority, etc. etc. grew and grew to where the
person of God effectively ceased to be the central focus of the life of the
Church. Rather it was about what He does
and will do…in particular for us. As
these thoughts ran though my mind, the spiritual fog that had engulfed me began
to lift.
I got an email in response to a question I posed to
someone about where they stood concerning the revelation they received about
the central place of Israel in God’s heart and global strategic plan. The lack of visible response was in stark
contrast to the dramatic way God had spoken to them of their need to wake up to
Israel. A line from the mail jumped off
the page. It read, “I can't speak up in
un-lived truth but will always speak up as prompted and led by Him.”
The words un-lived truth...were the key to unlock the
understanding my spirit was reaching for.
The scriptural discussion of faith and works immediately came to
mind. As faith without works is dead, so
truth un-lived is dead. ... How does God view our seeing and knowing something
as truth that is not part of our life that does not produce in us a
contending…a pressing in…a battling through into full light? ....There is no middle ground. The existence of a sit-upon-fence is an
illusion…or moreover, a deception. To
hear His voice and not respond immediately is to harden our heart and reject
Him who is the living Word. To lightly
esteem what God values brings a bitter curse.
(See the literal Hebrew for Genesis 12:3)....Regardless of where we
think we are and what we think we know, to not take into our heart what we
recognize as God’s very truth is to reject it.
Actually, we are not rejecting an “it”.
It’s Him, Yeshua…the Truth… we are turning from.
For some 25 years, we have traveled to the nations
speaking about Israel. Out of multiplied
hundreds of meetings, we can recall only one where there was an outright
rejection of the word we brought. In
well over half there was a clear acknowledgment of the message as truth. However, in most of these situations, we have
seen little if any follow-up to what was revealed.
How can followers of the Lord not feel the need to battle and struggle until our hearts beat in sync with what our minds know to be true? How can we know Him and love Him and not be moved by what moves Him?
Perhaps the answer partly lies in the fact that the
modern Western Church has generally grown up without understanding the fear of
the Lord. We emphasize that God is love
and proclaim His grace, but somehow miss the fact that in the very chapter
(Heb.12) that follows the great discourse on faith and of our coming to Mount
Zion we are sternly warned, “See that you do not refuse Him who speaks”
(vs.25). The chapter ends with…“our God is a consuming fire.”
We would suggest that to understand the true nature of
un-lived truth and how this unacceptable denial of life has gone virtually
unnoticed will have a revolutionary effect on the Body of Messiah. Most professing born-again believers have
read the Scriptures and consequently know what is written about the significance
of Israel, yet seemingly remain as yet unmoved. Though this dynamic of non-response to truth
extends beyond things concerning Israel, the place of Israel, both in Scripture
and the daily news, makes it something of a universal “acid test”.
Let’s connect a few dots to hopefully get the
fullness of this picture.
Un-lived truth is un-loved truth. In 2 Thess.2:9-10 we are told that to whomever
does not receive the love of the truth, God will send a strong delusion, that
they will believe a lie and perish. It
does not get more serious than this. God
asks, “Will you walk with me? Will you
go where I go? Will you love what I
love?” He opens our eyes. He shows us His heart. We see how Israel is the key to His
plan. Will we cling to what is true? Will we press in to lay hold of that for which
we have been laid hold of? Will we
change our direction? Will we change our
thinking? Will we align ourselves with
His heart? Will we cry out for Him to
quicken us to be passionate for what He loves?
Will we wrestle in the spirit until His truth is alive in us? Can the love of the truth be anything but a
consuming fire? This question hearkens
back to the prophecy over a nation to which I referred earlier in this letter.
We mark as a trend that began in the late 1960’s with
the Charismatic movement, that personal experience became a primary measure of
spiritual reality. Individuals with unique and dramatic gifts came to the
foreground and were lifted up. Ministry
after ministry was named after the “anointed person of God”. As the issue of gifts became more central,
believers looked to people and spiritual experiences for motivation. This has produced a spiritually-weak,
emotionally-driven, blessing-oriented, man-centered church that is able to
abide with un-lived truth. The water has
been slowly heating for fifty years. Our
frog is now quite cooked.
The understanding to which we have come concerning the
place of the worship cruise is that the Lord sent 3000 people to release His
Presence in a region out of which came a literal revolution. It awoke a whole generation to jump out of
the pot. (The fact that most climbed
back in is another matter). It may seem
somewhat remote and subjective, but given all what we have experienced before,
during, and after, we are constrained to present our sense that something has
been released that will have a global effect.
When we arrived in Danang Harbor in Vietnam, which had
been a main landing point for the US troops, something dramatic happened. The
Israeli team was ministering in the main hall with about 1000 worshipers
present. The Spirit of the Lord brought
us to nearly complete silence for about 30 minutes. Not a small thing! As far as we know, that was the only time
anything like that happened during the cruise.
There was no doubt that God was doing something of significance in that
place in that moment. It felt like a
repeat of a history -- that somehow something was released into the spirit
realm destined to shift the focus and course of the present-day Church.
This long awaited radical breakthrough is connected to
an intimacy with the Lord beyond what we have corporately known to date. In the Song of Solomon, there is a moment
when the bridegroom comes calling and the bride is not immediately moved to
respond. After what seems like a brief moment’s hesitation, she gets up only to
find that her lover is already gone. Running out to look for Him she gets
beaten in the streets. What a picture.
Are we ready to grasp this result of a mere momentary hesitation? Is God really that sensitive? The word of God is a two-edged sword. On the one hand, while taking those living in
truth deeper into God, it simultaneously releases a spirit of deception upon
those who have not valued what they’ve been given.
Here then is a short-form attempt to connect the three
dots that brought me out of my two-week fog.
The worship cruise was about a global spiritual release unto a radical
shift. The “God-is-going-to” prophecy
highlighted the Cross-less bless-me “gospel” that has enveloped the Body in a
lethal passivity. The lack of conviction
and discomfort in the face of perceived un-lived truth is a sign that the great
deception has already begun. As a not-so-side note, following the election of
Donald Trump a spirit of rebellion and division has manifested in the US,
polarizing the nation in a way we have not seen since the days of the war in
Vietnam.
If we have understood this moment correctly, to put it
rather directly, those who do not contend for God’s passion for Israel will be
consumed in the not-so-slowly-warming pot.
As it is written…they will believe a lie and perish. To live as one out of time is to be
established in eternal truth.
