“…if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14
We’ve all heard the statement, “there’s good news and bad news”… first the good news.
According to Joel C. Rosenberg of www.movingedge.org, printed in the February 2010 Levitt Letter, “More Muslims converted to faith in Jesus Christ over the past decade than at any other time in human history”.
The Egyptian Bible Society reported the sale per year of 600,000 copies of “The Jesus Film”, up from 3000 copies per year in the 1990s. Yearly sales for the Arabic language Bible on tape reached 750,000; plus a half million copies of the Arabic New Testament.
Some 10,000 believers worship weekly in a huge cave outside of Cairo. A prayer conference in May 2005 drew 20,000 believers.
In Afghanistan, where only 17 Muslim converts to Christ were reported before 9/11/01, now there are 10,000; with dozens of baptisms weekly.
Kazakhstan, where there were 3 known Christians in 1990, now reports 15,000.
Uzbekistan went from no known believers in 1990 to a reported 30,000 today.
In the Sudan, under ongoing genocide, some 5 million have come to Christ since the 1990s.
Iranian pastors report more than a million believers in Jesus Christ meet in underground house churches.
Across the world, in China, Henry T. Blackaby reports there are an estimated one hundred million believers, with 20,000 coming to Christ a day; more than anywhere in the world. Again, mostly in house churches because of the constant threat of government persecution.
God is reaping a mighty harvest all over the world – except in one large area – the industrialized west.
And that’s the bad news. With all our financial resources, complete freedom, access to television and radio, high powered programs, tons of Christian literature, CDs, DVDs, mega churches, Christian musicians, magicians, comedians, rock stars, with every technique, training programs, super star conventions, etc. etc, where is our harvest?
Lots of reshuffling of the saints, as they church shop and hop, but where are the purified hearts? The transformed lives?
The good news is the Presence and power of the Holy Spirit is alive and well – praise be to God – but what should drive us to repentance and fervent intercession is that God is not pleased with Western type prayer-less Americanized Christianity, even though most of our believers are.
The formula still stands. It is in 2 Chronicles 7:14, often glibly quoted, but rarely taken to heart with the gravity of eternity. Until that occurs in God’s people it will continue to be bad news for our part of the world.