How Heaven Touches Earth
Jesus taught that one of the greatest priorities in prayer was to be, “Let your kingdom come, let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” In other words, let heaven touch earth. When it does righteousness, peace, and joy results (see Romans 14:17). But how can this happen? Years ago, the Holy Spirit showed me three key ways that heaven touches earth: THE THREE S’s.
1. THE SPONTANEOUS
Matthew 5:16 (RSV): “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."
Here, the Holy Spirit orchestrates opportunities to do good, show love to others, or share the gospel. These occasions are mostly spontaneous and if we are alert to them, it will change lives.
And it doesn’t have to be spectacular. A man in a New Zealand city told me this story: “I was in a supermarket recently, and a homeless young man walked past me. As he did, I smiled at him and went on my way. Two weeks later, while helping at my church’s drop in centre, the same young man walked in. He came up to me and said, ‘I was on my way to commit suicide, but your smile gave me hope.’ “
2. THE STRATEGIC
Here the Holy Spirit reveals a strategy from heaven on how to reach people and advance God’s Kingdom. The Alpha course would be an example of a heavenly strategy. Originating at Holy Trinity Anglican Church in London in the 1990’s, it has impacted thirty million people in 175 countries, and been translated into 100 languages.
But strategies can be individual as well. Experts estimate that thousands of people come to Christ in Iran each week. One 92-year-old believer, whenever she's on a bus, pulls out a small book and asks her neighbour to help her read the tiny print. In fact, she is secretly getting strangers to read the Gospels. Every time she does it, the passenger ends up taking a New Testament home. She is using a clever strategy to get the good news to people.
3. THE SOVEREIGN
Acts 2:1-2(NIV): “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.”
This was a sovereign outpouring of the Holy Spirit by Almighty God. While we can control the spontaneous and the strategic, we can’t control the sovereign. This is why many churches don’t pray for revival and spiritual awakening. It takes courage to pursue this because we can’t guarantee when it will happen.
I am convinced that because society has gone downhill so far morally and spiritually, that the spontaneous and strategic, though powerful, are no longer sufficient to turn things around.
Today, we need a sovereign move of God more than ever before.
Years ago, Greta received a prophetic word that God would send a deluge of spiritual rain upon the nations. She felt it was like the time that Elijah the prophet prayed for rain (see 1 Kings 18). He prayed on a mountain top for a drought to be broken in Israel. Seven times he prayed (symbolising complete persistence) and finally a cloud the size of a man’s hand appeared. This then became a torrent of rain. We believe that the Quiet Revival being reported in many nations is that small cloud. The question is, where are the Elijahs who will pray that the cloud becomes a deluge?
As the USA recently celebrated Thanksgiving, we should remember the faith of those early English colonists. Three years after the Mayflower pilgrims arrived on America’s shores, a drought threatened to wipe out all the crops of their settlement and those of the nearby Indian tribes. Many lives were at stake.
Everything began to wilt, so one morning, Governor William Bradford said to his people, 'We need to get on our knees and pray.” At nine in the morning, they began to pray with not a cloud in the sky. Noon time - nothing. Two o'clock - nothing. Four o'clock - a little cloud appeared right above the settlement. And by 6 o'clock it began to rain. The soft rain lasted two weeks and broke the drought. The nearby Indian chief said to the governor, “Billy, I like your God. He saved your crops.” And the chief and many of his tribe became Christians. We need to be like those English pilgrims who persisted in praying for rain.
In the last twenty years, there have been numerous prophecies about a global harvest of one billion souls. Is this possible? Yes! Back in the 1980’s, some people prophesied about the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, and in particular the fall of the Berlin Wall. Most thought it was impossible. But a rising prayer movement saw God answer and in 1989, the wall fell and East and West Germany were reunited. The breakup of the Soviet Union followed soon after.
When it happened, missions organisations scrambled to get resources and personnel into the former communist countries. Trouble is, so did religious cults and the criminal organisations. Let’s not be unprepared this time.
May we continue to emphasise the spontaneous and the strategic as the main things we can do now to advance the Kingdom of God. But more and more, let’s pray for the sovereign outpouring of God’s Spirit, with the cry start the revival in me!