Flashpoint

Tiananmen Square, Boston Tea Party, Woodstock, the fall of the Berlin wall, Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses, Mount Hermon 100, Azusa Street, every revolution has one defining moment that is remembered long after the names of politicians and kings have been forgotten. In every massive shift in human history, whether political, cultural, or religious, a flash point occurs. Cultural sea changes, whether for good or evil, are spawned in these flashpoints. Such rare slivers of time actually define destinies, as key men and women seek to courageously shape the future, by articulating ideas that “ignite the circuit between the individual and the masses and thereby alter history. Great leaders and great ideas succeed when events have prepared the way for them when the community is waiting to be aroused” – Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

I believe The Send, February 23, 2019, was a significant flashpoint inaugurating hope for a new era of explosive evangelism and global missions. What preceded The Send was 7 years of 7  forty day seasons of fasting and continuous praying the Great Idea of Jesus Christ, “Pray the Lord of the Harvest to send forth laborers into His harvest.”
A flash point requires leaders to articulate those thoughts, passions, and aspirations quietly groaned for in the heart of the masses. You see, when the response to a ripe moment with a right message is magnified by a Collective Readiness – “when the community is waiting to be aroused” – widespread explosive action inevitably results. In scripture, this is described as, “the fullness of times”. We are entering a “fullness of times era”.

The 1960s was a decade of turbulence and societal upheaval. Everything was shaking but the chaotic milieu created a fullness of time moment for the 1970s. The Jesus Movement exploded on the scenes where thousands of hippies and disillusioned young people ran to Christ. Jesus was on the front page of magazines and newspapers. 100,000 believers gathered for a Jesus People flashpoint in the Cotton Bowl in 1972. Jesus was the idea whose time had fully come. Thousands of young people were saved and baptized and hurled forth into the harvest fields. Many of the great leaders of the church today were forged from the season of the 70s.

Now 50 years later, the world is in upheaval again. But I hear the sound of another Jesus Movement exploding on the scene. Stadiums will be filled. Mass harvest will be reaped. The revolutionary prayer idea in Matthew 9:38 articulated by our Great Leader Jesus Christ Himself is connecting the circuit between Him and the Christian masses thus now altering history. This is a revolution in one verse that connects the prayer movement and the missions movement. “PRAY the Lord of the Harvest to SEND laborers into His harvest.” The church is waiting to be aroused and the great PRAY and GO idea is building for the billion soul harvest. Oh brothers and sisters, let the Great Idea explode. PRAY EKBALLO!