UP FROM DESPAIR - Andrew Strom
Posted by: prophetic <prophetic@...>
-Andrew Strom.
What a wonderful place America is at Thanksgiving time. There is
simply no place like it. We touched down in the USA just a couple
of days ago and already I am being reminded how warm and friendly
so many Americans are. And we had such a wonderful send-off from
our dear friends in the UK too.
Wales was a place where I was able to do a lot of soul-searching
and praying about the future. As many of you know, we have had a
pretty unsettled few years since leaving Kansas City. I don't know
if you have ever experienced anything like this, but it was like God
"forced us out" of Kansas City - a place that we had no intention
of ever leaving. And ever since then, we have been trying to find
our feet. But finally in Wales I felt like we truly began to get a few answers.
You know, in the last couple of years I have done a lot of preaching
in a lot of places - and seen God do many remarkable things. But
I have also suffered some of the worst moments of black despair
that I have ever experienced in my whole life. Many times I have
seriously considered quitting the ministry altogether - retiring to
some quiet backwater to write the odd book or whatever. The last
two or three years have been some of the darkest that I've known.
So many disappointments and regrets and "what-if's" weighing on
my heart from every direction.
But in Wales after a lot of pondering and crying out to God I finally
got clear of a lot of that, and began to have some hope and some
"resolve" about the future once again. That word "Resolve" carries
a lot of resonance with me right now. Because it is so easy when
we see the whole world - and worse, the whole church - seemingly
headed down a road to oblivion - to sink into despair. "What can
we possibly do?" becomes our cry - and indeed it does seem utterly
hopeless. But we have to remember that it is JESUS HIMSELF
who builds His church - "and the gates of Hell shall not prevail
against her." God knows exactly how bad things are. He is not
surprised or shocked in any way. And maybe, just maybe, He
sees the darkest of times as an OPPORTUNITY - to let His light
shine in such a way that mankind will truly see and take note - in
ways that they never normally do. I believe God sees crises as
OPPORTUNITIES - and I believe this is exactly such a time. Truly
as the saying goes, "It is always darkest before the dawn."
So what does all this mean for myself and my family? Well, one
thing it certainly means is that we had better start aligning ourselves
with the word "RESOLVE" rather than the word 'Despair'. And I
believe this is true for us all.
In Wales, as this new resolve began to grow, I felt God reminding
me of a number of callings that I had left on the shelf unfulfilled.
I began to write an entire book on the "Sinner's Prayer" that I believe
will be one of the most hard-hitting things I have ever written. Our
family also began work on a new music album which is now almost
completed - the first we have put out in nine years. I also obtained
the domain "THE-REVOLUTION.net" to become a hub for a far
more radical and outspoken ministry on the Net - openly trumpeting
massive "Shaking and Reformation" in the church and calling for
a return of the true gospel. All of this and more should play itself
out over the next year or so. I am convinced that those of us with
a calling to "media" have got to start using it to trumpet real Truth,
because the devil is utterly destroying the church worldwide using
TV to spead the ugliest 'Prosperity' doctrines you have ever seen.
One thing I have learned - Despair gets us nowhere. We have
reached an hour when only "Resolve" will do. We simply do not
have any option except to act. Even a tiny "Gideon's 300" can rout
an entire army when the Lord is on their side.
And along with all of this, we have also been asking God as a
family that sometime in the next year we would find the place that
He would have us permanently based and settled - a place of His
choosing. We would ask for your prayers in this regard also, my friends.
May the New Year be filled with "new resolve" for every one of us.
God bless you all.
Andrew Strom.