My Dear Friend,

For several decades now, the American church has been in spiritual decline because of increasing worldliness and sin. Any honest, discerning observer familiar with the Book of Acts and church history will not deny this. But this time is ending and another approaching.

The time is coming when our unsatisfying love affair with this world's idols and infatuations will end and loving God, and God alone, will fill our hearts, inspire our minds, motivate our living, and inspire our worship.

The time is coming when Christians will turn off their TVs, DVDs, video games, and other mere entertainments and turn on their reading lamps and start prayerfully studying their Bibles and poring over scripturally rich devotionals and Christian living teachings morning and evening.

The time is coming when Christians will decrease their social gatherings and increase their prayer meetings, and when our Sunday meetings go into "overtime," there will be not one complaint heard or early exit seen.

The time is coming when feasting on God's Word, with private prayer and worship in God's presence, will mean far more to us than our favorite foods and best restaurants (see Psalm 63:1-5).

The time is coming when we will be ardent, not apathetic, about fulfilling our commissions, when we prefer supporting foreign missions that meet others' needs to indulging ourselves with extravagant luxuries and possessions that we don't need.

The time is coming when we will prefer ministering to the Lord and bringing about His will and initiatives through intercession to praying only for Him to minister to us and speedily fulfill our desires and plans.

The time is coming when we will expect and receive rejection, not approval, from our fallen societies and yet, by God's grace, enjoy greater peace and joy in great adversities than we did in great prosperity.

The time is coming when Bible studies, prayer meetings, and worship services will be more exciting to us than shopping sprees, sports events, or other pleasures.

The time is coming when we will place all our hopes in God's biblical promises and prophecies, not in the promises of our politicians or the predictions of our pundits.

The time is coming when our trust in the truthfulness of God's Word will be so strong that contradictions won't decrease our confidence and confirmations won't increase it. It is written - and we believe things will always end up just as God said (Acts 27:25).

The time is coming when we won't care about our monetary wealth or comfortable homes but only that we yield Christ rich fruit in this life and have a "mansion" awaiting us in the next (John 14:2).

The time is coming when we see our beliefs and actions in this life as a very short preparation for eternity and eternity as the very long reward of our beliefs and actions in this life.

There is a time coming when we will crave and seek Christ's approval only, and not give a passing thought to whether this world celebrates, criticizes, or crucifies us.

The time is coming when we will no longer see our tests as undesirable troubles to be avoided but as desirable opportunities to be embraced - and the only way we may grow and mature in faith, endurance, and closeness to Christ.

The time is coming when, while the world seeks plastic surgery, we will submit to the Paracletes' surgery: instead of trying to reshape our bodies and faces into the image of this world's passing beauty we will ardently desire for God's Spirit to reshape our souls into the image of Christ's permanent beauty (Romans 8:29).

The time is coming when we no longer see our lives as our own and do as we please, but confess our lives are Christ's and do as He pleases.

The time is coming when we stop relying on the fallible wisdom of experts, the successful, and AI (Artificial Intelligence) and begin relying only on the infallible DI (Divine Intelligence) of God's Word and Spirit.

The time is coming when we no longer live by our culture's worthless, ever-shifting, temporary, poll-driven standards of what is true and right but only by enduring biblical standards: "his [God's] righteousness" (Matthew 6:33).

The time is coming when we realize we must live in the light of God's Word in this world - and quickly confess and forsake all disobedience (1 John 1:5-10)! - if we want to live in the light of Christ's glory in the world to come.

The time is coming when we realize that mature Christianity is not measured by exciting religious meetings, or even wonderful signs, wonders, and miracles, but by a calm, faithful, close walk with Jesus through prolonged, intense testing - fiery confrontations, rains of sorrow and grief, winds of unrelenting resistance, and floods of unjustified reproach (Matthew 7:24-25) - all while being supernaturally renewed daily by God's Word and presence in the secret place of intimate fellowship with Jesus.

The time is coming when Jesus' Appearing will no longer be controversial, confusing, or ignored, but will again be the blessed, purifying, and anchoring hope the Father designed it to be, and all born-again believers will know Jesus is coming soon and seriously prepare (Matthew 25:6-9), living wise, watchful, worthy, faithful, ready, and ever seeking to know Him more intimately - always more intimately!

The time is coming when such terms as "awakening," "revival," "renewal," or "the next move of God" will no longer be used to refer to the past, but to God's wondrous, soul-winning, life-transforming works in the present moment.

And that moment is this moment and the coming time this time. God is turning the page. Are you ready for His time?

Ready for God's time,

Dr. Greg Hinnant

GREG HINNANT MINISTRIES