Tag spiritual awakening

The Status Quo Has Got to Go

Allen Frederick Leave a comment

Introduction

There comes a moment in every generation when polite silence becomes a form of rebellion against God, and when maintaining the familiar becomes more dangerous than confronting the truth. Scripture shows us that this moment arrives whenever God sends help, correction, or reform – and the people who need it most refuse to receive it. As John writes, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” (John 1:11, KJV)

Light Exposes What Darkness Protects

Jesus explained the deeper reason for this resistance: “Light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” (John 3:19-20, KJV) People do not reject truth because it is unclear; they reject it because it is inconvenient. Light reveals what darkness has been protecting, and the status quo prefers the safety of shadows to the discomfort of exposure.

The Diagnosis: A People Who Will Not Turn

Long before Christ walked the earth, Isaiah diagnosed the spiritual disease that afflicts every generation that refuses correction. God declared, “Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.” (Isaiah 6:10, KJV) The tragedy is not that healing is unavailable, but that the people will not turn to receive it.

Jesus repeated this same diagnosis in His own ministry, saying, “For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.” (Matthew 13:15, KJV) The disease is spiritual stubbornness – a refusal to hear, to see, to understand, and therefore a refusal to be healed.

Moses: Resisted by His Own People

Before Moses ever confronted Pharaoh, he confronted the unbelief of his own people. When he attempted to intervene between two Israelites, one of them retorted, “Who made thee a prince and a judge over us?” (Exodus 2:14, KJV) The very people crying out for deliverance resisted the deliverer God sent.

Jeremiah: Punished for Telling the Truth

Jeremiah warned Judah of coming judgment, but instead of repentance, he received hostility. The leaders declared, “This man is worthy to die: for he hath prophesied against this city.” (Jeremiah 26:11, KJV) Later, they cast him into a dungeon (Jeremiah 38:6) for daring to speak what God commanded.

Amos: Told to Take His Message Elsewhere

When Amos confronted Israel’s corruption, Amaziah the priest told him, “O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah… but prophesy not again any more at Bethel.” (Amos 7:12-13, KJV) The status quo always tries to export the voice that confronts it.

Isaiah: A People Who Prefer Smooth Things

Isaiah described a people who begged their prophets to stop telling the truth: “Speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits.” (Isaiah 30:10, KJV) They preferred comforting lies to uncomfortable truth.

Stephen: Exposing the Pattern

Stephen summarized the entire history of resistance in one devastating sentence: “Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.” (Acts 7:51, KJV) The problem was not new; it was inherited.

Jesus: Without Honor Among His Own

Even the Son of God experienced the sting of familiarity: “A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.” (Mark 6:4, KJV) The people who watched Him grow up could not imagine God using someone they thought they already understood.

Samuel: The Rejection Behind the Rejection

When Israel demanded a king, God told Samuel, “They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me.” (1 Samuel 8:7, KJV) Every rejection of God’s messenger is ultimately a rejection of God’s correction.

The Danger of a Hardened Heart

Hebrews warns repeatedly, “To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” (Hebrews 3:7-8, 15, KJV) A hardened heart is the final defense of a dying system. Proverbs adds the sobering consequence: “He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.” (Proverbs 29:1, KJV)

A Loving Rebuke

This is not rebellion, arrogance, or a call to chaos. It is a call to truth, courage, and spiritual clarity. Real love does not protect dysfunction, preserve decay, or defend a system God is trying to dismantle. Real love says, “Enough. This is not working. The status quo has got to go.”

Final Call to Return

God has never left His people without a path home. Even in the midst of judgment, He speaks mercy. He says, “And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the Lord: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.” (Jeremiah 24:7, KJV)

This is not a political strategy. This is not a cultural campaign. This is the mercy of God extended to a people who have lost their way.

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall 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, KJV)

As Jesus said to the churches, “He that hath an ear, let him hear.”

From Chains of Captivity to Prayers for Victory

Allen Frederick Leave a comment

A Letter from St. Patrick to a Nation in Need

To the people of this land, in a time of confusion and fear, from Patrick, a servant of Christ Jesus.

I was not born a saint. I was not born a hero. I was a boy who ignored the living God until chains taught me to pray. They took me from my home. They dragged me across the sea. They sold me into slavery in a land whose language I did not know. I fed animals in the cold. I slept on the ground. I feared the night. But in the fields of my captivity, the Lord had mercy on me. He opened my blind eyes. He broke my proud heart. He became my only hope.

When He delivered me, I believed the story was finished. But God does not free a man only for himself. He frees him for others. In a dream I heard the voices of the Irish calling out, “Come walk among us once more.” And the Spirit of God burned within me. The land that broke me became the land I was sent to heal.

I returned with no army, no wealth, no power—only the gospel of Jesus Christ. I walked into the halls of kings and the camps of druids. I faced curses, threats, and death. But Christ was my shield. Christ was my courage. Christ was my victory. I did not change Ireland. God did. I was only the vessel He forged in chains.

I look upon your nation now. It is anxious, divided, and wandering. It is hungry for truth. I tell you what I learned in my captivity. When a people forget God, they lose themselves. But when a people turn to Him, even the darkest land becomes a place of light.

You do not need luck. You do not need legends. You do not need the trappings of a holiday that has forgotten its own story. You need the living Christ. The same Christ met me in the fields of my slavery. He will also meet you in the wilderness of your time. The same Christ who broke my chains can break yours. The same Christ who sent me back to the land of my captors can send you. He can guide you into the broken places of your own nation.

In my day, I prayed a prayer of armor—a cry for God’s presence to surround me in a land filled with fear and darkness:

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me…

This was not poetry. It was survival. It was surrender. It was the only way to stand in a world at war with truth.

And long after my bones returned to the earth, another Irish believer prayed a similar cry—a prayer you now sing as a hymn:

Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart…Thou my best thought, by day or by night…

BE THOU MY VISION A FITTING SONG FOR A TIME SUCH AS THIS

BE THOU MY VISION a Temple Music Production, all rights reserved

If you want to see revival during your lifetime, pray this just as I did: “Lord, be my vision.” Be my wisdom. Be my strength. Be my shield. Be my everything.”

From chains of captivity to prayers for victory—this is my testimony. Not of who I am, but of who God is.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Patrick, a slave of Christ, and a witness to His mercy.

Elam’s Shaking and the God Who Directs the Nations

Allen Frederick Leave a comment

Opening Statement

The headlines are not random. They are not driven by governments. They are not controlled by human leaders. Scripture shows that God moves nations like pieces on a board. What we are seeing today is not chaos—it is alignment. Elam is shaking as Jeremiah said it would. Nations are realigning as Ezekiel said they would. God is not reacting to history. He is directing it.

The Sovereign Hand Behind the Shaking

When nations tremble, the world rushes to assign blame to leaders, policies, or political miscalculations. Yet Scripture insists that the true cause of national upheaval is not found in the halls of government. It is found in the throne room of God.

Daniel declared, “He changes times and seasons; He removes kings and sets up kings” (Daniel 2:21). Isaiah wrote that God “brings princes to nothing and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness” (Isaiah 40:23). Proverbs reminds us that “the king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord… He turns it wherever He will” (Proverbs 21:1).

These are not poetic sentiments; they are the spiritual mechanics behind every geopolitical tremor. Nations rise because God lifts them. Nations fall because God humbles them. And when a region shakes, it is not chaos—it is choreography.

The present turmoil in the land the Bible calls Elam is not a modern accident. It is the unfolding of a prophetic pattern spoken long before the nations of today existed.

The Prophecy Spoken Over Elam

Jeremiah 49:34–39 contains a sequence that reads like a spiritual blueprint for the region:

“Thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the mainstay of their might” (Jeremiah 49:35).

The “bow” symbolized military strength, national pride, and the ability to project power. When God breaks a nation’s bow, He breaks its confidence. Many who lived through the rise of a dark ideology in that region testify that the breaking began decades ago. It did not start with the fall of rulers. It began with the breaking of the people’s will to endure oppression. They fled. They scattered. They carried their grief into the nations.

Jeremiah continues:

“I will bring upon Elam the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and I will scatter them to all those winds” (Jeremiah 49:36).

This is more than metaphor; it describes diaspora. It is the story of families who fled violence and deception. It is the story of a people who became exiles in every direction. And it is the story of a remnant who never stopped praying for the day when the darkness would crack.

The Diaspora Rejoices Before the Land Does

Jeremiah’s prophecy gives unusual attention to the scattered ones. They are the first to sense the shift. They are the first to rejoice. They are the first to see the collapse of the old order.

This is the biblical pattern. When Babylon fell, the exiles rejoiced before Jerusalem was rebuilt. When persecution scattered the early church, revival began in the diaspora before it returned to Judea.

Jeremiah echoes this pattern:

“I will terrify Elam before their enemies… and I will send the sword after them until I have consumed them” (Jeremiah 49:37).

Fear, instability, and internal collapse strike the land, but the scattered remnant sees hope rising. Today, Iranians across the world—those who fled the cruelty of an oppressive system—are celebrating the weakening of the old structures. Their joy is not political. It is spiritual. It is the relief of a people who have waited in exile for the day when the night would break.

The Collapse of the Old Order

Jeremiah’s prophecy moves next to the downfall of leadership:

“I will set My throne in Elam and destroy from there king and princes, declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 49:38).

This is not about individuals. It is about systems. It is about spiritual strongholds. It is about the collapse of an order built on deception, violence, and pride.

Scripture consistently shows that when rulers exalt themselves, God brings them low. Nebuchadnezzar learned an important lesson. God declared to him, “The Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom He will” (Daniel 4:32). God spoke to Pharaoh directly. He told him, “For this purpose I have raised you up, to show you My power” (Exodus 9:16). Every proud empire eventually learns it.

The present instability in Elam’s region is not random. It is the shaking of an order God has judged. Nations surrounding the region are no longer intimidated; they are alarmed, unified, and increasingly resistant. This is exactly how Jeremiah described the unraveling: a nation whose aggression provokes opposition on every side.

God Establishes His Throne in Elam

The most astonishing line in Jeremiah’s prophecy is not the judgment—it is the promise:

“I will set My throne in Elam.”

God does not say this about many places. This is not political language. It is spiritual language. It means:

  • A divine visitation
  • A spiritual awakening
  • A remnant rising
  • A new identity forming
  • A region once dark becoming a place of light

Even now, the underground church in that region is growing. Even now, the scattered remnant is awakening. Even now, the spiritual atmosphere is shifting. The throne of God is not a palace. It is a people. And God is establishing His rule in the hearts of those who once fled in sorrow.

The Restoration of Elam

Jeremiah concludes with hope:

“But in the latter days I will restore the fortunes of Elam, declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 49:39).

Restoration does not require a new government. It requires a new spiritual center. Restoration does not begin with borders. It begins with hearts. Restoration does not wait for political stability. It begins when God’s throne is established among a remnant.

This restoration may come sooner than many expect. Not decades. Not generations. But in a season of divine acceleration. The scattered ones are already rejoicing. The old order is already shaking. The spiritual soil is already softening.

The Realignment of Nations

While Elam experiences breaking and restoration, the broader region historically known as Persia moves toward the alignment Ezekiel described. Scripture often speaks of the same land under different names in different prophetic contexts. Thus it is with Elam, which was part of the larger area known as Persia.

Ezekiel 38 names Persia as part of a future coalition:

“Persia, Cush, and Put are with them” (Ezekiel 38:5).

This is not contradiction. It is two layers of prophecy unfolding at once:

  • Elam — breaking, scattering, collapse, restoration
  • Persia — alignment, coalition, confrontation, divine intervention

The present moment is the Elam moment. The future moment will be the Persia moment.

Nations are sorting themselves into patterns Scripture already revealed. Some toward hostility. Some toward blessing. Some toward restoration. God is moving the pieces. The board is His. The timing is His. The outcome is His.

The Watchman’s Charge

A watchman does not interpret events through politics. A watchman interprets events through Scripture. The message is simple:

  • God is shaking Elam.
  • God is restoring a remnant.
  • God is collapsing an old order.
  • God is realigning nations.
  • God is preparing the stage for what Ezekiel saw.
  • God is sovereign over every headline.

The nations are not in control. The governments are not in control. The alliances are not in control.

The headlines will change; alliances will shift. But the Lord reigns. The Lord directs. The Lord restores.