Upholding the Tapestry of God
Background
Flying home from the World Evangelical Alliance General Assembly in Jakarta in Nov 2019, I had a clear sense that the Church in Australia desperately needed assistance from the sort of passionate godliness I had witnessed in Indonesia. After all, it was the testimony of South Korean pastor Yonggi Cho in the late 80’s which radically changed my prayer life. With the help of a local Perth contact, I subsequently was able to contact a leader of the Indonesian Prayer Movement, Daniel Pandji. Little did I know that he would be responsible for the World Prayer Assembly (https://www.worldprayerassembly.org/) coming to Perth in October 2023. As the spiritual state of things in Perth stands today, this could be either a disaster or a great blessing. The purpose of this teaching is to work with the Spirit for the cause of blessing (Isa 44:3).
Introduction
A usual way to test prophecy is to see if it confirms what the Lord is saying. In mid-November I sent out the prophetic word The Tapestry (http://cross-connect.net.au/the-tapestry/ ). This was an interpretation of a vision seen by a prophetic intercessor of a huge tapestry over Perth. It is best understood as a visual representation of God’s plan for our city, a local expression of the heavenly scroll opened by the Lamb of God stretching out his kingdom over all nations (Rev 5ff.) In the original vision the Tapestry was so heavy with glory that it was too difficult to support, many more hands were required to keep it upright; “In every place, I want men to pray with holy hands lifted up to God, free from anger and controversy.” (1 Tim 2:8). Our Lord has plans to send help from across the globe, especially from Indonesia and S. Korea. Multitudes of seasoned intercessors are coming to uplift and release God’s plan through heartfelt prayers.
Why W. A.?
Deuteronomy 32:15 is a “favourite” text of mine, ““But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked; you grew fat, stout, and sleek; then he forsook God who made him and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.” In context this describes the spiritual backsliding of Israel, the more she prospered under God’s gracious hand, the more she fell into ungodliness, but it also accurately describes the largely lazy self-indulgent church of this state. Demonic powers have a stronghold amongst us, for we with loud boasts echo the self-confidence of doomed luxuriating Babylon, ‘I sit as a queen, I am no widow, and mourning I shall never see.’ (Rev 18:7). We are self-convinced and demonically convicted (Rev 13:5; Dan 7:8; 11:20, 36; 2 Thess 2:4), of our economic invincibility. We escaped the ravages of recent pandemics, floods and crop failures, whilst the rest of Australia languishes. We alone, unlike “the wise men from the east”, have a healthy state budget surplus. Our pink diamond mines might be dry, but there’s still lots of iron ore, nickel, alumina, gold, rare earths, cobalt, and lithium for the decades ahead (Luke 12:19). Why did “the Lord of all the earth” (Zech 6:5) seed so much “good” into our land (cf. Gen 1:31; 2:11-12)?
Dynamics of Cosmic Conflict
In describing the material riches of the Promised Land (Deut 8:8-10) the Lord solemnly warned his ancient people, “Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ 18 You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth” (Deut 8:17-18). The clearest register of a nations recognition of God’s giving is its thankfulness to heaven. In this matter we have proven abysmal failures and dreadful idol worshippers (Rom 1:19-23). To understand the final purpose in God allowing our evil, we must see all things through the lens of the cross. God and Satan agreed that Jesus must die (Mark 8:31; Luke 22:3; John 13:27; Rev 13:8), the devil intended this for Christ’s destruction, whereas the loving Father planned “to destroy the works of the devi” (Heb 2:14-15; 1 John 3:8). Through this we can see that the powers of evil in the heavenly places (Eph 6:12) are pleased with our extraordinary prosperity, as long as they can use it to distract masses from the gospel. The Lamb and his Father have however much richer purposes soon to be revealed.
Redeeming God’s Holy Reputation
The books of Job and Revelation share a common purpose, to cause us to look beyond the world of earthly experiences to the deliberations in the heavenly places (Job 1:6; 2:1; Rev 4:1). Direct insights into the heavenlies were not possible for Job, but “in Christ” we have access to the heavenly mind of the exalted Lord (1 Cor 2:16; Eph 2:5-6; Col 2:1-3). Most humans are moved by the wretched condition of the world to doubt the justice/goodness of God, but prosperous Westerners drowning in affluence leave God out of the picture altogether! If the purpose of Job was to show that righteousness before God (Job 1:1, 8-10) can be motivated by something other than personal profit, Revelation testifies that the saints can share in the faithful testimony of Jesus (1:2, 9; 12:17; 14:12; 19:10; 20:4), no matter how great their suffering. In our case, we can be faithful no matter how great the Babylonian splendours surrounding us (Rev 18:3-5). The Father of the crucified-glorified Lamb (Rev 5:6) plans to uphold his reputation sovereignly by having in this city a Church that reflects his own “radiance and blamelessness” (Eph 5:27). Why is this not happening already? Why do we need help in upholding the tapestry designed for our own city? What are the foundational weaknesses of the Church in Perth?
Time to Grow Up
We are as divided as those in Corinth who said, “I am of Paul…Apollos…Cephas” (1 Cor 1:12), we say, “I am of (the name of your favourite city leader). It is not Asian churches who need to repent for spiritual arrogance, they are growing tremendously and draw in vast multitudes, it is us who are arrogant. We have long looked down on those streaming to immigrate because we think we have something they do not have (Rev 3:17). Yet our abundant “worldly wealth” (Luke 16:11) blinds us to the “true riches” of God’s kingdom (Rom 14:17). The Lord says, “Wake up, look though the natural to the spiritual (1 Cor 15:46). I placed you as the continent at the bottom of the globe. When you accept that without me (John 15:5) you are the tail and not the head, when you take your place as servants of all, only then will you be ready to receive the revival I have long planned to send on what you already call, “The Great South Land of the Holy Spirit.”
Conclusion
We have a “stand out” spirit falsely claiming to be the most isolated city in the world (Honolulu is). We enjoy that the state once was strong enough to vote to leave the federation (1933). We are proudly independent. It is true of us, “Religion brought forth riches, and the daughter devoured the mother.” (Francis Bacon). Of ourselves we deserve nothing from the Lord. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” (Eph 2:4-6). The Lord will soon confound the wisdom of the secular experts of our age and their demonic rulers (1 Cor 2:6), not because of our virtues, but solely because of his great love for Jesus and the lost. We really need the help of the Indonesians and as many other prayer warriors to be sent from the nations of the world in the years ahead. “Lord, please open our eyes, for many of them are already in our midst!”