Once again, without the aid of an alarm clock, I keep waking up in the fourth watch of the night now for well over a year, sometimes even a tad earlier. Like 2:00 am! What?! I know it’s crazy. Normally I’d just attribute it to old age, but it’s a spirit that is being renewed day by day. It’s so intense that sleep is just not optional.
I know what this is. I’ve been here before. Early in my Christian walk my spiritual hunger was so ravenous that it consumed me. It resulted in birth pangs.
I remember those early days in Bible school when this deep heart hunger for God first began to possess my soul. Daily God seemed to fill my mind and thoughts. It was one of those extraordinary seasons of my life where the nearness of God’s presence became very real to me. I was still single, and living a life of simplicity without many distractions.
Additionally, I was receiving the Word each morning in Bible school and I had a job that allowed me to pray much in the Spirit. Fellowship with God became more important than fellowship with man. Natural earthly conversation lost its delight as I was swallowed up in God. Sleep, instead of being sought after and desired, became only necessary. Many days, long before the crack of dawn, found me in secret communion with God. Daybreak almost always met me with a song in my heart. Encounters with God were frequent, and the Lord Jesus truly became my living bread. I am there again! Praise Jesus! I am so grateful that my sufferings and sorrows have turned into glory and joy.
MANY NEED A WAKE UP CALL
I am overly burdened with preparing the Church for the great harvest before us and for the Lord’s imminent return, and equipping the saints for maturity and ministry — that Christ would be formed in them. I am one of many forerunners declaring, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord! Make His paths straight!” It is a love calling born of the Father’s heart.
Many professing Christians who are grossly deceived need a serious wake up call in this hour. The remnant are not deceived, but the remnant needs to grow. The divided must become the united.
Let me speak to the overall condition of the general church in America, including mainline, denominational, and evangelical churches, as well as Pentecostal/Charismatic churches, whose scope of influence, both positive and negative, is far larger than any of our own local churches and communities. Let’s avoid tunnel vision and cultivate a broader view of the Church in our nation. Perhaps your church and leadership is moving with God and revival, and have managed to avoid wokism (a really strange word that just went into the Oxford dictionary a few years ago; it really should be called sleepism) but a multitude of them have been entrapped in it.
EXAMPLES OF WOKE-ISM
For example, how can certain respected church leaders be actually working to undermine the faith they claim to profess? How can prominent “Christians” be actively promoting the principles of atheistic Marxism in seminaries, bible colleges, and worst of all, their own local churches? (For greater light and knowledge into this subject, please purchase the DVD Enemies Within The Church). It is a must see for every church and believer. It will shock many of you. I’ve got my copy and have watched it twice already, alone first and then with my family.
Even more profound is the reaction of many to the deliberate twisting of the Bible to de-emphasize Old Testament teachings and the laws God gave us, in favor of a subtly socialist interpretation of the gospels. When this is laid out plainly, it is a deep shock to many churchgoers.
SIGNS OF AN AWAKENING
Before my wife and I were hit with a long lasting, life-threatening illness in a demonic attempt to silence us and delete our ministry and abort our calling, in our travels we were witnessing an amazing grassroots revival being led largely by the common lay people, fed up with a watered-down, socialist Christianity, and fired up to rediscover the genuine Christian faith long abandoned by many Church leaders.
Honestly, we need a deep repentance and reformation among Church leaders — a church government that is more conducive to the wisdom of God in a diversity of ministry gifts and elders that will mend our broken nets, which keep falling so short of gathering the great final harvest that is before us. I’m convinced that this is one of the reasons (not the only reason) for rotten fruit and new converts falling through the cracks of our broken nets.
There is a tremendous energy out there in the independent churches, home churches, and Word and Spirit churches, and even within some of the larger churches. I call these the underground Church of America and where God has sent us.
PEOPLE WANT REAL CHRISTIANITY
People are tired of fake religion and such a lack of authenticity. They don’t want their children learning Marxism from their “gay-friendly” youth pastor. They see that chaos is enveloping the West and they know that cowardly church leaders preaching false doctrine and Marxism are largely to blame.
Sometimes, you have to lose something before you begin to appreciate it. It is at that point, the remnant arises. This is the swelling movement of the underground Church of America, and those who are seeking to worship the Father in spirit and in truth.
True leaders need God’s wisdom and revelatory truth to fortify the remnant. We must awaken every Christian to the gradual corruption of the real gospel that they might rise up while they still have a fighting chance (all of my books are resources that serve this purpose). Please get them all for your library. They are written for you, the body of Christ, and the underground church. You can find them on Amazon under my name.
BIRTH PANGS
My current birth pangs are the birthing of a new phase of ministry we have entered into by the grace of God. It is the fathering aspect of ministry that is overwhelming me. I have such a love for younger ministers I’ve never had before. I feel so pregnant. A part of it has to do with the call to write that has been with me for the last 20 years, but now it has intensified many-fold. Wise believers and even churches are purchasing all our titles. Why? Because they are hungry for something that they cannot even articulate. It is the utterances of the Spirit of God flowing through sanctified vessels. I am only one. I am trying to do my little part with my wife at my side. She deserves more credit as it is her prayers that birth such wisdom, which I impart and write. I feel like I have 100 more books in me. I keep a file of all the inspiration I receive on a regular basis. It’s overwhelming because time is so short.
GORDON LINDSAY
The late Gordon Lindsay is my example. The Lord spoke to me about him, and the similarity of callings, especially to write. He was a scribe and was known to be at a restaurant dining and using a napkin to write down spontaneous inspiration and revelation he’d receive. I’m understanding what that’s like to live under that sort-of fountain — a spout where the glory comes out! Haha! My file is enormous!
Carolyn and I are ministering in the morning at our home base here. My challenge is not what to say, but it’s what NOT to say. Thanks be to God, I am so full of light, revelation, and power that I have to sort of de-elevate myself, and find the God design and purpose for each meeting. Feed people a few spoonfuls at a time instead of a buffet.
I, like Paul, the apostle, need utterance in the Holy Ghost. Pray for us.
I love you all so much and desire you to prosper even as your soul prospers.
Sincerely in Christ’s Glad Service,
Bert Farias
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