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The final figure in my random assortment of ‘Defenders of the Faith’ is American academic and self-styled ‘professional troublemaker’, James Lindsay.

The revived church begins to influence and impact the society in which it finds itself. Through its witness, God gives a reformation of society in morality, righteousness, and justice.

Murray succeeds in shining a light on all of the absurd, self-contradictory claims of adherents to the groups attacking our Western liberal democratic heritage.

The most basic question of all must be, “Why are we here?” And “Why is there something instead of nothing?” After all, it’s only human to consider the kind of weighty, existential questions such as those concerning meaning and personal significance.

It is the responsibility of those in leadership to recognise, foster and encourage each of those in their care in the discovery and healthy operation of all the spiritual gifts.

When I thought about Hirsi Ali’s life up to now, and in particular the incredible challenges and dangerous situations she’s faced, and not least this complete about-face, I was reminded of the former slave trader and God-hater, John Newton.

When the Body of Christ enters into the renewal produced by divine visitation, through a more consistent expression of those fruits of spiritual maturity, the world around us will look on with renewed interest and admiration.

We can only hope and pray that Jordan Peterson recognises that same “steady, unrelenting approach” as Lewis did, and comes fully into the revelatory Light of Christ that his Jungian lens cannot perceive.

Islam, like all extremist views, is completely “black and white”. And this is what we see in the West, with Left-wing extremist groups labelling any view that’s less extreme than their myopic orthodoxy as “Fascist”.

How desperate are we for revival? Are we willing and able to be so earnest in prayer that we might first receive such a revelation of our own lack? Because that’s what’s needed to facilitate revival in us.

One chief cause of division is the attraction of many Christians to conspiracy theories. A negative aspect of conspiracy theories is that they are fundamentally a form of Gnosticism.

As division is the poisoned fruit produced by deception and diversion, that is my focus here. The primary manifestation involves the breaking of fellowship.

Now we have news of at least two secular universities, Auburn University and Texas A&M University, that are experiencing a spontaneous outpouring, with significant numbers of conversions and baptisms.

Though “relentless individualism” is one of the aspects of modern culture that, as Christians, we rightly reject, even so, as with a number of distinctives of the “spirit of the age”, this is also seeping into the Body of Christ.

This is a process within the process, and one on which everything else hinges. The order in preparation is pray, repent, reorder.

There are seven major phases of every historical revival. Each phase is a gift from God. Each phase intensifies and accelerates the work of God in revival. Each phase, if it’s allowed to do so, will lead to a final experience of full-orbed revival for that particular generation.

This is what underpins all the major revivals. When you read through the history of revival through the past few centuries, it’s prophetic revelation from God followed by deep, concerted intercessory prayer which is the catalyst.

Now we come to the grand finale of Jennens’ and Handel’s inspired and prophetic masterwork. It began with the dark and ominous clouds in the orchestral Overture, and the prophetic announcement of “Comfort ye, My people”. Remember, Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:3 gave us the [...]

We now move on to the penultimate section of Handel’s “Messiah”. In the wordbook from 1743 I mentioned previously this has the heading, “A Hymn of Thanksgiving for the final overthrow of Death”. This, in turn, is broken down into another three sub-sections, the first [...]

This next portion of “Messiah” deals with the spreading of the Gospel message among those who accept it and among those who reject it, and God’s response to the latter, leading on to the prophetic foretelling of His eternal lordship. As I mentioned in a [...]