Keeping Hope Alive

I am so thankful to be a part of a tribe called "Elim Fellowship". One that embraces every tribe and tongue. The near and the far. One that fights against injustice and stands up for those in persecution. One of our apostolic fathers, Pastor Gary Ham, wrote this for our Global missions movement and I wanted to share it with you. Let it challenge, encourage, and provoke you to tune into Heaven's agenda and fight for our black brothers and sisters all across the USA and beyond...

There is a shaking going on in the earth today. Everything that can be shaken is being shaken to reveal and expose the moral and social corruption which is within our culture and society.  But in the midst of such severe shaking, we still hear the voice of the Lord declaring, "I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."  The shaking is uncovering and revealing what has existed for generations—racial bias and hatred, social inequality and injustice, a lawlessness which leads to anger and rage, condemnation and fear.     But the Lord Himself will build His church even in the midst of the shaking; He will bring forth a church that is without stain, wrinkles, or blemishes; it will be a radiant church.  This will be a church dressed in the glory of unity and oneness, not according to the standards of men, but unity and oneness which emanates from the relationship of God the Father and God the Son (John 17:22).   However, it seems and appears that the church is still far away from fully becoming what Christ is building!   For over 400 years, Christ followers in America have asked God the same question posed by the prophet Habakkuk, How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, "Violence!" but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds.  Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails.  The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.  (Habakkuk 1:2-4) Our hope is in God’s response to Habakkuk’s concerns, "I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe even if you were told…"  (Habakkuk 1:5) I believe that we are living in the last days in which the promises of God yet unfulfilled will be fulfilled in our day!  This includes the promise of a great end-time outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Joel 2:28-29), and holding to this hope is an essential part of Elim’s heritage!   On the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit abolished everything that hindered unity and oneness among believers and there was the manifestation of God’s glory which led to the salvation of 3,000 new believers.  So, it shall be that people of all races, ethnicities, social classes, and nationalities shall experience a greater end-time outpouring of the Holy Spirit, abolishing walls of division and removing layers of separation.  The Spirit of God and the ministry of reconciliation will produce a radiant church of far more exceeding glory and a church that will reap a far greater end-time harvest of souls.    Maranatha!

Written by Gary Ham ( Elim Fellowship Elder and Founder of 11th Hour Initiative)