I am basically an optimistic person, but after 30+ years of ministry I have learned to be a realistic optimist.  I know what age I am living in and that it takes more than pithy sayings and upbeat prose that we daily receive in e-mails to survive in the spiritual war raging around us.  I am going to balance out the "Top Ten” below or give the rest of the story like Paul Harvey says. 

THE TOP TEN PREDICTIONS FOR 2006 And Until He Comes

1. The Bible will still have the answers, but fewer will read it. 
2. Prayer will still work  but many will be said in ritual or lust and unheeded. 
3. The Holy Spirit will still move   if not quenched, grieved or resisted. 
4. God will still inhabit the praises of His people   but most are ungrateful and stiff-necked. 
5. There will still be God-anointed preaching    but fewer will want to hear it. 
6. There will still be singing of praise   but much of it will be in a worldly manner exciting the flesh but not the spirit. 
7. God will still pour out blessings upon His people   but few will seek them desiring material things more. 
8. There will still be room at the Cross-, but more preachers will deny the need for such a bloody religion. 
9. Jesus will still love you, but only true for the Christian should He return this year. 
10. Jesus will still save the lost, but fewer will come to Him because of the false gospels being preached.

--Author Unknown- Ron Shultz

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Now while all that may sound negative to some, you must remember that life is both positive and negative.  Power of Positive Thinking be hanged.  Jesus spoke more about Hell than Heaven and lost most of His "seeker" congregations when He let the loaves and fishes digest and then went on to spiritual meat.  Most could not handle the milk of the Word but the meat of it really sent them packing to where He even asked Peter if he and the rest of the twelve were leaving as well.  Jesus pondered whether there would even be faith on the earth when He returned, which does make one wonder how many mega-churches will exist at that time and if they do how many of the clientele will actually be going with Him.  It would not hard to be see that for every person in a mega-church there are far more saints suffering persecution and death around the world.  While we suffer the drive to church and the too hot/cold atmosphere of our grand edifices the true Church is being bathed in blood and built upon its only foundation the Cross of Christ.  Yes, there are at least some saved folks here in America/The West but most are fat, dumb and happy but misguided or our lands would be in far better shape spiritually then they are. 

We are in an a age of apostasy not some golden age of revival and we must approach the positive side of these "predictions" in that light or many will become discouraged and fall by the wayside when they don't see the  "new wave" of the "new apostolic reformation" or get the "holy laughter" or just see the numbers of their congregations flux constantly or steadily shrink.  Indeed, there are more "positive" preachers setting up people for a fall than for a blessing.  It has been said that War is Hell and indeed it is hellish but nothing like the War Against Hell that we are in daily.  Carnal war will only cause a loss of possessions or at worse physical life.  Losses in the War Against Hell are eternal.  Those losses will be far greater for the unbeliever than the Believer but that should not be a source of comfort to encourage slothfulness, naiveté, and binges of being AWOL or on extended periods of R&R.  It should be a source of comfort that inspires the spirit to seek fewer personal losses and compel us to cry out for fewer losses of souls to the enemy.

As much as I would hate to see it perhaps the only way to true revival of the US/West is by the way of persecution.  We have had way too many blessings and squandered them on carnal priorities and platforms.  "Must I carried through the skies on flowery beds of ease while other fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas?"  Are we soldiers of the Cross or CEOs that face eternal loss?  It is time for Churches to quit being a business and get back to our Father's business or we shall truly hate the bottom line when the Founder and Owner of the Church returns. 

Oh, that the cry might be, "So say we all!"  Maranatha!

The Christian Counter