Boundless Love of God
Greetings in the Lord!
The most interesting thing about prophetic words regarding nations and current events is patiently watching for them to come to pass. You never know how they will be fulfilled, or who God will chose to carry it out, but when a headline or story is published confirming the fulfillment of the Lord's word, it truly is a time to acknowledge and give thanks to God...even if it is a word of God's judgment, because ultimately, we know that mercy triumphs over judgment and God has a redemptive plan at the end of it all. Restoration is God's calling card!
It is with that premise that I want to share with you a wonderful word that has come to pass in the country of Albania. This week I was reading an article from The Christian Century magazine, a regular column called, "Notes from the Global Church," written by Philip Jenkins. In his article he tells about the amazing work of Anastasios, the archbishop of Tirana and superior of the Autocephalous Albanian Orthodox Church.
Since the fall of Communism in 1992, when he returned to Albania from Africa, Anastasios has worked to rebuild the decimated ruins of the Church in Albania. He has re-established hundreds of parishes, many of which needed new buildings, revived monasteries, theological seminaries and academies, and ordained hundreds of new priests. He also gave the Church a media presence in Albania, including newspapers and radio stations. He led the efforts to build new medical clinics and schools, and spurred the churches in Albania to lead in other humanitarian works to meet the needs of the people, regardless of religious affiliation. In fact, he is a proponent of harmony and cooperation between the Christian and Muslim communities in Albania. Through his ongoing efforts over the past twenty years, he helped to rebuild a civil society that had been destroyed by a cruel dictatorship. To say that his many successes are nothing short of miraculous might just be an understatement.
After reading his article I went to my book, Fire of the Orange Ball, to compare notes with the prophetic words the Lord gave me when I lived in Tirana in 2005. At that time I got to see firsthand the immense challenges that laid before the country--rampant corruption, extreme greed in all sectors of government and business, and a desperate moral decay in the populous unheard of in most Western nations. The country was infamously hallmarked by the Balkan Trail (human trafficking), the Black Market--including arms deals and anything else that could be bought and sold, and had unemployment figures over the 40% mark in places and crippling poverty in general. Add to that, a residual hostility towards religion, especially towards the Church still existed. It was in that environment the Lord said to me a couple of amazing (and seemingly improbable) things.
First, regarding the intense poverty of the masses--especially in the northern mountain region where the Communists didn't even bother to go and persecute the destitute Catholic followers:
"Their poverty is their treasure." It forced them to rely upon God for everything. That dependency on God was a delight to His heart and stirred Him to hear and respond to their prayers. The prophetic word given in 2005 was that the Lord was "going to use the poorest of the poor to bring about major change in that country." (BTW--many people don't know that Mother Theresa was Albanian. She was surely blessed because of this very rare and valuable "treasure.")
Second, the Holy Spirit said to me, "Whatever the churches build in 2005 will flourish in seven years and be lasting structures; they'll have progress without trouble." Well, seven years from 2005 was 2012, and also the 20th year anniversary of the fall of Communism in Albania. While I celebrated the word of the Lord and decreed it in several church organizations while I lived there, it was still hard to fathom at that point. How and who could possibly accomplish this feat?
Well, what an encouragement it is to read about what God has been accomplishing through His faithful servants in Albania! I love, too, that Anastasios pursues his work in harmony with the Muslim community and advocates cooperation and generosity between the two religions. Surely, it is only by walking in love that God sustains the work of his hands and keeps them protected from the growing extremism. Will a day come when God will chose the Church to suffer again for His namesake in Albania? Lord alone knows, but I believe that if they have already weathered extreme poverty and unprecedented violent persecution, that God's love is rooted deeply in their hearts and they will be just fine. It is a powerful lesson for those of us in the West who are only just beginning to deal with those same challenges. For even though people shy away from the thought of suffering for His namesake, even letting it cloud their theology of God, we must sooner or later acknowledge like Job, "Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?" For His boundless and conquering love will sustain us and cause us to be restored once again.
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: 'For Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.'"
"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:35-39
~Be blessed and be a blessing.
The most interesting thing about prophetic words regarding nations and current events is patiently watching for them to come to pass. You never know how they will be fulfilled, or who God will chose to carry it out, but when a headline or story is published confirming the fulfillment of the Lord's word, it truly is a time to acknowledge and give thanks to God...even if it is a word of God's judgment, because ultimately, we know that mercy triumphs over judgment and God has a redemptive plan at the end of it all. Restoration is God's calling card!
It is with that premise that I want to share with you a wonderful word that has come to pass in the country of Albania. This week I was reading an article from The Christian Century magazine, a regular column called, "Notes from the Global Church," written by Philip Jenkins. In his article he tells about the amazing work of Anastasios, the archbishop of Tirana and superior of the Autocephalous Albanian Orthodox Church.
Since the fall of Communism in 1992, when he returned to Albania from Africa, Anastasios has worked to rebuild the decimated ruins of the Church in Albania. He has re-established hundreds of parishes, many of which needed new buildings, revived monasteries, theological seminaries and academies, and ordained hundreds of new priests. He also gave the Church a media presence in Albania, including newspapers and radio stations. He led the efforts to build new medical clinics and schools, and spurred the churches in Albania to lead in other humanitarian works to meet the needs of the people, regardless of religious affiliation. In fact, he is a proponent of harmony and cooperation between the Christian and Muslim communities in Albania. Through his ongoing efforts over the past twenty years, he helped to rebuild a civil society that had been destroyed by a cruel dictatorship. To say that his many successes are nothing short of miraculous might just be an understatement.
After reading his article I went to my book, Fire of the Orange Ball, to compare notes with the prophetic words the Lord gave me when I lived in Tirana in 2005. At that time I got to see firsthand the immense challenges that laid before the country--rampant corruption, extreme greed in all sectors of government and business, and a desperate moral decay in the populous unheard of in most Western nations. The country was infamously hallmarked by the Balkan Trail (human trafficking), the Black Market--including arms deals and anything else that could be bought and sold, and had unemployment figures over the 40% mark in places and crippling poverty in general. Add to that, a residual hostility towards religion, especially towards the Church still existed. It was in that environment the Lord said to me a couple of amazing (and seemingly improbable) things.
First, regarding the intense poverty of the masses--especially in the northern mountain region where the Communists didn't even bother to go and persecute the destitute Catholic followers:
"Their poverty is their treasure." It forced them to rely upon God for everything. That dependency on God was a delight to His heart and stirred Him to hear and respond to their prayers. The prophetic word given in 2005 was that the Lord was "going to use the poorest of the poor to bring about major change in that country." (BTW--many people don't know that Mother Theresa was Albanian. She was surely blessed because of this very rare and valuable "treasure.")
Second, the Holy Spirit said to me, "Whatever the churches build in 2005 will flourish in seven years and be lasting structures; they'll have progress without trouble." Well, seven years from 2005 was 2012, and also the 20th year anniversary of the fall of Communism in Albania. While I celebrated the word of the Lord and decreed it in several church organizations while I lived there, it was still hard to fathom at that point. How and who could possibly accomplish this feat?
Well, what an encouragement it is to read about what God has been accomplishing through His faithful servants in Albania! I love, too, that Anastasios pursues his work in harmony with the Muslim community and advocates cooperation and generosity between the two religions. Surely, it is only by walking in love that God sustains the work of his hands and keeps them protected from the growing extremism. Will a day come when God will chose the Church to suffer again for His namesake in Albania? Lord alone knows, but I believe that if they have already weathered extreme poverty and unprecedented violent persecution, that God's love is rooted deeply in their hearts and they will be just fine. It is a powerful lesson for those of us in the West who are only just beginning to deal with those same challenges. For even though people shy away from the thought of suffering for His namesake, even letting it cloud their theology of God, we must sooner or later acknowledge like Job, "Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?" For His boundless and conquering love will sustain us and cause us to be restored once again.
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: 'For Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.'"
"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:35-39
~Be blessed and be a blessing.
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