My generation’s story shall not end like this. No! God FORBID!

A time came in Europe when preachers started getting more absorbed with building cathedrals and not in building men. A generation of preachers arose in that continent who began to go for Bible school degrees and certificates and no more to the Power of God. Church members were living in pain and dying without experiencing the touch of God. They had left the streets and had given all to God, but they had no testimonies of the supernatural. Yet, the pastors were busy enrolling in schools for more degrees.

That generation of preachers wanted to be respected by answering to titles, like “Doctor” etc.. They traded the mantle, for a title. They succeeded in acquiring their University Degrees. They built wonderful cathedrals to themselves, but they lost the Power of God!

They lost that FIRST HUNGER, which they used to have for the Presence of God. Their messages became more mechanical and because Church members were getting tired, they began to serve breakfast every Sunday morning, so that members will see reasons to come to church. They gave birth to a generation which is used to drinking coffee – but a generation which is not used to praying or fasting. A generation that expects you to tell them how much you will pay them, before they will come to church!

That generation never saw the tears of their pastors over the lostness of their cities. They never saw their pastors inside the church vestries or on the altars groaning in excruciating pains, for a mighty move of God in their time! The only memories they have are those of musical concerts, when they invited all the choirs in town to display their talents… They have a memory of those sleeping while their pastors preached. How can a generation with such fireless memory carry the FIRE for their generations?

Why do you wonder why some of them see no wrong in homosexualism? Why do you blame them when you see some of them selling their cathedrals to Muslims, knowing that they are converting them to mosques? Why are you surprised that they are now using some of those big cathedrals for casinos and disco halls? GREATER THAN WHAT HAPPENED IN EUROPE WILL HAPPEN TO AFRICA, IF THERE IS NO REVIVAL.

If there is anything this present generation of General Overseers in Africa should bequeath to us; if there is anything worth leaving behind for their children; if there is anything they will be remembered for; let it be UNQUENCHABLE HUNGER FOR GOD. Because presently, OUR HUNGER IS IN DANGER.

When the only thing you hear from our pulpits is how many ways to make money, how many ways to succeed in business and marriage, how many ways to do this and that… But NOT how to win souls in your office. NOT how to pray if you want to surrender your community to Jesus!

Friends, why do we cry and shout and stand in the gap for a worldwide revival – especially in Africa? It is because Africa is heading to a religious dark age, when it will be hard to find a pulpit that will be ablaze with undiluted Truth.

Yes, that is the program of hell…. The “Dark Age” in this context is not the absence of industrialization or scientific discoveries, but it is the absence of Light – the true LIGHT that can only be obtained from TRUTH. And it is such a truth that DARKNESS cannot comprehend. You may dislike it; you may dislike me; but Sir, with due respect, Africa, our continent, is in great danger! This generation of fellow General Overseers need to teach us how to be hungry for God.

When even young boys whom nobody knows, nor the day they relented, are now General Overseers, they are known nowhere – No traces – No references. They just rented halls and started doing ‘miracles’. They have no hunger for God – so how can they produce Church members with a hunger for God?

EUROPE LOST THE FIRE WHEN THEY LOST THEIR HUNGER. Is it not the same Europe where men like John Knox of Scotland were born and he lived in and died in? Is it not the same Europe that gave the world men like Martin Luther? Is Revival veteran like Leonard Ravenhill NOT FROM Britain?

How many of our big churches today can host a man like Jonathan Edwards or John Wesley or Charles Finney in their programs? A generation such General Overseers of such soul winning caliber gave birth to a generation who might convert all their cathedrals into casinos and disco halls, when the elders would have died.

Don’t tell me you don’t see that pastors now have cliques they belong to. They host themselves in their numerous fire-less programs, where people fall on the ground and still rising up the same way. Don’t tell me that you have not attended some ministers’ conferences and you came back the same way you went! Your hunger for God was not increased – your passion for winning souls is still the same way it was before.

Even if you weren’t born again then, can’t you remember the days when after every ministers’ conference, men will catch the Fire? I mean, Holy Liquid Fire, invading everywhere and all the shrines and their demonic priests were in trouble. But today, you come back from a FIRE CONFERENCE only to realize that they have been able to trick you into sowing seeds.

In those days, every member of the Church used to belong to an Evangelism Group. Every Sunday evening they will invade the market squares, near and far, not inviting people to leave their churches and join theirs, but ‘persuading’ them to accept Jesus – even if they will not come to their own church. Chaiii…. I saw those days Sir, and they are still driving me today.

Every family needs a doctor and they pay them heavily. But yet each time they visit the doctor’s hospital, the doctor will place them on a diet. Sometimes they give them painful injections and they will cry. Some of them will not be happy seeing their children going through such pains, but they will not be angry with the doctors. As they leave, they still tell the doctor, the next day will come again. Which means they willingly pay the doctor to make them cry, because the believe that he is saving their lives.

The church should be a place where people run into, to escape hell fire. But unfortunately, the church in my generation, has become a hospital without injections. Many of this generation of preachers have become doctors who are afraid to give their patients painful injections, so that they won’t be angry at them. Any hospital where everybody is happy, is in need of a mortuary, but that is what our churches have become today. Every message is tailored to make members happy. Rienherd Bonnke said: “a drowning man has no need for entertainment!”

If Jesus is our great physician, then, he is a doctor – and nobody blames a doctor when you see someone crying around him. But today, Pastors will not invite you again if their members or wives start crying to the altar during your ministration!! They will tell you: “Man of God, these people are suffering already, I need a message that will bring smiles back to their faces.” Chaiii… why are we running hospitals without a single syringe for injections in it? Why are we happy watching people laughing to damnation?

Europe became too ‘happy,’ that is why they lost the FIRE…

Now, Africa is trying to be ‘happy’ – and great will be the fall if God does not intervene! Moses was on the mountain seeking the Face of God while Aaron was busy entertaining the Israelites at the foot of the mountain. But when the man who has met with God appeared, it became clear that much of our happiness is as a result of our unholiness.

I don’t have a problem with laughing in church, but my generation of General Overseers have become a generation of entertainers.

When are we going to start seeing tears in our choir seats again?

When are we going to see men and women rushing to surrender their lives to Christ just when the choir is ministering?

When are we going to start seeing HUNGRY boys and girls, men and women from our local churches, telling their pastors: GIVE US THIS MOUNTAIN?

Brother, get ready, the whole world is looking at Africa now and in the agenda of God, we are meant to spearhead this end-time revival. I am so sure that God is looking for people He will use to set men and women hungry for Him.

If it is 40 members you have, God is depending on you to set them hungry for Him. The worldwide revival we have been praying for, may start from that local church….

When you talk about revival, don’t talk about crowds, because, crowds have never birthed any revival in history! I know some guys are still on the mountain now, having a romance with divinity, as many Aarons are busy entertaining this generation at the foot of the mountain.

Hmmmm, Sir, don’t rush down from that mountain, because generations unborn will benefit from your encounter. Nothing interesting happens on the top of the mountain. Nobody will see you there to host you in programs. Nobody will see you there to pay you tithe, but remain there, GENERATIONS UNBORN WILL BENEFIT FROM EVERY ENCOUNTER YOU ARE HAVING THERE….

 

~ by Mark Cyril

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Author, teacher, motivational and conference speaker, Pastor Mark Cyril is the international President of CYRIL MARK WORLD EVANGELISM – an independent ministry taking the message of the cross across the Nations turning many in their numbers to salvation through Jesus Christ. He is also the Senior Pastor of Revelation Apostolic Community; an apostolic and Prophetic Word based ministry in Abuja the capital city of Nigeria – West Africa.

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