City Of Liars And Drunkards

City of Liars
And of Drunkards Part One

There are two things on the not too distant horizon for Planet Earth - harvest and judgment. Glory and trouble both are ahead. For the 21rst Century Church (especially the church here in America) to see the full fruit of what the Lord has planned for the end times, we must get a vision for our cities instead of remaining closed minded and seeing only "our church." What is coming is bigger than our denomination. It's bigger than any movement. It's a world-wide outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon ALL FLESH - including a tremendous move of God among Jewish people who will come to know Jesus as Messiah. This gospel we preach is not a "gentile" gospel. It's a gospel that has its roots in the olive tree of Romans 11 - Israel. We'd do wise to remember that. This story of the Samaritan woman is a foreshadowing of things to come. But to see this type salvation experience we must remember that the Lord is about to do His greatest work not among the elite of our society but in the cities across America of liars and drunkards.

By Chris McDonald

John 4:4-5 - And he must needs go through Samaria. [5] Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

Harvest and judgment are coming. Glory and trouble are just ahead. Sounds pretty simple don't it? But as simple as it sounds the spirit behind this statement holds the key to revival not only in America, but in the entirety of the world. Joel's prophecy of the Old Testament comes together and is fulfilled in type in this story of the Samaritan woman's salvation experience at Jacob's well. Her life was never the same again, neither was the city of Sychar, after she had a true encounter with the Master.

Joel 2:28-29 - And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: [29] And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.

I will get more into this as we proceed with this journal but I can't help but think that while we boast a great deal in the American church about all of our accomplishments, our cities are pretty much unchanged and untouched by our "religious activity." Some cities have close to 10 churches on every single block but yet the populous as a whole remain uninterested in our pretty steeples and stain-glassed windows, our concerts, our softball teams, and such - AND MORE SADLY BECAUSE THEY SEE VERY LITTLE OF GOD IN THIS THEY ARE NOT MUCH INTERESTED IN THE "JESUS" WE PRETEND TO BE REPRESENTING AND OFFERING. That's a troubling statement but we need to let it sink in. We need to pause and give it some serious thought. We really do. The events of September 11, 2001 should have served as a wake-up call to the church just as it did to many in our nation. Unfortunately, I'm afraid while it may have jolted us into the reality we have real enemies in this world, it still hasn't galvanized us (YET) into putting everything we have in reaping the harvest for the Lord Jesus. The harvest of the earth is the heart of God. The harvest of the lost is why Jesus came to die.

John 3:16-20 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. [17] For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. [18] He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

The work is the Lords. Nothing we can do in our own strength will bring the harvest in. There are efforts in some parts of the world right now to evangelize the lost but the church for the most part is too busy building her buildings, promoting her conferences, having her bazaars, and singing her three songs on Sunday morning - without any thought for the lost in her cities. And while the verse above is something all of us have learned since we were children in Sunday school, we little grasp the scope of what it's really saying. I don't sit here and pretend that I do either. It's not God's will that ANY perish - the most detestable, the most hateful, the biggest drunk, the biggest swindler, the biggest cheat, the most promiscuous prostitute, the hardest dope dealer, the worst child abuser - are all potential agents for the Kingdom of God! ALL HAVE SINNED and come short of the glory of God. Our self-righteous attitude in the church may make us turn our noses up at such people but friend THOSE ARE THE PEOPLE JESUS CAME TO DIE FOR - NOT CONDEMN! The world is condemned already and it's our responsibility as the harvest generation to see that the message that we preach is clear - JESUS CHRIST CAME TO SAVE SINNERS! And when we preach this message we must preach it in a way to let the world know that we don't condemn them for their sin - for we too were once sinners before Jesus met us and changed our lives! Glory to God!

And this story in the fourth chapter of John brings the entirety of the Old Testament promise of the last day's outpouring into perspective for us. It's where all the prophecies about the Messiah's promised ministry come together. The powerful impact Jesus had on this ill-fated woman portrays what can happen to our CITIES if we will but follow the steps of the master soul-winner! We need to stop working so hard to build our church and start working hard to build PEOPLE! When we start building and ministering to PEOPLE, then we will see our cities changed for God. We must get a vision for more than just our "church." We must take on the heart of God.

The City Of Liars And Drunkards

The Bible said that Jesus told His disciples that "He must needs go through Samaria." During His journey through this part of Israel, He came to a city named SYCHAR. SYCHAR, or Shechem, comes from the Greek word "suchar," and literally means "city of falsehood and drunkenness." It was here in Shechem where many of the citizens of the Northern Kingdom of Israel were exiled by the Assyrians. When this occurred, a "remnant," remained in the land which would wind up intermarrying with other Assyrian captives from distant places who settled here.

2 Kings 17:24-29 - And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof. [25] And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not the Lord: therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which slew some of them. [26] Wherefore they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou hast removed, and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the land: therefore he hath sent lions among them, and, behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner of the God of the land. [27] Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought from thence; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land. [28] Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the Lord. [29] Howbeit every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt.

This led to widespread idol worship of foreign gods. By the time the Jews returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple and the walls of Jerusalem, Ezra and Nehemiah refused to let the Samaritans share in the experience:

Ezra 4:1-3 - Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity built the temple unto the Lord God of Israel; [2] Then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the fathers, and said unto them, Let us build with you: for we seek your God, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esar-haddon king of Assur, which brought us up hither. [3] But Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel, said unto them, Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God; but we ourselves together will build unto the Lord God of Israel, as king Cyrus the king of Persia hath commanded us.

This event just furthered intensified an ancient hostility and antagonism between Israel in the north and Judah to the south. The division had started after Solomon's death and the split of the Kingdom under Jeroboam and Rehoaboam, Solomon's sons. By New Testament times, Samaria became identified with the central region of Palestine, with Galilee to the north and Judea to the south. The Jewish inhabitants of Samaria identified Mount Gerizim as the chosen place of God and the only center of worship, calling it the "navel of the earth" because of a long-standing tradition that taught it was here where Adam offered up sacrifices to God after he and Eve were banished from Eden. The Samaritan religion recognized only the Pentateuch as their "bible," and Moses as their only prophet and intercessor in the final judgment. They also believed that 6,000 years after creation, a Restorer would arise and would live on earth for 110 years. On the Judgment Day, the righteous would be resurrected in paradise and the wicked roasted in eternal fire. To put it mildly, the Samaritans were a religious group unto themselves and in total opposition to Orthodox Judaism in other parts of Israel.

In the days of Jesus, the relationship between the Jews and the Samaritans continued to be greatly strained. The animosity was so great the Jews bypassed Samaria as they traveled between Galilee and Judea. They went an extra distance through the barren land of Petra on the eastern side of the Jordan to avoid going through any region of the Samaritans.

Luke 9:52-54 - And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. [53] And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. [54] And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?

Luke 10:30-33 - And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. [31] And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. [32] And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. [33] But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,

Luke 17:11-18 - And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. [12] And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: [13] And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. [14] And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go show yourselves unto the priests.

John 8:48 - Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?

Yet Jesus had a different outlook on this region of "liars and drunkards," than did those who followed Him:

He rebuked His disciples for their hostility to the Samaritans (Luke 9:55-56)
He healed a Samaritan leper (Luke 17:16)
Honored a Samaritan for his kindness (Luke 10:30-37)
Praised a Samaritan for his gratitude (Luke 17:11-18)
Challenged the disciples after they received the Holy Ghost to be a witness - IN SAMARIA and unto the uttermost parts of the Earth. (Acts 1:8)
The Holy Spirit sent Philip, the first deacon, to open a mission in SAMARIA (Acts 8:5)

This is the thing that needs to sink in. The disciples were busy working FOR JESUS but in their religious prejudice did not want to go to or minister in any way, shape, form or fashion in Samaria. Jesus was not bound by religious tradition though - He was "constrained to go through there." And in the place of the greatest hostility among two ethnic classes of people in Israel, Jesus found a better reception here in Samaria than He did in the temple at Jerusalem where "all the Jews worshipped."

Sychar, also known as Shechem in the Old Testament, had been the scene of one of the bloodiest events in the Old Testament when Jacob's sons murdered many of Samaria's inhabitants after Jacob's daughter Dinah was raped. It was in Shechem where Joseph was sold out of a pit into Egyptian slavery. Samaria served as Ahab's idolatrous headquarters where he built heathen altars to Baal. So there was a tremendous war in the heavenlies being fought for the inhabitants of Sychar. But the battle over the city of liars and drunkards was no different than the spiritual battle we face over each and every city in America. It was not against flesh and blood - it was against the powers of darkness in the heavenlies!

Ephes. 6:12-17 - For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. [13] Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. [14] Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; [15] And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; [16] Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. [17] And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

And as the Holy Spirit moved Jesus to go through the city, God's great plan for all humanity was about to be unfolded to a woman who had been married and divorced five times and was currently living with a man outside marriage. This scene is exactly what the coming harvest is about - cities full of liars, drunkards, dope addicts, homosexuals, broken hearted, bruised, abused, people - just like some of us who are reading this journal right now. Just like some of us who without God may not have stopped at five husbands or wives but maybe been divorced more than this woman. She was nameless in John's narrative, but in eternity, she was known by the angels. And in this dialogue between the Creator of all the universe and a sinner we find God's plan of salvation for man and a pattern for harvest for the end-time Church.

And He Must Needs Go Through Samaria...

The woman was the reason Jesus went through Samaria under the leading of the Holy Spirit. Jesus did not go to Samaria just by chance. It was ordained by the Lord. Every step Jesus took was ordered by the Holy Spirit. Everything He said, every miracle He performed, every prayer He uttered, every blind eye He opened, He did under the direct leading of the Holy Ghost. There were many who met Jesus in His ministry that the Lord never healed because He never received permission from His Father to touch. There were many miracles He could have done but He ONLY DID WHAT THE FATHER TOLD HIM TO DO AND WHAT HE SAW THE FATHER DOING. He just didn't go around healing and witnessing haphazardly. He was on a direct mission from God. Jesus knew the hatred and prejudice that existed between Jerusalem and Samaria but it did not hinder Him from obeying His Father.

That is the key to the coming revival and harvest - even here in America. We must obey the Father's voice at any cost and go to those whom God leads us to - no matter the RACIAL or SOCIAL difference. To be very blunt - GOD IS COLOR BLIND! He's not a racist. He's not a Caucasian God who only loves white people. Furthermore, He's not a Caucasian God who only loves American white people. He's a God who loves THE WHOLE WORLD and the whole world includes more than the four walls we worship within on Sunday. The world is in the local bar and juke joint. It's on every street corner. It's wherever a human soul is. God is interested in PEOPLE, not buildings. And the world is full of ethnic and racial diversity that is not a threat to God like it is to many of us. The world God loves is a world that brings Him great joy when He looks down and sees the diversity of His creation. None are alike and it pleased God to create us in this manner.

On a more personal note, the woman Jesus was destined to meet I'm sure was carrying a great deal of pain, suffering and reproach from her past sins. Think about it - FIVE FAILED MARRIAGES and currently living in an immoral relationship. I can only imagine the reproach she felt from others in the city. God help her if she'd tried to come to most churches in modern America today. She was not welcomed in the synagogues then and I doubt very seriously she'd be welcome in most modern facilities we call "church" today. If she would have even been let in the door to start with, she would have been isolated off by the "synagogue members" or relegated to a back pew. In the minds of many, she was not wanted. Her past would 'scar' the church's name. I heard a preacher recently get behind a pulpit and say the qualifications for leadership in his church was for someone to not have a past that would embarrass the church. That sounds really holy and some probably said amen as they read it - but the truth is that NO ONE IS WITHOUT A PAST! Some are just better at hiding it than others.

I can almost hear the rumors in my ears that were circulating around town and the local Samaritan synagogue about this woman: "She blew it - not once, not twice, not three, not four - BUT FIVE TIMES, and to boot, she's now living in adultery." "I just can't believe she would think she could lead worship in that condition." "We must keep the church PURE, and people like HER will just tarnish our image." "We don't believe in divorced people ministering here." I'll just interject this here - no matter what you may feel about people who have been divorced and remarried they are still people who have real feelings and hurt just as much about their plight as some in the church resent their plight. I've gone through it twice. Both times were devastating. I didn't enter either marriage with the thought, "if this don't work out we can split." I never thought the first one should have ended the way it did and I sure never dreamed the second one would. As fallen participants in this great plan of redemption, we tend to lie to ourselves and not face the reality of our condition and homes before it is too late. Our pride blinds us to it. Others see it in us easier than we can see it in ourselves. Then we think the problem is our spouse when it's really us. Or we blame ourselves totally for the experience not realizing that no matter how you slice the bread, divorce is the breaking of a covenant between TWO PEOPLE. It made two to make it and it takes to two to break it. Because of our sin and failure to obey and keep the Word of God we bring destruction on ourselves. And divorce is part of the reaping we experience when we don't honor and obey God like we should in our homes. I say this as a confession - we men bring it on quicker because as the spiritual leaders of our home we are the ones ultimately responsible before God for the condition of our homes.

Having said that though, we can never turn divorce into something of a blame game. We can try and determine who is at fault all we want but the reason for divorce is SIN. The reason for divorce is SIN. It may be one party is sinning more than the other but BOTH HAVE SINNED WHEN THE COVENANT IS BROKEN! AND BOTH NEED TO REPENT once divorce happens. There are no gray areas here. Divorce is a sin. It carries a hurtful price. It needs to be repented of if one has done it. It needs to be dealt with. If you don't deal with the issues surrounding divorce you will wonder in a wilderness of hurt and pain for years. Unforgiveness will attach itself to your heart then bitterness and if you're not careful revenge and eventually in some extreme cases murder. That's why God says He hates divorce. It "covers us in violence," says Malachi. Violence does not have to take physical forms for it to be destructive. The things we say with our tongues to one another pierce deeper wounds into hearts than any bullet or dagger.

But through the grace of the Lord Jesus and His blood those who have experienced divorce can be free! They can be forgiven. They can be healed. They can be made whole. Even if there has been multiple failures there can still be healing. Multiple marriages are not a sign a person is more wicked than if he/she was just divorced once or never divorced. I thank God for many of you reading this right now who have had happy marriages and never had to taste what so many of us have. Multiple divorces usually mean we more than likely have went from partner to partner without dealing with the issues that provoked the previous divorces in the first place. BUT THE BLOOD OF JESUS COVERS IT ALL! CALVARY COVERS IT ALL. JESUS PAID IT ALL! And when the sin of divorce or divorces is covered the church has no right to qualify or disqualify someone from ministry because of it. The call of God never goes away. Once God calls a man to preach he had better fulfill that call or he will suffer greatly and go into eternity in disobedience to it. That's NOT a place any of us want to be. This is not an easy topic when it comes to divorced ministers - be they male or female. Do people who are divorced and remarried and in ministry need spiritual restoration? YES! Do they need to submit themselves to another minister or ministry for a season? MORE THAN LIKELY YES!

But whatever restoration takes place it needs to take place in an effort to restore them to the place where they can be effective once again. Sticking them on our back row at the church and telling them they're welcome to come but we can't use them any longer is NOT RESTORATION!. We're such hypocrites in the church! Many church leaders beat their chest and say "our church is one of those who believes if you've been divorced and remarried you can't preach for us," then keep someone in their pulpit who is a prideful, arrogant, boastful, self-righteous tyrant who always winds up leading people they don't care about to begin with in an futile attempt to "build a huge ministry unto God."

The Bible warns us of judging others. The church has judged the world for so long, the sins of the world are coming upon us in the church and we don't know what to do about it. Divorce was ripping ministers' families apart 15 years ago and no one spoke up and offered any solution except total alienation from the fellowship. Now there is such an epidemic it's too late to sound the alarm. The damage has been done. Men and women have been destroyed. Churches and ministries who have turned these men and woman out have moved on and not missed anything I'm sure - but the men and women who have been beaten to death by the reproach of these things are. Sin is sin and it must be dealt with. But Jesus come to forgive sin and redeem man from his sinful condition. That goes for the preacher as well as the janitor! And our attitudes of the past have come back to haunt us now. What we have sowed, we have reaped. I don't have time to go into the gory details now but I am thinking of a minister right now who did very little in his church to restore broken marriages yet was a tyrant in his church of close to 1000. In a matter of 12 months I watched him lose his wife and family to divorce and the church of 1000 became a store-front fellowship of 100. We need to be very careful how we handle God's people. They are not a number on a book. They are human beings with feelings and emotions and GOD RESPECTS THOSE FEELINGS AND EMOTIONS!

While we're quick in the church to rebuke divorce and remarriage (and other sins too) we don't rebuke the pride and arrogance that's in most of our ministers. Why does Christian television come across to most of the world as just another form of entertainment just like they can find in Nashville or Hollywood?

Such was the case of this woman. There is no way around these facts. The Bible makes it clear about her past as we will see in the dialogue between her and Jesus a little later. Yes, she was a sinner. Yes, she had been a five-time "loser" to use a term I hear a lot of people use in condescending tones toward divorcees in modern times. Yes, she was immoral. Yes, she was wounded and in need of God. But despite her past, the Holy Spirit directs the Lord of glory to go through Samaria and wind up right by her side. If you can understand that, then you can understand the heart of God for the harvest. Jesus didn't come to Earth just for the squeaky clean (who are really not squeaky clean deep down underneath - they just make people think they are) He came for the worst humanity can offer him. Humanity is fallen. Man is fallen. And the coming harvest is going to be full of fallen people. And if the church of the Lord Jesus Christ doesn't heal and come together in these last days and get a true heart for the lost like her HEAD - then He is going to going to send the Holy Spirit into bars, brothels, pool halls, drug alleys and start saving the absolutely totally depraved and turn them into the laborers His heart is crying for in His church right now. AMERICA we are SPOILED! Preachers, God help us to get a vision for our cities. God help us to stop getting behind our pulpits and giving book reports and the latest theological craze and argument and get the fire of the Holy Ghost inside our heart, the fire of the Holy Ghost inside our churches, the fire of the Holy Ghost inside our choirs, the fire of the Holy Ghost inside our Sunday school rooms, the fire of the Holy Ghost inside our people - AND GET A BURDEN FOR THE HARVEST like the Father has!

The Harvest And September 11, 2001

If the attacks on the World Trade Center did anything to this nation it united us - at least for a short season. In the immediate days following the attacks in New York and Washington, blacks stopped arguing and blaming whites and whites stopped arguing with blacks. Democrats stopped fussing with Republicans. (The church could have taken a cue from all this but we didn't!) The key to the harvest will be a united church - a church free of politics, division, self-promotion, vain glory, pride, and anti-Semitism. A church free of bigotry, racial prejudice, arrogance, stiff-necked attitudes, self-righteousness and anti-Semitism. A church free of this maddening desire to be "seen" by the world while not really willing to minister to the world it proclaims to be concerned about. When we get a vision of the harvest as God sees it we won't mind getting down and dirty in the ditch with those IN THE WORLD and bring healing and restoration to those who have been wounded and hurt by the enemy. If we don't heal as a nation first, then heal as the BODY OF CHRIST IN AMERICA, we are going to be destroyed!

When Osama Bin Laden ordered those planes flown into the World Trade Centers and Pentagon, he did not order those planes to just go after Baptists, Pentecostals, Methodists, Presbyterians, Catholics, Lutherans, Jehovah Witnesses, Jews or Gentiles. Friend, he sent those planes to kill AMERICANS! America is the vehicle God has ordained for the coming harvest. If we go down, He will have to raise up another country somewhere else. No one else has our money. No one else has our power. No one else is as free as we are. No one else is more capable of exporting the gospel of Jesus Christ than American Christians! But as time has went on and we have gotten more bogged down in our church games and our little self-kingdom building programs the harvest has ceased to be on our mind. NOT ANY MORE. We don't have a choice right now but to take every chance we have to spread the gospel of the Lord Jesus to others. We don't have a choice any more but to take every dollar we make and make sure it's placed in the hands of ministries who are ordained by God to be instruments of mercy and healing to a lost and dying world. America is dying as a nation because the CHURCH in America has been dying. But when we finally wake up - LOOK OUT WORLD. But when we finally wake up and see the harvest of Jesus as He sees it - LOOK OUT DEVIL. When we finally wake up as Gentile Christians and see that we owe the Jewish people a gigantic debt for their contributions to our salvation - the fact they hold our Christian ROOTS and the heritage from which the NEW COVENANT sprang from Jesus - then we will stop fighting the Jewish people and stop being anti-Semitic in our churches and will HONOR them and evangelize them. We will seek them out to bring them into our fellowships and UNITE with them against the powers of darkness. When that happens - all of hell won't be able to stop the flow of anointing and glory and power this world will experience.

Folks, this is one-half of the coming experience for planet Earth. The other half of this is great judgment. What happens with the harvest is up to us. GOD WILL HAVE HIS HARVEST AND REVIVAL IN THE EARTH. Prophets have foretold it. Jesus has promised it. He came to Samaria and talked with a hopeless Samaritan woman to show us the pattern for what is coming. The Holy Spirit came on Pentecost to give us the down payment. The latter glory of the house will be greater than the former. But whether we participate in this great event will be up to us. I WANT TO BE USED IN THE COMING HARVEST. I WANT TO BE A LABORER FOR JESUS IN HIS COMING HARVEST. I WANT TO BE USED - NO MATTER HOW SMALL A PART IT MAY BE IN WINNING SOULS FOR HIM OR BEING A CO-LABORER WITH ANOTHER MINISTRY TO HELP BRING THEM IN. That's my prayer. That's my wife's prayer. That's our family's prayer every night. That's our heartbeat. That's our desire - to seek the LORD OF THE HARVEST and get His heart for the lost and obey His every command.

He must "needs" go through Samaria. I feel the unction of the Holy Ghost on that statement. There is coming a move of God soon that will bring millions into the Kingdom. God is already dealing with many to "go through" into cities once forsaken by the institutionalized church. God help us. The people we criticize and judge the most are going to be the ones God uses the most in His last days mobilization. If He can't get the church out of its slumber here in America then He'll go to the bar and start convicting drunks at the bar and having revival meetings at "Jim's Pool Hall." If He has to, God will just send conviction to the local brothel in town as as the prostitutes and hookers are turning tricks they will all of a sudden fall down weeping repenting of their sins. THESE ARE THE COMING EVANGELISTS! THESE ARE THE COMING PREACHERS! THESE ARE THE COMING APOSTLES. THESE ARE THE COMING TEACHERS and PROPHETS. We're going to be sitting in Burger King soon and bow our heads to pray over our Whoppers and all of heaven is going to break loose! I had a vision not too long ago of me and my brother Todd sitting in a Waffle House in a Midwest American city. We had visited this waffle house many times but on this occasion we had gotten our food and had said the blessing. As we started talking about God a couple sitting beside us dressed in Harley Davidson outfits start crying and weeping and come to our table and ask us to explain to them how they can get saved. All of sudden every one in the entire restaurant stops what they are doing and bows down and starts weeping and repenting. THOSE DAYS ARE AHEAD MY FRIEND. THOSE DAYS are just on the horizon!

All the events of September 11th did was make it clearer to the church - especially us here in America - that time was slowly ticking out. The clock is running. The forces of darkness are mobilizing and we had better mobilize too and move quick. It's time to awake out of our sleep:

Romans 13: 11-13 - And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. [12] The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. [13] Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.

And at high noon (the sixth hour) in the city of liars and drunkards a thirsty woman was about to meet Jesus.

Give Me To Drink...

John 4:6-7 - Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. [7] There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus said unto her, Give me to drink.

Jesus asked her this to draw out a response from her. Before God saved us, He asked us something didn't He. The Holy Spirit drew us out. He spoke to our heart. God is not just in a church. He is on a well in the worst city in the whole of Israel. He will find us no matter where we may think we are. He will draw us out of our hiding place and confront us with our condition in love.

I recently heard of a young lady who had wound up in a life of immorality. She turned tricks every night to just have food to eat and money to buy heroin and crack. She had miscarried three times because of the drugs and lived in small trailer that was no smaller some of our bathrooms in our homes of luxury here in America. She had been abused as a child by her father who had raped her many times and thrown out of her home into a life of hell. She never experienced any love from her mother or father or anyone for that matter. She just knew bitterness, hardness of heart, angry at God, angry at the world, angry at the men she slept with, angry at her father. She had even went out and bought a gun that she would sit down with at night and put to her head and pull the trigger without any bullets in it to illustrate her desire to die. She would sit and think about killing her father to get even with him for the abuse but the anger would just turn to loneliness which would send her into the arms of another strange man who would pay her money for sex. The cycle just kept going and going.

One night in that trailer not big enough to house two people she's watching the television and for some reason the rabbit ears she had made were only picking up one station. On that station was an evangelist who was not thumping the pulpit or showing off to the world how big his ministry was. He was in normal voice looking into the camera and saying, "You're out there right now watching this and you've never experienced what true love is all about but the Lord Jesus loves you with a love that is not abusive or conditional. He loves you in the condition you're in. When you ask Him into your heart and life He can take away the anger and the pain you feel from your life of sin." She sits and watches the television and smirks at the evangelist cursing him and every other man she has ever known. She tries to turn the channel but no other channels work that night. To beat from sitting in the trailer in total quiet she keeps the channel on and he keeps on talking about the love of God. In a second, a jolt of Holy Ghost power comes through the television and touches her heart. She is in her early 30s and has not shed a tear in nearly 20 years, maybe longer. The years of abuse hardened her heart so much she could no longer cry - even when the abuse was taking place - she just lost all feeling. But on this night the Spirit of God finally reaches out to her in such a way that He breaks all that hardness and coarseness. She doesn't understand it but she begins to weep as she keeps listening to this evangelist. All of sudden the tears start to flow even more and her heart softens to the point she finds herself kneeling in front of the small box-like television asking the Lord to forgive her for all her sins. She cries bitterly before the Lord asking Him to come into her heart and allow her to experience the love the man on the television is talking about. She tells the Lord she's never experienced that type love at all.

In a second, in a few moments, she is born again. How do I know this? Because she testified later that 10 minutes before she had prayed that prayer the thought had crossed her mind to put bullets in the gun and finally kill dad and then herself. Ten minutes later after Jesus "drew her out" she was on the phone calling her father. She told him that night on the phone that something wonderful had happened to her - she had gotten saved and met Jesus Christ. He had come into her heart and taken all the hate and anger away from her. As a result, she told her father on the phone that night that she forgave him for what he had done to her and she no longer held it against him. She just said, "I love you daddy, and Jesus loves you too." She told him that he didn't have to respond but she needed to let him know that the hate and anger she had held against him for years was now gone and she wanted to move on with Jesus Christ, her new love.

What a moment in eternity. I can only imagine what the angels were doing in heaven over this. She sits there on the sofa weeping and praising God for what has happened. She is so excited she has gotten saved she doesn't know what to do. She sits there thinking where she will go tomorrow. She thinks about going to church but has never been invited to any local church in her city. No one had even spoken to her or made any move toward her. She has $3.00 to her name. She had actually planned to go out that night and turn another trick for money to eat the next day but canceled it because Jesus had come into her heart.

As she sits there broke and not knowing what to do, the thought comes to her of the Denny's Restaurant $2.98 breakfast special. She is so excited about getting saved she says to herself, "I'm going to go out tomorrow and celebrate getting saved by eating at Denny's." She was human and couldn't help but wander where her next dime was coming from. She had not worked in nearly 10 years. She had survived selling her body and heroin. Now all she could do was cry and enjoy the sweet love of her new found friend and Lord.

The next morning she does exactly what she told herself she would do. She goes to Denny's, walks in the restaurant with the last $3.00 and some change she has to her name in her pocket and orders Denny's "grand-slam breakfast." I've eaten at Denny's and it's a feast for under $3.00! As she sits down, she just cries again and thanks the Lord for saving her and says, "Lord I'm here today celebrating the only way I can but I'm doing this to show you how happy I am that You are now in my life." (GOD HELP US IN THE CHURCH TODAY! We can't even get excited enough to lift our hands to worship our God who has blessed us with luxury and 10-story homes!)

As she sits there eating, an older lady walks in the door of the restaurant and just starts looking all over the place like she's lost. The young lady doesn't really notice her until the older lady walks up to her table and just says, "it's you isn't it." The young lady says, "I beg your pardon?" The older lady says, "do you mind if I sit down with you? The Lord sent me here." As the older lady sits down, she says, "Last night I was watching an evangelist on television (whom she named and was the same evangelist the young lady was watching at the same time!) when the Lord spoke to me clearly to come here to Denny's today at this time. He told me someone would be here that He wanted me to take into my home and take care of for as long as necessary. I didn't understand what He was saying but when I saw you when I walked in I knew it was you. Young lady, I don't know anything about you and you don't know anything about me but I want you to come home with me and let me minister and take care of your needs. I have a room already made up for you with your name on it. You don't have to pay a cent in rent. I'm going to take care of you from now on, I'm going to be your new mother in the Lord. I'm going to feed you, clothe you and help you in your new walk with the Lord. YOU'RE PART OF THE FAMILY NOW." The young lady, who had just humbly came to Denny's restaurant to celebrate the joy of her salvation, went home with this lady. In the process of time, she got her GED, went on to take college courses and is now ministering to others who have been abused and are deep in drugs. It's hard to write for the tears right now. I heard this story a year ago now and it just makes me cry as much now as it did then. This is the harvest!

Friend, the story I just told you is just the beginning of what is coming in the harvest ahead. We're going to hear more and more of these stories where Jesus will continue to "draw" people out. I'm hearing stories now of Him appearing in bodily form to Muslims all over the world. Osama Bin Laden may be hiding from the United States of America in a cave, BUT HE CAN'T HIDE FROM GOD! HE CAN'T HIDE FROM JESUS CHRIST, YESHUAH. HE CAN'T HIDE FROM GOD THE HOLY GHOST. GOD KNOWS WHERE HE IS AT. GOD KNOWS WHERE HE IS AT. GOD KNOWS WHERE HE IS AT. GOD KNOWS WHERE HE IS AT. And God knows where you are. He knows where I am at. And even if we make our bed in hell, HE IS STILL THERE. He is still there.

In the worst city of Israel at noon day, Jesus found a Samaritan woman. And He's looking for you.

I feel led to close this journal here and pray with you. We will continue this in part two. Let's pray:

Father, we love You. We thank You for loving US. We thank You for finding us in the worst of places and never giving up hope that we would one day respond to Your call. Thank you for drawing us out of our hiding places. Thank you for drawing us to Your side. Thank you for saving us, for healing us, for blessing us, for protecting us when we were out in sin and could have died and went to hell. Thank you for your gentle touch of conviction. Thank you for the times you woke us up at night and kept us awake pondering over our condition. Lord, we know You're real. We know Your Holy Spirit is real. We know You have called each one of us reading this to the Kingdom for the time we are in RIGHT NOW. This is harvest time. Judgment is coming upon Planet Earth and we don't have much time right now. Lord, SEND US INTO THE HARVEST FIELD. Send us into the field no matter where that field may be. Send us into the highways and byways and the hedges. Send us to those Lord that everyone else smirks at and makes an outcast. LORD WE WILL BE YOUR COMPASSION TO THEM. LORD WE WILL BE THE INSTRUMENTS OF HEALING TO THEM. LORD SEND US. We're not ashamed to bear the reproach of them because Lord their reproaches also fell on You at Calvary. Forgive us for our calloused, religious hearts that only cares for our own self-preservation. Forgive us for the times we have sought our OWN promotion instead of seeking YOUR KINGDOM. Forgive us of the pride that has blinded us to our true condition and kept us from being instruments of mercy and grace. Lord, YOU ARE THE LORD OF THE HARVEST and You "needed" to go through Samaria. Lord give us the vision for the Samaritans around us be it in Knoxville, TN or Atlanta, GA, or Cairo, GA or Tallahassee, FL, or Shawano, WI or Douglas, WY or any other towns and cities we may be in Lord. This is about our cities - not about our denominations. Your heart is for PEOPLE Lord - make our heart the same. Make our hearts like YOUR HEART. Change us into YOUR GLORY. Lift us up to Yourself and Your unfailing love. Set a seal over our hearts that will burn in passionate fire for YOU first then for the ones You died for. Lord we renounce all self-righteousness and judgmental attitudes in our own lives. Help us to never view the lost through eyes of condemnation, for Lord You didn't come to condemn the world, but that the world through YOU MIGHT BE SAVED. SOULS LORD! SOULS LORD! SOULS LORD! That THEY MIGHT BE SAVED, NOT LOST LORD! Help us see this Oh' Lord. Lord, we're selfish. We're blind and naked. We need the HOLY GHOST to be our eye salve so we can see the coming harvest. We need your righteousness to see our own need for salvation first so we can minister that salvation to others. We need YOUR GOLD tried in the fire so we will not be deceived or become hypocrites condemning others for the same sins we are guilty of ourselves. LORD SET US FREE FIRST so we can set others free. Send us into the cities of liars and drunkards. In Jesus name, AMEN!

This Journal Continued In "City Of Liars and Drunkards, Part Two."

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