The Hope at Hand:

The Ultimate Answer to Our Prayers Is Drawing Near

Part 2 of 2 Parts

Note: In this second installment, I want to show you the way out of the nightmare scenario we explored in Part 1. The good news is that there is a way to reverse the “crisis of Christology” and prepare God’s people to not only survive but also THRIVE for the glory of Jesus in the midst of “The Coming Great Shaking.” Most of all, I want to help you understand, anticipate, and get ready for the nationwide Christ Awakening movement just ahead of us.

If you want to read Part 1, you can find it here.

Clearly, in light of “The Coming Great Shaking”
much more of the wonders of Christ must FILL our hearts.

Over the years, I’ve come to realize that a multitude of Christians literally cannot last three minutes talking about who Jesus IS—not about what he’s done for them but about who he actually is at this very moment, reigning at the Father’s right hand.

We know far too little about him. We know him far too little.

Consequently, twenty years ago, I began developing a whole new way to help believers lay hold of what I call a “consequential Christology”—a vision of the greatness and glory of Christ so thrilling it carries life-altering consequences that can prepare Christians not only to survive but also to thrive in the midst of the looming battles in the 2020s.

I’ve hammered out this schema in more than 600 pages of my latest book, Christ Is NOW!, and also in a credit-bearing Master of Arts course in ministry leadership for Pillar College in Newark, New Jersey.

I believe the wonders of who Christ is today can be distilled into seven little prepositions: who Christ is TO us, FOR us, OVER us, BEFORE us, WITHIN us, THROUGH us, and UPON us.

In my class at Pillar, we spend four hours on each one of these seven facets of a “consequential Christology.” For now, let me simply highlight each. As I do, ask yourself: In any sense, does this overview represent the kind of vision most of God’s people are feasting upon on any regular basis?

1. Who Christ is TO us—that is, his personhood, his deity, his intimacy with the Trinity, the claims of his names, and as our identity and destiny
2. Who Christ is FOR us—summed up in his four-fold, irreversible revolution: the invasion of his incarnation, the mission of his crucifixion, the re-creation of his resurrection, and the coronation of his ascension
3. Who Christ is OVER us—as he reigns over creation, world history, global rulers, earth’s peoples, the dark powers, and the building of the Church
4. Who Christ is BEFORE us—as right now, he goes ahead of us in four ways simultaneously: into the future, into the heavens, into God’s promises, and into the world
5. Who Christ is WITHIN us—as he lives out his risen, ascended life in us, both individually, and even more so, corporately
6. Who Christ is THROUGH us—as he extends his reign and ministry from here to the ends of the earth, reaching out through us individually and, even more so, corporately
7. Who Christ is UPON us—as he comes upon his people now to revive, intensify, deepen, and accelerate all we already are experiencing of him, and then in the day when he comes upon the entire cosmos in his glorious, victorious, and visible return

So, let me ask you again: How many Jesus followers do you know who are living daily in the reality of anything close to these exciting dimensions of the living Christ and what his supremacy means for them?

In fact, how many of us leaders in the Body of Christ are regularly, as a way of life, seeking and savoring more and more of the majestic truths about the person, purposes, and promises of the reigning Redeemer to whom we belong, heart and soul and strength?

Next, consider this: How important do we think it is for us to return to and reclaim a much more magnificent view of the Master in order to be refortified and newly empowered to triumph in the midst of the sobering, unprecedented—perilous, even volatile—trials awaiting us?

Now, dream with me: What might it look like, if despite the gathering storm, the Spirit of God reclaimed and awakened thousands and thousands of Christians in our nation who become increasingly passionate for bringing greater glory to the Lord Jesus Christ?

What might it look like if the Father concentrated all the united prayers we’ve offered for decades in the national prayer movement and brought them back down upon us right now, but doing so “exceedingly, abundantly above and beyond all we ever dared to ask or think” up to this point? (Ephesians 3:16-21)

And what if, in this hour of mounting crises, for the sake of a whole generation and for his kingdom, the living God unleashed among the Body of Christ in America a coast-to-coast, wholesale awakening to the glory and greatness, to the worth and wonder, to the majesty and supremacy of the Lord Jesus Christ—the King who ascended on high specifically to fill God’s people, to fill our land, and ultimately fill the whole universe with his sovereignty, his glory and his activity (Ephesians 4:9-10)?

Final questions:

WHAT IF at this moment we are standing on the threshold of such a “kairos” season?

WHAT IF in America, the unparalleled grace of divine intervention and spiritual revolution in the Lord Jesus Christ is the hope that’s at hand—the hope waiting for us right now?

Just ahead: a “Great Christ Awakening” as
God’s answer to a “Great National Shaking”

Instead of being hijacked by multiple crises enveloping us in overwhelming waves of spiritual anxiety, despair, paralysis, powerlessness, fatigue, and finally, retreat, what if God were to offer us a marvelous alternative?

In other words, what if his offer were to take us into a profound recovery of wholeness as God’s people by restoring to us the whole vision of the whole Christ—by saturating us with the person and presence and power of Christ, by mobilizing us to join together to advance the purposes of Christ despite the impending “Great Shaking”?

More specifically: What if God has already set before us the gift of a Christ Awakening—if only we will welcome it?

Well, he has! And we can!

I call it “the hope at hand”—a new horizon, the sunrise of “kairos.”

His offer involves nothing less than bringing our churches and us into a fresh realization of the extraordinary transformation promised in 2 Corinthians 4:6.

In my view, this verse is the most relevant one in the entire Bible for us who are standing at the crossroads of the future. Here—in one simple sentence—is the breakthrough we’ve been seeking throughout all these decades of united prayer. It proclaims:

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”
made his light shine in our hearts
to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory
displayed in the face of Christ.

I want to show you how this one verse outlines five astounding transactions involved in what I would call a genuine, God-given “Christ Awakening” experience.

What this verse teaches is related not only to what can happen with the unconverted, but it also contains the promise of what can explode time and time again after we come to Christ—doing so in far deeper, more profound ways than when we first believed—for individual Christians, or for a congregation, or for a whole generation. We find in 2 Corinthians 4:6 that:

1. This awakening penetrates to the heart level—that is, to the depths of our affections.
2. This awakening unfolds with the full force of the original creation of the universe.
3. This awakening also unfolds with the full force of the final consummation—the day when not only hearts but also the whole earth will be “covered with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14).
4. This awakening is all about how God’s glory is encountered today through the person of the living Christ—the “anointed one”—raised up to reign as Lord of all.
5. This awakening transpires as God’s Spirit engages us with God’s Son today on such richly intimate terms that it becomes for us like seeing our Lord Jesus directly, face-to-face.

Let me be clear: At this critical juncture in Church history, only the dynamic, divinely orchestrated, wide-ranging, life-changing revolution of 2 Corinthians 4:6 will do!

This hope is extended to all of God’s people throughout the nation. Our Father is ready to reignite his people with an awakening to the matchless, splendorous sovereignty of his dear Son, summoning us to pursue anew Jesus’ righteous, radiant reign streaming forth from his very being.

Therefore, I must reiterate:

Nothing less than the miracle of 2 Corinthians 4:6 will ever prove sufficient for the building and bracing of God’s people to stand firm, to stand strong, to stand bold—to stand for Christ, to stand for the gospel, to stand for his saving mission to neighbors and nations—and to stand full of faith as we confront a myriad of existential threats.

How about you? Do you believe such a Spirit-driven Christ Awakening adventure is possible?

Let me press you further: Do you believe such a transformational inbreaking is at hand? If so, are you sure you are ready for the glorious disruptions it will bring to all of us? Are you eager for it?

At hand? Remember that Jesus came preaching that the “Kingdom of God is at hand.” The Greek for “at hand” can mean “bearing down on top of you”—like the clouds of a summer thunderstorm hovering before the rains break loose.

With that backdrop, let me rephrase my last question:

Do you believe, right now, that a Christ Awakening is bearing down on top of you, your church, your city, your region, our nation—in answer to all our years of prayer for nothing less? Is our long-anticipated kairos hour finally “at hand”?

I close this blog post
by laying my prophetic vision at your feet.

At the outset, in Part 1, I told you I think this is the most important message I have ever given to God’s people since ChristNow.com began—by a blog post or in any other way. And now you see why.

It’s because, with all my heart—and with vast amounts of hard evidence to back me up, as you’ve seen—I DO believe this wonderous Christ Awakening IS “at hand”—to fulfill our years of seeking it together all across the Body of Christ. God has not forgotten a single one of those prayers.

All that remains, all that is needed right now, is for every Christian leader and every believer to couple the enormous treasury of intercession we’ve laid at the Throne with an unwavering commitment to saturate ourselves and those we love and serve with more of who Jesus is to us, for us, over us, before us, within us, through us, and upon us—with more of the matchless, magnificent majesty of the reigning Son of God.

If you are in any position of spiritual influence—such as a pastor, worship leader, Bible study teacher, campus worker, mission facilitator, and especially if you are a parent—you and I must make this commitment to saturation with the supremacy of Christ the top priority for ourselves and those we teach and lead.

We can do so with confidence, relying on this principle:

Scripture teaches that “Faith comes by hearing when what is heard is the message about the Christ” (Romans 10:17). In turn, we know it is by faith and faith alone that any past Heaven-sent Christ Awakening movement has come to the Church.

Therefore, the most strategic ministry any of us could have today is this: to pour into our fellow believers more and more and more of the Lord Jesus Christ.

That, incidentally, is why ChristNow.com and ChristNowOnLine were raised up by God—to thoroughly equip you with an extraordinary array of free resources and social media ministry.

One alert, however: The flipside of this marvelous hope carries a warning. As I said in Part 1, in the next ten years, I predict there will be either more of Christ exalted among our people OR far fewer people in Christ among us. This should sober all of us.

Sensing the urgency of our times, therefore, I close this post urging all of us to carefully heed this admonition.

May our churches never have to hear the heartbreaking pronouncement of Jesus over a previous, indifferent, unrevived generation of God’s people when he cried out: “How often I would have gathered you to myself, but you refused. So now your house is left to you desolate” (Luke 13).

Desolate!

To conclude: What is Jesus saying to US? In the two parts of this blog post, I’ve set before you a “prophetic vision” that can be summed up in a paraphrase of Jesus’ core preaching—a four-point outline distilled from Mark 1:15. Personally, this is what I hear him saying to us right now:

The time for you to experience
a mighty awakening to my supremacy is fulfilled.
Kairos!

The inbreaking of this God-given revolution for my glory
is bearing down upon you.
Kairos!

So, turn from anything that will keep you from fully entering into it—
and come into more of me.
Kairos!

I invite you to believe and proclaim this extraordinary hope
to fellow believers throughout the Church
because it is—because I am—drawing near.
Kairos!

If you would like to download an edition of “The Hope at Hand” blog post that combines Parts 1 and 2 into one document in order to share David’s entire message with friends as well as people in your Christian fellowship, you can do so here.

About the Author

Over the past 40 years, David Bryant has been defined by many as a “messenger of hope” and a “Christ proclaimer” to the Church throughout the world. Formerly a minister-at-large with the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, president of Concerts of Prayer International (COPI), and chairman of America’s National Prayer Committee, David now provides leadership to ChristNow.com and Proclaim Hope!, whose mission is to foster and serve Christ-awakening movements. Order his widely read books at DavidBryantBooks.com.