Those who truly understand the meaning of PUSH, are pregnant women who kept pushing despite excessive pain until their baby was born. This PUSH is similar. It comes from the acronym of Praying Until Something Happens, not just anything but the greatest outpouring of God’s Spirit for the end-day Church. Why? The Church is currently in spiritual drought. Miracles and healings flow only as a trickle. New converts are not flooding the sanctuaries. Society no longer honors God. The remedy for this was given to us by God through the prophet Joel to FAST and PRAY, GATHER to REPENT.
Joel 1:14 Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD
Joel’s day was the most horrific time of natural desolation in ancient Judah, an unending drought with fires and famine for all the vegetation had been devoured by a swarm of locusts. Usually, each locust stage eats a specific vegetation and then flies to another location, but these locusts remained in Judea throughout all their four stages of life. They consumed all the vegetation. This day was so dreadful, it was forewarned by God to king Solomon (2 Chron. 7:13) with its remedy (2 Chron. 7:14) confirming Joel’s instructions.
Chron. 7:14 IF My people, which are called by My Name, shall humble themselves (fast) and pray, and seek My Face (Manifest Presence), and turn from their wicked ways: THEN will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
Ancient Judah FASTED and PRAYED, GATHERED to REPENT and God turned their dark situation into plenty, prosperity, and refreshing. But this remedy was also meant for the Church at two primary times which are aligned with two titles of the prophet Joel.
One title was “the prophet of Pentecost,” not Israel’s Pentecost. The original Pentecost of Israel was at mount Sinai for a marital Old Covenant (OC) between YHWH God and Israel cut with the blood of animals (Exod. 19-20). In the OC only kings, priests and prophets were anointed and filled with God’s Spirit. But Joel prophesied that God would “pour out His Spirit on ALL flesh” referring to every believer in Messiah Jesus. After Jesus cut the marital New Covenant with His own Blood, He called His Bride, the Church of that day, to keep the first or starter Pentecost in Jerusalem. For ten days 120 believers obeyed in the upper room. They FASTED and PRAYED. They GATHERED and REPENTED. And the Holy Spirit came like a rushing wind and the supernatural Fire sat upon them anointing them. Unsaved Israelis flocked to them in question. Peter quoted Joel’s prophesy and led them to REPENT, and they were saved.
This great outpouring of God’s Spirit was the starting empowerment of the Church. The Holy Spirit worked through this early Bride of Christ to lead the lost to Jesus, akin to the works of Jesus, with signs, wonders, and miracles. This explosion of revival was meant to continue but ebbed away when the passion of the saints faded unto the current lukewarm Church. Yet here and there throughout history, a few did FAST and PRAY, GATHER to REPENT. They PUSHED until they gave birth to a revival, a Great Awakening. But the greatest outpouring prophesied by Joel is yet to come! So, FAST and PRAY, GATHER to REPENT Church!
The proof that Joel wrote these instructions also for the end-day Church is expressed by his second title: “the prophet of the Day of the LORD,” the Tribulation, which is soon approaching. Today’s Church is in the last era of the Church Age, the Laodicean (Rev. 3:14-22) era. Joel foretold of two primarily outpourings of God’s Spirit. The starter and the finisher. The starter was Acts 2 classified alongside Israel’s annual “former rain,” a light rainy season—just enough to empower to birth of the Church. The other outpouring will empower the end-day Church.
This end-day outpouring of God’s Spirit will also far exceed the Church’s beginning (Acts 2) for it is classified by Israel’s heavy rainy season called the “latter rain” and the “former rain” together at one time (Joel 2:23). That is a flood of God’s glory covering the earth. This great empowerment of the end-day Church is to finish her work on the earth before her Rapture which biblically then will be passed on to the awakened 144,000 Jewish evangelists. To partake in this promise, we must FAST and PRAY, GATHER to REPENT. Here is prayer we may cite collectively.
Dear Father of Mercies, we corporately repent of our sin as the last era of the Church Age. Forgive us for our lukewarmness. Forgive us for our entanglements with the worldly spirit. Forgive us for our false assessment that we are rich by natural wealth and possessions. Forgive us for becoming spiritually poor in revelation, spiritually blind in vision, and spiritually naked in anointing and the gifts of the Spirit. Help us to draw closer to Jesus, to know Him as His Bride. Motivate us to live Your love before the world. Inspire us to keep PUSHING until Your finishing touch of Heaven is accomplished through us. Empower us lead those in Darkness to the Light before it’s too late! In Jesus’ Name. Amen.