When … Rowland Taylor, rector of Hadleigh, in Suffolk was stripped to his shirt and ready for the stake, he said with a loud voice, "Good people, I have taught you nothing but God's Holy Word, and those lessons that I have taken out of the Bible: and I am come hither to seal it with my blood."

He then knelt down and prayed, a poor woman of the parish insisting, in spite of every effort to prevent her, in kneeling down with him. After this, he was chained to the stake, and repeating the 51st Psalm, and crying to God, "Merciful Father, for Jesus Christ's sake, receive my soul into Thy hands," stood quietly amidst the flames without crying or moving, till one of the guards dashed out his brains with a halberd. And so then this good old Suffolk incumbent passed away.      J.C. Ryle

We are in a battle for the souls of mankind. We war against Satan and all of the forces of evil in the universe. Satan has established his kingdom in the hearts of men and women. That kingdom must be destroyed and Christ's kingdom established, no small task for the church. But it can be accomplished.

One weapon God has placed within the church that can tear down the strongholds of Satan was used mightily in both the Old and New Testaments and throughout the history of the church. It's the life that is totally yielded to God. That person holds nothing dear to himself except Jesus and His glory. That life will contradict the culture of the day.

God is looking for men and women who will not be conformed to society but rather transformed by the Holy Spirit into the image of Jesus. This life will cry out, "I want Jesus more than I want anything!" Where are the men and women in the West willing to lose everything to gain God's glory on earth?

Too many of us think we can have God's glory at little or no cost. We live in a capitalistic society that guarantees our freedom. We equate our system with our Christianity. But the life yielded to God will cut across the grain of society. Capitalism and Christianity are not the same.

This truth infuriates many. But we must realize that an atheistic capitalist is no different than an atheistic Communist. Jesus didn't come to establish a system. He came to establish His rule in the hearts of mankind.

Many Latin American church leaders have been swept into "liberation theology." This theology offers political solutions to the problems of man. Revolution is equated with the second coming of Christ. The Spirit of God can never manifest His glory in such teaching. It's a theology rooted in human effort and struggle rather than God's grace. It's the result of a political-cultural dilemma rather than a biblical mandate. When the Holy Spirit comes, He always guides the church into biblical truth.

"Liberation theology" is a great hindrance to awakening in Third World countries, but the church in the West has its own form of capitalistic Christianity, and this also has become a hindrance to revival.

Western Europe and North America are the wealthiest societies known to man. We have been blessed by God. Much of our wealth and freedom are a result of our ancestors' following biblical principles. But we are in danger of worshipping the blessings of God rather than the God of the blessings.

It's difficult for Christians in the West to understand this. Most of us have never seen God's glory manifested among a poor group of people. Eastern European Christians have seen God's glory; however, they have little or no wealth or freedom. Yet, they are free in Christ and rich in the grace of God.

Our tendency is to seek miracles rather than God. We seek to bask in the comfort of blessings rather than focus on "the old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame."

We need to lay at the foot of the cross our most precious possessions. We can't cling to family or friends or blessings.