NOTE: James Smith is a young firebrand preacher currently based in South Dakota. He is an ex-skinhead now in ministry, with a fiery prophet's message. We published his article on "A Preacher's Struggle" earlier in the year.

"A CALL to ARMS" -by James Smith <xchurch@gwtc.net>

We are seeing the day when the Lazarus Generation finally comes forth. The day when the Elijah spirit is returned to the Body of Christ. When the nameless, faceless prophets climb atop a lonely hill and boldly address great and small alike.

It is time to choose sides again. Like Elijah, the question of "How long will you halt between two opinions?" is being asked. It seems that Leonard Ravenhill was correct when he asserted that "Revival is what happens when God gets so sick and tired of being misrepresented that he shows himself". God has endured the fluff, the snake-oil salesmen, the slick-Willy preacher-politicians and the preachers-for-hire for 30 years now. He has sat by while repentence preaching became unfashionable and prosperity teaching and seeker-sensitive doctrines took center stage. He has watched us cheapen every aspect of Christianity and dilute everything into a tasteless paste. And repentance has been equated with ignorance and fiery preaching seen as legalistic condemnation. I have seen the results of such preaching myself. The humanistic, neo-hippy Christians of today who have no room in their hearts for the truth. But God is no respecter of persons. He has silently been developing many men and women of God against this day. People from every denomination and background are hearing the call from God of No Compromise, No Sellout. And an army is coming forth. God is calling forth a guerilla army in a revolution whose goals are revival, restoration, reformation and repentance.

This revolution is for you. You have come into the Kingdom for a time such as this.

I, like David, want to let the world know that there is a God in Israel, as alive and active today as He ever was then. Maybe if a few of us sellout completely to God, seek Him and His presence without reserve or fear and do as He leads us, then maybe, just maybe, He will visit this generation in a greater way than any who have gone before us.

I am sick to death of positive thinking, abuses of spiritual power for their own sake, flakes masquerading as prophets, feel good messages, embarassing spokesmen for our faith crying on TV, Wolf's blood Pastors only concerned with their own agenda and Politically correct Christians just waiting for their chance to be offended. I am tired of there being no power in our churches besides fluff demonstrations that only relay a Jesus that is as silly headed as his followers.

We have grown fat, lax and comfortable in our faith, friends. We have made God into our image and our likeness and set Him upon our coffee tables as a conversation piece.

Even in the Gospels, it was the inner circle of disciples who followed the Lord everywhere He went. There were masses who came to hear Him, the thousands who followed Him around, the hundreds who were disciples, the seventy who were sent, the twelve who gave up everything and learned the secrets of the ages and the three who were closest to Him.

We are not looking for the masses that come for a show; we are interested in the twelve who leave all to follow the Master. We like to see those who are being called to an extreme level of service to Christ today "hardcore bare knuckle street prophets".

This is the generation of extreme sports, youth not content with playing tennis at the country club, they would rather rock climb, bungee jump and skydive. This is not a generation of comfort and convenience; it is a generation looking for a cause.

And they will find that cause in Christ. However, the cause that they raise the banner of will not be one of personal agenda, board meetings, slickly marketed programs or church growth. It will be the concretization of every hope that had been an abstraction to them. It will be greater than the need to conform to the church, greater than the need to succeed, greater than anything else the world has to offer. They will be the new church's exodus from Babylon, the supplanters of the Laodiceans. Indeed, the radical beliefs that will characterize this generation may very well diametrically oppose everything that the church has become in the last 30 years....

God bless you all. In Christ alone,

James Smith.