These past few weeks, I have become increasingly burdened with Malachi 4:5-6.
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
before the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
And He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,
And the hearts of the children to the fathers,
Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”
My understanding is that this prophecy has only been partially fulfilled. John the Baptist was a forerunner and prototype of the fullness that is yet to come. There are two reasons that lead me to believe that these verses have yet to be fulfilled.
The first reason is contained within the verse itself. Elijah will come, “before the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” The great and dreadful day of the Lord refers to the day when God will judge the peoples of the earth. Although the crucifixion and resurrection can be seen as great and dreadful—in the sense that it is mercy for those who believe, and condemnation for those who refuse to accept that mercy—it is not the “day of the Lord” referred to in this scripture.
The second reason comes from John the Baptist himself. In Luke 1:17, it says that John went “before [Jesus] in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” However, when John is asked whether he is Elijah he bluntly replies “I am not” (John 1:21). John recognized that he was not the ultimate fulfillment of Malachi 4:5-6. God sent him as a partial fulfillment, to foreshadow the greater work that He would later do. God is going to raise up an entire generation that walks “in the spirit and power of Elijah.”
I have recently begun to see this truth take root in my own heart. Every Thursday from 6-8pm we have an intercession set at the Prayer Furnace dedicated to praying specifically for justice issues. These issues can range from government, the ending of abortion, same-sex marriage, human trafficking and adoption. Every week, anyone who is willing is encouraged to offer up prayers for any of these issues.
This past Thursday I sat in the chairs reserved for those who want to pray on the mic. I opened my bible to the first chapter of Ephesians and prepared to pray for our president. Juliana, the evening section leader, opened with a prayer for adoption. I decided to pray for orphans to be adopted as well. I opened to Malachi 4:5-6 and walked up to the mic.
Before this point on that night, I hadn’t felt anything unusual concerning orphans or the release of the spirit of Elijah. As I started to pray, something seized my body and I began screaming into the microphone for the release of the Spirit of adoption (Romans 8:15), and for mothers and fathers who walk in the spirit of Elijah. I opened my eyes after praying to see that I had prayed so violently that I had almost fallen off the stage.
The next night was the Burn Service. One of the staff members had been scheduled to help in children’s ministry, but was on vacation with his family. I offered to fill in for him before he left. Before preparing for the children that would come that evening, all of the workers joined together in prayer. After we finished, I felt physically weak because of the burden that was on my heart. On the verge of breaking down into tears, I endeavored to press on and set the room.
A friend of mine recently had a few encounters with the Lord, in which God revealed to him that He will end abortion when the Church adopts all of the children currently in the foster care system. Yesterday I heard that there are over five times as many churches as there are foster children in Virginia. One family in one of every five churches could adopt one child and the entire foster care system would be empty of children in Virginia. Why hasn’t this already happened? (Earlier today I found that statistic: There are currently 10,952 churches in Virginia. There are 1,794 foster care children READY and waiting for someone to adopt them in Virginia. 30% of these kids will never be adopted or have a family. 20% will end up HOMELESS and 25% will become INCARCERATED. What is wrong with this picture?..……. James 1:27? This information comes from the Orphan Justice Center, based out of IHOP in Kansas City, Missouri.)
When looking past the reasons that we use to excuse ourselves, it becomes clear that the reason there are still foster care children in Virginia is because we—as a whole—do not walk in the spirit of Elijah. We need the Spirit of adoption to come and open our eyes to our own sonship, so that we can become fathers and mothers to a generation.
As the Thursday night intercession set was drawing to a close, Aaron—the other evening section leader—called all of the people who felt specifically marked for justice issues to come forward. I felt the Lord speaking to me, so I asked Aaron if I could share. The Lord reminded me of Jeremiah 1:7, where He tells Jeremiah not to use his age as an excuse. He then told me that in order to end abortion, we had to walk in the opposite spirit: adoption. In order to see the end of the massacre of the innocent, we must understand their importance and stop looking at children as a burden.
The incredible thing about the spirit of Elijah is that no one is excluded. Even children can walk in it by turning to their parents and cherishing the ones who come after them. If the Church, as a whole, begins to operate this way, I believe we will see an end to abortion and a revival that will touch the ends of the earth.
