God's Answer to the Growing Crisis: A Bold Call to Action in the End Times

by Mike Bickle

The dramatic shifts seen over the last few years—from economic to political to moral to beyond—have set the stage for a crisis that will affect every sphere of society. But this crisis isn’t just looming in the United States; all of humanity is at a crossroads like never before.   Mike Bickle, director of the International House of Prayer of Kansas City, offers God’s definitive answer to this approaching global crisis. He provides a fresh biblical perspective agenda to secularize and de-Christianize AmericaWhat the upsurge of secular humanism looks likeThe rise of ISIS and Islamic extremistsThe looming financial crisis  Readers will overcome fear and confusion in the last days and learn to pray effectively for this nation and the world.

260 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 6, 2016

About the author

Mike Bickle is the director of the International House of Prayer Missions Base of Kansas City, an evangelical missions organization based on 24/7 prayer with worship that is engaged in many evangelistic and inner city outreaches along with multiple justice initiatives, planting houses of prayer, and training missionaries.

The International House of Prayer has continued in non-stop prayer led by worship teams since September 19,1999, and is committed to combining 24/7 prayers for justice with 24/7 works of justice. Around 1,500 people (staff members, students, interns) serve full-time on the missions base, investing fifty hours per week in the prayer room, classroom, and ministry outreaches. Mike is also the founder of the International House of Prayer University which includes a full-time Bible school, music school, and media school.

Reviews

[Alice Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book for these times, Mike clearly addresses the times we are in, using Psalm 2 as an example to show the reader the crisis that we are in. He addresses well why we are in a crisis, what God's response is and what we can do.
Not all will share Mike's veiws on the gifts of the spirit (he passionately believes in their relevance for today, and talks about an Acts 2 like outpouring), but I would encourage readers to read this book with an open mind as there is much gold in it .
I don't know if I'm qouting this perfectly but I love it when he talks about "A Psalm 2 situation requires a Joel 2 response resulting in an Acts 2 outpouring

[Frank Sarabia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love what he has to say about Psalm 2. Great read.

[William Struse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Combating an Age Old Lie -

The definition of a CRISIS is “a time of intense difficulty, trouble, or danger” often including a “time when a difficult or important decision must be made.” Today for those of a Biblical world view we are indeed in such a period of time. It clear that the western world has nearly severed itself from a Judeo-Christian world view, resulting in an ever increasing decent into moral relativism and its resulting societal evils.

Acknowledging this fact is one thing but combating this devastating cultural tsunami from the proper Biblical perspective is the challenge of our day. Into this context Mike Bickle’s new book: God’s Answer to The Growing Crisis: A Bold Call to Action in the End Times is a desperately needed playbook for the believer who is unwilling to stand idly by while their family and communities are corrupted by an age old lie.

Today there many books written about the problems in our world and how to combat them but far too often root cause is never addressed. In this book Mr. Bickle identifies the cause at the outset. In the introduction to this book he observes:

“This, in a nutshell, is what is now called secular humanism,… which elevates humans above God by saying that reason and rationality trump the divine or supernatural. Yet during the Age of Enlightenment these and other thought leaders still wrote with the backdrop of Christian society.

That is no longer the case today, Western postmodernism segued first into a post-Christian era and more recently into full-fledged secular humanism. If you look around, you can see evidence of secular humanism in virtually every facet of our modern culture.”

Although not specifically addressed above, I believe is important to acknowledge that by this statement Mr. Bickel has identified an age old lie first mentioned in the opening pages of the Bible. You see Satan hasn’t changed his tactics or his religion. Secular humanistic enlightenment comes from Satan’s first interaction with Adam and Eve. There in the garden he questioned YHWH’s divine word and enticed the first man and women with the promise of secular humanism. He promised that if they would but eat of the tree of “knowledge” of good and evil they would become Gods by their own efforts.

Since that day long ago those who hold this “enlightened” philosophy have often represented their beliefs with the open eye or a point within a circle. For those skeptics out there this story of enlightenment offered by the serpent is even witness in the New Testament. Just take a look at the Greek roots for the words serpent (ophis) and eye (ophthalmos). Both words come from the same Greek root (optanomai) which means “to look at or behold”.

So you see enlightenment, evolution, secular humanism are all terms for a philosophy espoused long ago by Satan which tells us that we can become our own Gods outside the constrains imposed by our Creator.

So within this context using one of the most famous passage of the Bible, Mr. Bickle enjoins his readers to challenge this ancient religious belief of secular humanism with it’s Biblical antidote. To better understanding this ancient battle and the how YHWH the living God of the Bible intends deal with it as this age draws to a close, Mr. Bickle uses Psalm 2 as a template. The book is divided into three parts:

Part I: The Crisis
Part II: The Response
Part III: The Call

Part III of the book was especially helpful and inspiring to me. Here Mr. Bickle made a compelling case that now is not the time to passively accept the cultural decay which is engulfing our world. But rather to resist it in a Biblical mandated manner. This was definitely a book written for age in which we live.

[Greg Del Mar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author Mike Bickle is writing a book about the End Times here. It's about the current state of affairs, and how he sees things playing out leading up to later events. He uses Psalm 2 as his guide, long seen as a prophetic passage in the Bible. He goes verse by verse, and discusses how each relates to current events, and fleshes out the wording and meaning of each passage and how it could relate to today.

Bickle sees a world that is increasingly hostile to Christianity, and sees that hostility eventually ramping up in the United States as well. He calls us to reject the "easy Christianity" that is proclaimed from American pulpits, and to reassess our commitment to Christ- to prepare ourselves to stand in hard times of persecution and suffering. He offers a balance of Grace and Truth, of God's love and also his judgment. He sees the Church as being strengthened through persecution, and calls for those who will commit themselves to be "John the Baptists" for this generation, to prepare the way for what God will do. His is also a call to prayer. Bickle has much information at his disposal, and uses revealing stories and anecdotes to flesh out his points and drive them home.

There is some great stuff here, and I commend Bickle for not taking the easier paths that are so tempting- either sensationalizing God's judgement and creating panic or sweeping God's wrath under the carpet in a wave of feel-good "Jesus only gives hugs" hogwash. The only caveat that I have with the book is that it was lengthy- I found myself skimming over lots of paragraphs that I felt were overly explained, needlessly simplified, or just plain wordy. As a result, I'm giving the book 4 stars instead of 5.

Having said that, I'm still thinking about a lot of the stuff in the book, and feel called to action myself as a result, and that's a good endorsement for any book. I say buy it, but don't feel guilty skimming at times- there are some great nuggets throughout.

**I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, from NetGalley. Thank you to Charisma House as well for your generosity**

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are bothered by all you seeing going on around you in this world, this is a must read.
Mike talks about everything that is wrong with our world. But I will say after hearing about what is going on in some other countries I see we aren’t as bad as I thought. However, we are headed in the same direction, unfortunately.
This book will open your eyes to the slippery slope America is on.
This book does offer hope as well. We as believers, need to step up and speak out for what we know is right. I do believe that has happened recently, but I think it needs to happen more and more.
Mike focuses on Psalm 2 and how that is a prophetic passage into what is going and what will happen in our world.
If you want a book to challenge your thinking and open your eyes I highly recommend this one.

A copy of this book was given to me thought Netgalley.com. All opinions are my own.

[Tadeo · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book has changed how I think and look at the signs of the great day of the Lord. thank you Mike Bickle for opening our eyes as a watchman should to what God is doing. The stage is been set for the Psalms 2 drama