“Everything is Always Going to Get Worse!”

1. “EVERYTHING is ONLY GOING
to GET WORSE!
By Dr. Peter Hammond

3. “EVERYTHING is ONLY GOING
to GET WORSE!
By Dr. Peter Hammond

4. Pessimistic Defeatism
How often do you not come across the pessimistic mentality
evidenced in: “Everything is only going to get worse!”? So many
have succumbed to a spirit of defeatism and escapism.

5. Helplessness and Hopelessness
When a call to action is given, there are always those who
respond with a pessimennialism philosophy of helplessness and
hopelessness.

6. Failure and Frustration
There are those who have given in to an attitude of failure and
frustration. While some fail to see the problem, others claim that
there is no hope!

7. Victimhood Leads to Defeat and Retreat
An attitude of victimhood can only lead to defeat and retreat.

8. Biblical Balance is Needed
However, as Bible-believing Christians, we cannot accept this
perspective.

9. In the daily battles of life, we cannot allow ourselves to give in to
depression, or fatigue. There is always hope. God is Sovereign.

10. Nothing is inevitable except what God has decreed.
There is great power in prayer.
Nothing is beyond the reach of prayer,
except that which is outside of the will of God.

11. A Vision of Victory
Christians are not doomed to defeat. We are called to victory!
If God can change us, then He can use us
to change some part of this world.

12. Christians can change the course of human history
by prayer
and obedience to God.

13. The Bible is full of examples of believers who
“through Faith conquered kingdoms…”
Hebrews 11:33

14. Learn from History
In my own lifetime, I have seen numerous examples of the power
of prayer, regeneration and revival to transform lives and
change history.

15. The power of the Word of God, the power of the printed page, has
brought about some astounding reversals of fortune.

16. Red China
Shortly after I was converted to Christ, early in 1977, a missionary
from Overseas Missionary Fellowship (the old China Inland
Mission) urged us to pray for God to open the doors to Red China.

17. At the time, this seemed impossible. Red China
was a communist country which had annihilated
the Church and banned all foreign missions.

18. Brutal slave labour camps, ongoing harassments and
persecution of Christians, makes it clear that the battle
for the soul of China is still raging.

19. However, in the past, many people questioned if the church had
even survived the Cultural Revolution/Second phase of the
Revolution in Red China. Now we know that there are well over
100 million Christians in Red China.

20. Through Project Pearl, Brother Andrew’s Open Doors ministry,
succeeded in smuggling over a million Bibles into Red China.

22. The Church in China is strong, vibrant and growing.

23. Mozambique
When I first began praying for Marxist Mozambique in 1980, it was
firmly closed to the Gospel.

24. Many of my friends and family
thought that I was foolish to
attempt to enter Marxist
Mozambique on my motorbike,

25. loaded with 1,000 Gospels and 100 New Testaments in
Portuguese and Shangaan and the 16mm Jesus film.

26. Yet, God opened the doors, time and again and we succeeded in
delivering many tonnes of Bibles and relief aid and showing
Christian films throughout that war-torn communist country, which
is now wide open to the Gospel.

27. When we began our work barely 4% of the population of
Mozambique were Protestants. Now over 34% claim to be
Evangelical Christians.

28. Angola
As the persecution of
Christians in Angola
intensified under Marxist
Dictator, Agestino Neto, we
prayed for God to intervene.

29. Shortly after Neto declared that: “Within 20 years there
will not be a Christian, or a Bible left in
Angola! I have destroyed the Bible!” Neto died
in mysterious circumstances on an operating table in Moscow.

30. Our mission alone succeeded in delivering more Bibles into
communist Angola than had even been there when Neto made
that false prophecy that there would not be a Bible left within
Angola.

31. Today, the Church in Angola is flourishing, thriving and growing.

33. The Iron Curtain
When I first saw the Berlin Wall in the 1970’s

34. and smuggled through Checkpoint Charlie in early 1988,
it was symbolic of the Iron Curtain.

35. There were many crosses in memory of those who had been shot
in the back, while fleeing the “socialist utopia” that East Germany
was meant to be.

36. It certainly seemed that nothing could remove the Iron Curtain in
our lifetime, except the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

37. Yet, we took part in the
seven-year Jericho
Prayer March
to focus on bringing down the
Iron Curtain and opening up
Eastern Europe to the Gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ.

38. Incredibly, in 1989,
the seventh year of this
intensive Prayer Focus,
the Berlin Wall fell,
the Iron Curtain collapsed,

39. Dictatorships were toppled and the whole of Eastern Europe and
Russia experienced unprecedented openness to the Gospel of
our Lord Jesus Christ.

40. Romania
When Lenora and I ministered in Romania,
at Easter services in 1989,

41. we experienced the oppression of communism and witnessed the
tyranny of Ceausescu. Along with millions of others, we prayed.

42. Before that momentous year had ended, we saw the dictator
Ceausescu executed, communist symbols smashed and God’s
Word openly proclaimed in the public squares of Romania.

43. Albania
In 1966, Albania had declared itself to be the first fully Atheistic
state in the world.

44. Yet, in answer to fervent prayer, the communist government of
Albania was forced to reopen many churches in 1990.

45. Oppression continued, but tens of thousands packed the few open
churches each week until the communist regime was overthrown.

46. When Rev. Bill Bathman and I drove into Albania,

47. we were inundated with ministry opportunities and met a people
hungry to hear about the God whom they had been forbidden to
even whisper about,

48. for all those decades of communist oppression.

49. Croatia
When I first visited Yugoslavia and heard the people in Croatia
speaking about their need for independence, I was highly
skeptical that it could succeed.

50. Yugoslavia consisted of six Republics, five nations, four
languages, three major religions, two alphabets and calendars,
but only one political party – The Communist Party.

51. Yet, within less than two years, Croatia and Slovenia declared
their independence.

54. Slovakia
When I first travelled to Bratislava in Czechoslovakia, talk of the
Slovakians seceding from Czechoslovakia seemed unrealistic and
impossible.

55. Yet, by God’s grace, an answer to much prayer and action on the
ground, communist rule collapsed in Czechoslovakia in 1989 and
by 1993 the Slovak Republic seceded from the Czech Republic.

56. A New Birth of
Freedom in
Eastern Europe
In the same way, we
have seen Latvia,
Lithuania and Estonia,
the three Baltic states
which were occupied
over the centuries by
Sweden, Poland and
Russia, break free from
the Soviet Union and
become free and
independent Republics.

57. Similarly, Ukraine, Hungary, Bulgaria and Russia itself succeeded
in throwing off the communist yoke and rebuilding thousands of
churches which had been confiscated, damaged, or destroyed
over decades of atheistic oppression by the Soviet Union.

58. Resisting Jihad and Sharia in Sudan
Since 1995, I have been involved in the campaign for South
Sudan’s independence.

59. From 1995 to 2002, I conducted 27 missions to Sudan, delivering
over half a million Bibles and books in 24 languages throughout
South Sudan and the Nuba Mountains.

60. Initially, even the leaders of the Sudanese Peoples Liberation
Army (SPLA) were highly skeptical that the map could ever be
re-drawn, as the African Union had resisted any changes to the
borders delineated in the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885.

61. I argued strenuously with Colonel John Garang, the leader of the
SPLA and Commander Salva Kiir, the second in command of the
SPLA, that only independence for South Sudan could secure their
future and their freedom.

62. Anything else would only mean the continuation of oppression by
the Arab North, as they would be a minority in their own country.
(Although Blacks are a majority in South Sudan, they were a
minority in the whole country of Sudan.)

63. South Sudan
From the very first Day of Independence, 1 January 1956, the
Arab North sought to Arabise and Islamise the South with brutal
oppression, great devastation and massive loss of life.

64. I showed from Sudan’s history and from the teachings of Islam,
why the only way to be free of Sharia law and Arab oppression
was to fight for the full independence and sovereignty of South
Sudan and the Nuba Mountains.

65. Although they were highly skeptical that it was at all possible,
today South Sudan is an independent country and Salva Kiir has
been its president since 9 July 2011.

69. The Nuba
Mountains
We continue to campaign for
freedom and independence for
the Nuba Mountains, an Island
of Christianity in a sea of Islam.
But even here we have seen
astounding developments, an
unprecedented cease fire,
promising prospects for
religious freedom and
independence for the Nuba.

70. “They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome
them because He is the Lord of lords and King of kings – and with
Him will be His called, chosed and faithful followers.”
Revelation 17:14

71. “The Lord will be awesome
to them, for He will reduce
to nothing all the gods of
the earth; people shall
worship Him, each one
from his place, indeed all
the shores of the nations.”
Zephaniah 2:11

72. “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn
to the Lord and all the families of the nations shall
worship before You. For the Kingdom is the Lord’s
and He rules over the nations.”
Psalm 22:27-28

73. “… the earth shall be filled
with the knowledge of the Lord,
as the waters cover the seas” Habakkuk 2:14.

74. “Jesus shall reign
where're the sun
Doth his successive
journey run;
His Kingdom stretch
from shore to shore,
Till moons shall wax
and wane no more”
In the immortal words of
Isaac Watts hymn published
in 1719 (based on Psalm 72):

75. We Need to Be Brave and Bold
The only reason why the devil is so often winning, is that the
church is so seldom fighting!

76. You cannot have victory without a battle.

77. Sacrifice and risk are essential.

78. We can never win if the keep avoiding problems.

79. We must solve problems by facing them
and dealing with them.

80. The future belongs to the brave and to the bold.

81. Do Not Settle for Less
than God’s Very Best
The Bible teaches us to have a holy dissatisfaction with second
best. A bold Faith to trust God for great things.
To step out in Faith and to change what is wrong and to establish
what is right in God’s eyes.

82. We must not under-estimate the power of praying according to
God’s Word and stepping out in Faith and obedience to His
Commands.

83. Christians Have Changed the World
It is this Faith that enabled Christians to end child
sacrifices, cannibalism, blood sports, polygamy,
slavery, widow burning and other atrocities of
heathen religions.

84. As the Apostle Paul declared: “I can do all things
through Christ who strengthens me.”
Philippians 4:13

85. Rise to the Challenge
By Faith and obedience, we can turn stumbling blocks into
stepping stones; crisis situations into opportunities for ministry;
battles into victories.

86. We are “more than conquerors.” Romans 8:37
and “overcomers” 1 John 5:4
through Christ.

87. You Can Make a Difference
We need to resist, redeem, reclaim!
We need to work for Reformation and pray for Revival.
We need to turn the tide.

88. and the campaign for
Independence for
the Cape of Good Hope.

89. “In His days the righteous shall
flourish… He shall have dominion
also from sea to sea and from the
river to the ends of the earth.
Those who dwell in the wilderness will
bow before Him, and His enemies will
lick the dust… Yes, all kings shall fall
down before Him, all nations shall
serve Him…
All nations shall call Him blessed…
let the whole earth be filled with His
glory. Amen and Amen.”
Psalm 72:7-19

90. Dr Peter Hammond
Reformation Society
P.O. Box 74
Newlands, 7725
Cape Town, South Africa
Tel: (021) 689 4480
Fax: (021) 685 5884
Email: info@ReformationSA.org
Website: www.ReformationSA.org

92. www.FrontlineMissionSA.org