In his book, The Days of His Presence, Francis Fragipane has a thought provoking section on the nature of times and seasons in the Bible. This particular section discusses the kind of period that the Greeks referred to as a kairos. According to Frangipane, this kind of season followed long, flat periods of history where very little changed in the world but suddenly the world was overtaken by incredible shifts and transformations in nations, knowledge, and faith which often included sweeping religious reforms and spiritual activity.
For instance, between Malachi and Matthew, there were approximately three hundred years of silence when little or no revelation occurred in Israel. But suddenly the coming of Messiah that had been foretold since the Days of Adam swept in and the power of God rocked the world of those who witnessed it. Paul tells us that in the “fullness of time (kairos) God sent forth his Son.” The idea of a “fullness of time” suggests that God had been storing up events to be released on the earth that would alter the course of nations and individuals.
Kairos seasons do not always happen in days or weeks or even months. Sometimes they happen over a period of years or decades. But relative to history, these events seem to catch us off guard and explode onto the scene. Noah preached for 120 years while God was putting everything in place to release a cataclysmic kairos when in the fullness of time he released the flood. For those who had not heard God, it seemed to come out of nowhere. Israel was in Egypt for 450 years while God arranged the chessboard so that in the fullness of time Moses would arise, plagues would be released, and a nation of over a million people would walk into the wilderness. After that, world empires would arise, seem invulnerable for centuries, and then suddenly fall in a matter of hours or days as God had shown his prophets.
These kairos moments are orchestrated by God for centuries while he puts every piece in place until the fullness of time. When that time comes, the changes are so sweeping and so universal that it seems that the whole world has tipped off its axis. God often speaks of “shaking the world” or “shaking a nation.” That is the feeling when kairos is released. To those in the center of the storm, everything feels like chaos, but to the director of the storm everything is being realigned for his purposes. Those who are closest to the Lord in such times can fall asleep in the boat even while water is breaking over the bow.
Frangipane makes the case that we have been in a kairos season for a century. Technology and knowledge has exploded across the globe. Two world wars have come and gone. The nuclear age has been ushered in and great nations have risen and fallen – some seemingly overnight like the USSR. The Holy Spirit has always given revelation to man and manifested in miracles but now the church is moving in evangelism, healing, miracles, and revelation in ways not seen since the book of Acts.
This is consistent with biblical history. In each kairos, God revealed himself in new ways and manifested his power through his people. The enemy too rose up in unprecedented ways in response. Of course, God always wins but during these kairos events spiritual activity seems to ramp up exponentially as it did in the gospels.
As you view the activity of God around the globe, we see millions of Chinese coming to faith in an avowed atheist nation. Million have come to faith in Africa in the past few decades. Korean churches are bursting at the seams. Every mission report or campaign outlines miracles from radical conversions to radical healings (including raising people from the dead), along with miracles of protection and provision, dreams and visions, and thousands coming to Jesus in a day.
Of course, the cynical among us can reject the reports and videos and write it all off as demonic deception or emotionalism. But the same believers will proclaim that we are certainly in the last days. If we are finally coming to the end of the last days, then this is certainly a kairos and God is moving in the fullness of time. In those seasons God had always moved in power and done epic things through his people.
I believe today is no different. I have personally seen the healings, deliverance, radical conversions, and miracles of provision and protection. I have been told on numerous occasions by trustworthy people who have been eyewitnesses to Jesus appearing to Muslims and entire families renouncing Islam and coming to faith. I have heard from trustworthy people who have seen with their own eyes the dead being raised in the name of Jesus and entire villages coming to faith as a result. All of this sounds amazing and almost beyond belief but did it not happen in the book of Acts in the fullness of time? Why must we doubt that God would use the miraculous power of heaven to bring in a great harvest now at the end of this season?
If you have been taught to reject or doubt the gifts of the Spirit and the power of God, I hope you will not sit cynically on the sideline while God is inviting you to play in the greatest game ever played. If you can’t bring yourself to trust believers who talk about such things, then honestly ask God to show you his power if he is indeed manifesting in such ways today. But when you see it, don’t return to the bench. Get in the game with all your heart.
Think about it, in these kairos moments, doctrines and orthodoxy never won the day. They were important and faithfulness and truth were keys to God moving on behalf of his people. But power won the day. Pharaoh did not surrender to doctrine but to manifest power. The Torah never convinced Nebuchadnezzar, but three men emerging from a fiery furnace and another walking out of a lion’s den convinced him that there was one God. Even Jesus said, “If you don’t believe me, believe the works I do.” This is a time, a kairos, when we must not be suspicious of the move of God but embrace it because the miracles themselves reveal God to us and to those who need him desperately. Remember, to reject what God is doing, is, in part, to reject him.
