Generation 1973
1973 was my final year of High School. And, as to be expected, I was full of excitement about, well about graduating, and that was pretty much it. Like probably most High Schoolers in their senior year, I was fairly oblivious to the times I was living in, and in so many ways unaware of the significance of the spiritual and political "goings on” of the day. Of course, Watergate coverage was wall-to-wall, and the Cold War was at its peak. But behind the scenes, two very significant sociological “earthquakes” were quietly shaking the landscape. First, political, and almost without any notice, on January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court of the U.S. ruled in the now infamous case of “Roe v Wade” that women had the “Constitutional Right" to abortion, and floodgates were opened for “abortion on demand”. As a result, over 60,000,000 unborn children became the target of an abortion industry that would summarily execute innocent lives in the womb. Secondly, and much more significantly, came the spiritual awakening dubbed “The Jesus Movement”, as well as“The Charismatic Renewal”. Recently, an extremely wise man of God made this observation: “God is never the reactionary in the events of human history; it is exactly the other way around: darkness is always intimidated by the Light, and constantly reacting to what God is and has already done!!”
As mentioned, the release of the Roe v Wade’s “infant killing fields”, was actually preceded (beginning in the lates 60’s going into the mid to late 80’s) by a massive, and what would become, a generational move of God’s Spirit. In drastic contrast to “Roe”, this movement began birthing hundreds of thousands of lives into the technicolor world of the Spirit of God, with the result being a huge wave of new churches, new Christian media (TV and music) and new educational institutions raised up to train the next generation of men and women of God. It is difficult to quantify the impact of this massive move of God which spread around the globe, and in hindsight, all the while, God sat watching, confident that the throng He was birthing would feel the grief of the dark reaction of Satan to destroy a generation. Yes, He was completely confident that His Church would rise to be the prayer warriors for, and voices of salvation toward those trapped and attacked by the schemes of evil. It was during this time that my life was radically and forever changed by a blast of the Holy Spirit which eventually led me to my wife, and my calling in life to write songs and lead worship around the globe. Jump forward to 2022, and in just a few days I will lead worship for a conference focusing on prayer and worship, directed toward the political circumstance of our Nation. For almost 50 years now, the army of God that was so powerfully fortified during that revival of the 60s, 70s and 80s, has lifted songs and prayers of the Saints on behalf of an unborn generation under attack by hell, and now, we celebrate the beginning of victory for many generations of children to come.
The impact of God’s people on human history reveals once again that the dark acts of selfish man can never ever come close to the gracious goodness of the Light of God! As of June 24, 2022, the decision to allow for the federal legal destruction of so many innocent lives in the womb made back in my Senior year of High School, was overturned by a Supreme Court siding with life, and paving the way for our nation to change its laws, state-by-state, to become a revelation of God’s love for all humanity.
Jesus said these words at his execution, “IT IS FINISHED”. Little did the Roman soldiers or the disciples know at the time the prophetic beauty of that statement. 2000 years, and billions of salvations later, we clearly see, from generation to generation……GOD ALWAYS WINS!
* The photo above is of two of my grandkids. The baby had his first birthday yesterday!
