Dr. Norman Shepherd asserts that, "One of the most insidious weapons which Satan has been able to wield against the advancement of the Kingdom of God is the inculcation of the belief that though the Kingdom must be proclaimed throughout the world, the church really cannot expect that such proclamation will meet with any significant degree of success. One prominent writer in the field of international missions has given expression to the commonly held expectation in this way: “The New Testament clearly predicts that in spite of great victories of the Gospel amongst all nations the resistance of Satan will continue. Towards the end it will even increase so much that Satan, incarnated in the human person of Antichrist, will assume once more an almost total control over disobedient mankind (II Thess. 2:3-12; Rev. 13).”

Shepherd characterizes the pessimistic defeatism on the part of so many Christians today as a “confession of anti-faith in anti-Christ.”He says, rather, that “when we seek to disciple men to Jesus Christ, we are not asking them to join the battle on the losing side. The strategy we develop for the battle, our missionary policy, should not be formulated in terms of short-range goals ... [but in terms of] ... sound long-range planning for victory! Such planning gives the church the freedom it needs time-wise to lay solid foundations for the up-building of the kingdom without being deflected from its goal by short-lived ups and downs. Christ is no pessimist! We dare not be pessimistic either."

Dennis Peacocke said, "We're the only team I've ever played on that preaches a victorious Christ and roots for the opposition (the anti-Christ) to win so that we can get off the field!  After all, 'The quicker they fry, the quicker we fly!'"

We have lost our former biblical faith and optimism. We have more faith in the power of lies to keep the unbeliever from Christ than we do in the gospel of God, empowered by the Holy Spirit, flowing through the proclamation of it through believers, to bring masses of them to saving faith in Christ.

We disbelief the word of Christ who declared in   John 16:7: "Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you."We believe that the popular teaching about Jesus sitting on an earthly throne in a Third Temple in Jerusalem during a millennial period is better than his sitting enthroned in heaven and in the hearts of his people at the present. We believe that his physical presence in the future will be better and have a more powerful effect than the Holy Spirit living in tens of millions of temples not made with human hands today, i.e. the bodies of regenerate believers ( 1 Cors. 3:16; 6:19). We believe that Jesus standing beside us in his glorified body is better than his residing in and being released through us in the Holy Spirit who is the Other Jesus without a body.

Who's right, your anti-faith in the corruption of the human heart and the power of the devil to continue to rebel and resist the will of God, or biblical faith in the word of Jesus who declared that his absence in person and presence in the Holy Spirit was the greatest advantage and all that's needed to see his kingdom come more fully and the fame of his name spread most extensively? 

We have lost the eschatology that was the foundation of the great missionary movements of the past. Consequently, we have given up our former vision for Christ’s Lordship over men and nations. We have given in to the dismal projections of the humanistic media and accepted too many of their conclusions as truth. And we have given over our former biblical vision of the worldwide victory of his Kingdom into the deadening grip of a false eschatology of pessimism and defeat.

Kingdom Announcements

• John the Baptist announced the advent of the Kingdom in Matthew 3:2.
• In Mark 1:14-15, right after His baptism, Jesus preached, “The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom is here!”
• Matthew 12:28 reveals that the Kingdom comes in every situation that the enemy is conquered.
• Mark 9:1 states that the Kingdom came in power in the lifetime of Christ’s disciples.
• John 4:21-23 speaks of worship being extended everywhere outside the walls of Jerusalem.
• Matthew 21:33 and following, as well as Matthew 23:31 and following speak of the shaking of the Kingdom of Israel resulting in the saints possessing the Kingdom.
• Matthew 28:18-20 is the Great Commission in which Jesus says that all authority is given to Him and thus worldwide evangelism will become a result of it. Christ has all authority and that means every realm of authority that humans can think of and more. The Great Commission breathes Gospel victory.
• Matthew 12:26-29 states that Satan has been bound and Christ is plundering his kingdom.
• John 12:31 states that the god of this world (Satan) has been cast out.
• Colossians 2:15 states that Satan has been publicly disgraced and God has triumphed over him.
• Hebrews 2:14 and 1 John 3:8 state that Satan and his works are being destroyed by the power of the cross.
• 1 John 4:3-4 says that the presence of God in Christians is far more powerful than Satan.
• John 16:33 says that Christ has overcome the world.
• Ephesians 1:19-21, Philippians 2:10, and Romans 14:11 say that Christ has received a name that is above all names.
• Romans 1:3-4 says that Jesus is the Son of God with power as a result of His resurrection.
• Revelation 1:5 says that Jesus is the Ruler over the kings of the earth.

It's time to repent of our antifaith in a coming antichrist and confess in faith the power of Christ in you and me to bring in a harvest that will be as the sand of the sea in number and change culture from the local house to the Whitehouse! We need to get off of our heels in despair and feelings of being on the losing side of history and get on our tiptoes in Kingdom Expectations and confess by faith that:

We expect the name of God to be honored more gloriously, the kingdom of God to come more fully, and the will of God to be done more freely!

We expect God to arise through His empowered people and His enemies to be scattered and made His footstool! We expect the God of peace to bruise Satan under our feet shortly!

We expect the gospel to freely and powerfully spread through His Church so that disciples are made of all nations!

We expect to win for the Lamb the reward of His sufferings!

We expect that the gospel must blossom with a crown equal with the person of the Crucified, and the bitterness of His agony on the Cross!

We expect to fulfill our calling as individuals and families and churches and civil governments, taking godly dominion in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

We expect that everything God has promised to be for us in Jesus, he has been, is being, and will be!

We desire to live with great expectations in a Great God; we are pregnant with expectation;on the watch and open-eyed, open-mouthed, in wide-eyed anticipation; on the tiptoe of expectation, believing that the prospects of our future are as bright as the promises of God!