Has the American Church Heard the Cock Crow?

By Janice Bowman
December 2011

Recently, while I was in prayer for our nation, the Lord vividly brought to my mind a story from the scriptures that hurt my heart. He showed me our nation was a nation of people who have promised, as the apostle Peter, to never deny Jesus. Jesus looked at his friend and told him he would deny Him three times before the rooster crowed in the morning. Is the American church looking into the suffering face of Jesus Christ as He is being betrayed by world political and religious systems and hearing, as Peter did, the rooster crow?  Has the church become so engulfed in political and religious systems that she shrinks back in denial of Him for fear of opposition, suffering and pain? Many of us called by His name in this nation today are in the same situation as Peter. The vow was made, but untested. The tests have come and the rooster now crows an indictment against us, calling the church to repentance. Saints, that’s exactly what Peter did. He looked full into the face of the one he had denied and went away to weep bitterly, coming to a deep repentance and remorse over what he had done.

Soon after his repentance, Peter had such a magnificent anointing on him that when folks were touched by his shadow they were healed. In order to obtain the same kind of anointing as Peter, we must walk in the full strength of the sun that caused that shadow. In Peter’s case he not only walked in the full strength of the natural sun but he walked in the full strength of the Son of God. The natural shadow that was cast by the full strength of the sun was only a type of what was inside of the apostle. God is pure light and there is no darkness in Him. Not even a shadow, when made by the shining of His glory on us and in us, has any darkness in it. Prior to that kind of anointing on Peter’s life, he had not been willing to fully identify with the cross of Jesus. Peter loved the Jesus that healed the sick, raised the dead, fed the poor, forgave sinners, and stood up to religious hypocrisy. But when it was time to fully identify with the sufferings of Jesus, three times Peter flatly refused to acknowledge that he even knew Jesus. After the cock crowed, Peter went off to weep bitterly. That weeping and repentance was the key to Peter’s later anointing and ministry after the Holy Spirit was poured out at Pentecost.

Could it be that our lack of anointing and power in the church, even the Pentecostal/Charismatic church, comes because of lack of repentance and failure to fully identify with Jesus? When it comes to fully identifying with the cross of Jesus and being willing to suffer with him, many who claim His name high-tail it and run off to hide. Peter was very ashamed that he had taken the coward’s way out, refusing to put himself in harm’s way. He then became a martyr in many ways, not counting the cost of obedience, and finding it even more a privilege to suffer because of his testimony in the face of great opposition. In that hour, Peter drew from the very same strength that the martyr Stephen drew from after he had delivered a very scathing rebuke to the self- righteous religious hypocrites of his day, including Saul of Tarsus. 

And in our day we will be required by God to do no less in the face of the religious hypocrisy within the church and the secular onslaught from the world around us. The majority of God’s people in this nation refuse to identify with a Jesus they might have to suffer for, avoiding the persecution and refusing to hear the cock crow. But at what price?  The cost of compromising the truth is never a bargain in the long run. The concept of losing our lives to find them has never been farther from American church and culture.

In the church’s history, God has always increased her more when His bride was willing to suffer for His name sake, not hiding like a coward behind a rock trying to save her life. God expects his bride to be a warrior, not a wimp. She must hold the sword of truth at any cost, even the cost of death. We, like Peter, have saved our lives in the face of the real opposition and we have called this our freedom, when in reality it is nothing but betrayal against our Lord and Savior. Our freedom will truly come when we lay down our lives for the sake of the gospel. God still has a portion of His people in this nation that have heard the cock crow and are finding their places to weep and repent. But others are willing to live only part of the truth, the part that will not get them into trouble at their jobs, in the marketplace, and in their churches.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

(Rom 12:1-2)

Saints, this passage of scripture tells us it is our reasonable service to lay down our lives for the sake of the gospel, not our unreasonable service. Who is hearing the cock crow in this nation and repenting, looking back at what they now need to fix by a willingness to go to the cross with their Lord and suffer with him? Have we forgotten He will give us all that we need to endure and overcome should we decide it’s worth it? Or will we ignore the rooster’s crow while the sound of it enters our church doors, condemning our politically correct and religiously accepted ways of life? In this nation we call the land of the free and the home of the brave we find more people in churches seeking to save their lives than willing to lose them for His sake. It is time to stop denying the deeper truths of the gospel in the face of opposition and get rid of our pretty little sermons that don’t convict anyone.  Scores of churches have striven for empty numbers, not people serious about their faith with resolve to walk out the gospel and change the world around them, in spite of the persecution that may come. The three Hebrew children who were destined for the fiery furnace, “whether He delivers us or not”, refused to bow the knee to the world system. It is time to hear, repent, and act as God directs us. It’s not too late to turn the life of our nation around, just as Peter did.