Plucking the Eagle's Wings

Plucking the Eagle's Wings

the concrete with picks and hammers. Jews once held against their will in the Soviet Union crowded into planes as they were set free from seventy years of captivity. Suddenly, western missionaries were overwhelmed by invitations to minister to overflow crowds in the Soviet block nations. I personally ministered in Romania and Bulgaria shortly after the doors were opened to the Gospel. In several places, there were undercover secret police that followed our movement but, generally, we preached in open air crusades, small buildings, and former Communist halls without fear or opposition. Journalists were free to come, listen, and report our messages in the paper. I must confess I never dreamed in my lifetime that this type of freedom would ever transpire. Hudson Taylor's prophecy from 1855 concerning an all-encompassing spiritual awakening is coming to pass. Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev's destinies were both prophesied before their rise to power (1930 and 1970). Reagan and the Pope both understood the importance of Bible prophecy. An internationally known prophetic minister once shared with me that he spoke with Reagan on several occasions about Bible prophecy and how events during Reagan's administration would impact Scripture. Some skeptics would claim that these men were trying to make Bible prophecy come to pass. I would reply that it is impossible to make something happen unless it is the prophetic time for the event to transpire. When Charlemagne attempted to reform the Roman Empire, he failed. So did Napoleon and Hitler. But the present day Common Market completes a picture of a unified Europe in the area of the old Roman Empire that was described in prophecy. God simply places the right men in the right places at the right season. This only reinforces the verse that says, "God changes the times and the seasons: He removes kings and sets up kings" (Daniel 2:21). When the moment came for Israel to be restored as a nation, the right people were in place. A man named David Ben Gurion made the announcement from Tel Aviv. Ben Gurion was a believer in the Bible. The nation was called Israel, not Palestine, because the Bible prophets used the name Israel. Scholars turned to Isaiah 66:8 and read, "Shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children." God can even use men who are unbelievers to fulfill His purpose. Consider the fact that two dreams in the Bible that foretold future events 146