Why God Sends Revival

Why Revival?

There are many voices clamouring for revival today, including mine. There are millions of prayers being raised begging the Lord to send revival. Yet I wonder how many reckon with and are ready to pay the cost of revival. I wonder too how many realise the purpose behind revival? What is God’s intention when He sends revival?

One of the first thing most people think of in revival terms are the numbers of souls saved – new salvations to boost the numbers of those with their name written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. That’s not the purpose of revival.

Many think of the shredded plans and schedules of the church; the messiness of everything; the re-aligning of the church with the will of God? That’s not the purpose of revival.

What about all the healings and the demons cast out during revival? No – it’s not that either. All the preaching and ministering, healing, deliverance in the world is simply an affirmation of Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 “And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.  For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.  I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling,  and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,  so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.” Even the fulfillment of the Great Commission is not the purpose of revival.

The purpose of revival, in my opinion, is the restoration of order and honour to God’s Name and to God’s Kingdom. It is the re-establishment in people’s hearts and minds of exactly who God is; how much He really loves us; and how much He has done for us. It is a benefit of revival that so many people turn to God for their salvation. It is a benefit that so many miracles of healing and deliverance occur.

Revival is rather like a gas tap that has been turned on but not ignited. God is simply waiting for hearts that are desperate enough to do anything for revival. When His timing is right and the place is right, God will ignite the gas, and there will be an extraordinary explosion of three things – love,  power,  and holiness. God’s love will be poured out on every person anywhere close to wherever revival is happening. God’s power, the Power of the Holy Spirit will be equally poured out in healings, deliverance, and salvations. There will be a new holiness – right living by God’s standards – that fills the church and attracts even more people to the kingdom. Honour will be restored to God’s holy name and we will take a step nearer to establishing “Your will be done, here on earth, as it is in heaven”.

It is an important side effect that besides restoring honour to God’s Name and Kingdom, the church will be revived, reinvigorated, and made more holy. Thousands will be swept into the kingdom and thousands more will be healed, delivered, and set free. Yet the purpose remains to restore Honour to God’s Holy Name and to His Kingdom.

Here, again, is a word I had recently about the coming ‘end time revival’.

I Felt I was dancing with angels the other morning in church !!!  The question was not why was I doing this? but why were the angels dancing?

I Felt the Lord say that the angels were dancing because they are excited. The time is coming near.

It's time for Repentance
It's time for Refreshing
It's time for Renewal
It's time for Revival

It’s time for folk to take their head out of the sand and believe the promises of God.  God is preparing His Son to collect His Bride.

Yes - revival has begun/is beginning - slowly – but the tsunami, the extraordinary wave of God’s power and love, is on its way and Jesus is coming soon. Time is short.

It's time to love the people, love the people again, and then love them some more. Only by showing and demonstrating God's love with Holy Spirit power can we bring them closer to the Kingdom of God.

Thorns in our Flesh?

Thorns in our Flesh?

I have come across mighty men and women of God who seem to have permanent afflictions of one kind or another. This word started to come to me recently during service. I felt the Lord saying to the speaker that “No attack will slow you or stop you. Whenever you stand to speak or sing in My Name, so I will fill you with boundless supernatural energy and clarity.” When I asked further about whether this attack will go away at all i.e. is this their personal ‘thorn in the flesh’? I felt the Lord say, “It will only go away when they accept and receive My healing.”  It seems almost as though they have taken ownership of it – “I have this problem” rather than “I am under further attack from this problem.”  I asked if this was new and for now, and I felt He told me that “it has always been so because they have a hard time accepting My healing for themselves.”

I find it easy to bring healing to others yet I feel it almost impossible to believe that the same healing is available for me too. I find it so easy to accept God’s word for others, but I still find it difficult to accept His words for me. I am fine with prophecy – I have seen too much of it come true for myself. But healing is another story.  I have spoken healing over hundreds of people. I have witnessed the most incredible miracles of healing. Yet when it comes to me, I find it oh so hard.

Why can this be so?

“I am the healer not the healed?” No I don’t believe that at all. I may bring the healing but it is God who does it all – not me. Man oh man, it took me six months to receive my baptism in the Holy Spirit after I was prayed for. It takes me an equally long time to accept that God wants to do anything for me!

Why – because I probably have an impoverished view of myself. So do you! We do not consider ourselves worthy to receive God’s mercy and healing – and we are not worthy. BUT, in His great mercy and grace He extends the hands of love and mercy to us. If we can believe He does this for complete strangers who don’t necessarily even know Him, why would He withhold it from us? He loves all of us exactly the same and His healing is for ALL of us – if we will believe Him and accept His Word. God is our healer. By His stripes we are healed. He forgives all our sins and heals all our diseases.

ALL of us. “Lord I believe, Help thou mine unbelief.” Amen?

Judging

Judging

"This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God." 1 Corinthians 4:1-5

Why do we think that so many pastors and leaders are being exposed in their sins? This passage tells us very simply why this is happening. It is another sign of the times. God is cleaning up His Church; His Bride.

Pastors and leaders beware – according to this scripture you are “entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed.” You are also told that the Lord Himself “will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart.” When the judgement comes the Lord will judge the church first – and first of the first, He will judge the shepherds.

When God exposes sin in His church, it is not only to shame those in the wrong but also for them to repent and be brought back into right ways again. Importantly, it is NOT a place of judgement for us to condemn – it is a place only for us to forgive even as God forgives. After all, “there but for God’s grace go you and I.”

What's in a Name

Linda by any other name

All my life I have been living next to, or related to, or married to – you guessed it, Linda. As a fairly popular girls name, the name might be derived from the same root as the linden tree, from Germanic lind meaning "soft, tender" ultimately from a Celtic root. The image of the tree is used to indicate a gentle personality. It may also come from the neo Latin language (Italian, Spanish or Portuguese) word linda, which is the feminine form of lindo, meaning "beautiful, pretty, cute" or "cleaned" (Spanish). Be that as it may, it is a name that has been ever present in my life since about 1943 – the year I was born.

For a start, my cousin was Linda. Next came the girl next door – another Linda. We had a gate between our gardens and we were very close childhood friends but never anything more. I don’t know why – it just never happened. It was Linda-next-door who was responsible for me going to church and becoming a Christian – but that’s another story. These two managed to stay with me for about 20 years until they were joined by another Linda in the person of my sister-in-law. You would think this was enough but, just to show that God has a sense of humour, he took Linda-next-door to Australia. She was followed in quite short order by cousin Linda who also went to Australia. I was down to just one Linda – almost derelict in my duties to maintain a certain quorum of Linda’s in my life.

This is when I met my wife of nearly 36 years - another Linda of course. In the course of several jobs and several homes, we nearly always had another Linda living next door to us and at one time had one either side of us. We went to visit cousin Linda in Australia. Sadly I had by this time lost contact with Linda-next-door but cousin Linda had been in Australia for over 30 years and we were their first ever visitors from back ‘home’ – still are 12 years on. That’s sad but they have four kids and about 3 million grandkids so I guess they are happy. We still speak three or four times a year.

Then my wife of 36 years contracted cancer and died. I was expecting it but it was still a shock, especially to our boys and new grandson (plus one on the way). There was a four year gap in my life which could only be filled by one thing. So the Lord fixed for me to meet – another Linda. Caused problems with the family but couldn’t help that. This Linda, now my wife, lived in Texas while I lived in England. God has a great sense of both timing and humour. He brought us together via the internet – Twitter – and we knew very quickly we were right for each other.

And so my Linda deficit was balanced once again. We now live miles away from London in the Midlands of England. The Lord brought us up here, found us a home and a wonderful church with many new friends. Best of all there are no other Linda’s around so I reckon I have found my Linda soul mate and we intend to stay here. Best of all we can pray and minister together in and for our church.

Life is great and God is just so good – isn’t He?

What is the Purpose?

Everything God asks us to do, and everything we do for God has a purpose. At least one purpose, and maybe two.  God’s purpose and sometimes our purpose too. The two purposes will almost never be the same.

So what is God’s purpose in sending His Holy Spirit to us? Scripture tells us there are several roles for Him to play – counsellor, teacher, guide, friend, and so on. Yet His primary role is what – to make us more like Jesus? Or to prepare the Bride of Christ for the marriage of the Lamb? I’m not even going to try to answer that one because I don’t really know.

So what about the spiritual gifts He brings to the table for us? Also, what about the Baptism of the Holy Spirit? “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” Matthew 3:11. So what is the purpose of this baptism with the Holy Spirit and with fire? Surely it is for the purpose of bringing God’s power into our everyday lives.

Yet, every day, some good and well meaning folk assign any such manifestation of spiritual gifts to the “demonic” corner and demand the perpetrators sit on the spiritual “naughty step”. If we can accuse fellow Christians of being apostate over the version of the Bible they use, what possible “crime” can be levelled at those who promulgate Holy Spirit and His gifts?  Satanic cultists??

Oh how much we must grieve Holy Spirit at times.