Burn it…………
Acts 19:19” Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.”
The word ‘revival’ is not known widely by all Christians, but it is the most talked about word in the Pentecostal circle or the so-called ‘born-again’ believers. The word ‘revival’ is not meant just for a group of people, but it should happen to the whole world. Amen. The word ‘born-again’ is not a name given to a sect but it is to have new life in Christ.
Friend! This message may disturb you! This message may expose your lackadaisical attitude towards God! This message may throw torch on your hidden sins! This message may prick your conscience! This message may touch that anger and violence in you which is cleverly hidden behind that plastic smile! Are you listening? I am writing this message from my prayer room during my day of fasting and prayer! I am anointed! I want some pastors also to read and do a thorough searching of their life and ministry. If we need revival in our church and ministry then we got to be in His Presence; nothing else works. Let me narrate what happened in Ephesus;, the Bible says in Acts 19:1”And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus..” Boy, how blessed is this city Ephesus to have Apostle Paul walk into their town! I am sure the kingdom of hell shivered! Why? Because the devil knew Paul would preach and preach and preach until their eyes opened! Ah! Read on………I will preach this chapter until I drop, no, no, no….until the sins in the life of people drop….
Let me go step by step, if you are in a hurry looking for a ‘promise for the day’ or ‘a blessing scripture on Monday morning’ look for some other website, I am here to save some of you from the clutches of satan. Are you listening? Some of you are with the devil for long, may be even working for him ignorantly; if you are connected with the wrong people then surely you are connected with the devil. Come out! God will take care of you. Are you listening? I know some girls who are living with married men, some of you are into affairs outside marriage, there are some of your hooked on to porn, some of your finances are going downhill……….listen, you don’t need more money, but you need more of God in your life. More of God removes the muck out of your life! Be warned! Don’t procrastinate until you are destroyed; arise now and “rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm..” (Joel 2:13)
When Jesus turned His attention to Jericho and went into that city, He met Zacchaeus who had a spectacular transformation in his life, likewise Paul turned to Ephesus but here we have a whole town being blessed. I am just excited! I feel I am just right there today, inside Ephesus along with Paul involved in that revival. Look what Paul did, on finding some disciples, he first requested them about ‘water baptism’ and baptized them in the name of Jesus Christ. Just a question to each one of you, ‘have you been water baptized?” I am not talking about your infant water baptism, have you repented and taken water baptism? Think! Click WATER BAPTISM to read a full message on it. Then verse 6 says, “And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.” Being filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues are all part of growing in the Lord. Some of you may feel this experience is just for the Pentecostals , no, no….this experience is for all who desire it. And hold on, the Holy Spirit helps you to pray with power and also live with power, other wise we would be like a piece of log, unable to pray for even 10 minutes at a stretch. Ask some Christians if they have the experience of praying for an hour and also fast, sadly many do not have that and they do not crave for it also. All they are interested is for God to bless them and never do they want to be a blessing for God. REVIVAL CHANGES YOUR PRIORITY IN LIFE! Ha ha! You start living for Him and pleasing HIM would become number one priority! Lovely!
Look what happens next in Ephesus!
• Paul went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God.”
• when some of them rejected his teachings, Paul opened Bible study in the school of Tyrannus. And this continued for two years
• all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. Powerful!
Now watch this! So far Paul was preparing the ground in Ephesus for true revival, now God started moving in that place! Glory! Glory! Glory! What happened? God started doing ‘unusual miracles’ through Paul! Observe the word ‘unusual’ here! Never before something like that happened! Even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them. Glory to Jesus! Why did God do this? He wanted to show the world that He is with His Servant! Shout out a hallelujah will you? When you obey and serve with commitment, GOD IS WITH YOU!
This miracles were so awesome and unbelievable that some of the exorcists in that place started using the name of Jesus Christ to drive out demons, they would say, “by the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches." God did not allow His name to be blasphemed, the devils one day looked at them and asked, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?" Friend, the day you become a darling of Jesus, you get into the hit list of the devil. Are you there? As long as you live as a hypocrite, then the devil does not trouble you. I know of a Christian who runs a printing business, his computer loaded with the latest pirated soft ware. He has a big picture of Jesus in his office room and he would walk into his office in the morning and stand right in the centre of his office ( even if customers are there, he does not bother because he is soooooooo holy) he would close his eyes and pray and open the Bible right there standing in the middle of the room and he would read a scripture or two, with that he is satisfied and he would go to his seat. Jesus looked at such people and said: ‘when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men.’(Mathew 6:5) True revival is to smash those pirated soft ware and do business with honesty and integrity. May be you say, ‘but Bala, I don’t have the money to buy such expensive stuff.’ God would show you the way!
Coming back to Ephesus, the devil bounced on the people and tore them apart, who were using the name of Jesus and they fled. This incident and the miracles spread throughout the city and there was a holy fear that gripped that place. I want to say something awesome now, revival started happening in the lives of those people:
• fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.
• And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds.
• many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver.
• In this way the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.
What a revival! I guess people came weeping and sobbing, confessing their sins publicly and burning the unwanted stuff in their life. THIS IS TRUE REVIVAL! Church are you listening? Friends are you listening? The Lord said to Jeremiah: If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them. (Jeremiah 15:19)
Some of you guys have a habit of throwing a few thousands to the preacher if you get a promotion or a new job, then the preacher is forgotten. This is like throwing peanuts to God! Now let me show you a scripture:
Leviticus 6:5-6: 5 “whatever it was they swore falsely about. They must make restitution in full, add a fifth of the value to it and give it all to the owner on the day they present their guilt offering. 6 And as a penalty they must bring to the priest, that is, to the Lord, their guilt offering, a ram from the flock, one without defect and of the proper value.”
Friend, some of you are skeptical in the area of ‘offering’, please note the above scripture very clearly indicates, ‘when you give an offering to the priest, you give it to the Lord.’ Another point is also stressed in the above scripture, if you have cheated or done wrong, you cannot just say a slump ‘sorry’ and be done with it ; you got to make up for the sins done. Do you hear me? This is what exactly Zacchaeus did, he did not say, ‘Lord, I have cheated thus far, hence forth I will not do’, no, no friend, he opened his money box and told Jesus, "Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold." This is true revival! When true revival happens, God comes first when you receive your salary, you would not give to the milk man or pay your dues; you would first separate the tithe and give it to God.
We hear a lot of preaching on ‘how to become prosperous’, don’t we, but very little is preached on what to do with that money. Am I right? Moreover, many do not like to hear on ‘giving to God’, we like the preachers to be poor and walk around without chappals. Let God touch your wallets today! Let us have resurrection in this area and let the money go towards building His Kingdom. I know of a couple, both are professionals and earning good salaries but their life and home is in shambles because both of them do not tithe. Repent friends and release your money to God.
I like the last part of this revival which has a grand, great finale! BURNING THE THINGS OF THE DEVIL! ”Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver .” What does this message mean to you and me?
I was holding an article which I felt was expensive for many years but still felt uncomfortable about it, but still I held on to it. Few weeks back, mark it, just a few weeks back, I threw it into the dustbin. Amen. How expensive it is does not matter, throw away things which is an abomination to the Lord, into the dust bin. Don’t pass it on to people, it is like passing on the curses. Burn it! The more you keep burning sin, the blessings and abundance from God would walk into your life. Amen.
Get married if you are into live-in relationship, walk out of unrighteous business, say ‘no’ to lust, talk clean language, burn unwanted papers, books and whatever may be contrary to the teachings of Christ; this includes secular magazines that hale flirting, drinking and makes you compromise with the world. Are you listening? THIS IS REVIVAL! Revival is not just jumping and dancing for music it is about transformation – inside/out. Glory be to God! Jesus loves you!
