ARE WE IN REVIVAL?
33. What Does Bible Revival Look Like ?
In the 600's BC, in a day when Babylon threatened to devour the once godly kingdom of Judah and the labors of the Patriarchs, the Conquerors, the Kings and Priests of many hundreds of years, Habakkuk the prophet cries out to God, "Revive Your work in the midst of the years!" Don't let us die, God, have mercy! We are your people after all. Soon after, Judah was indeed swallowed up by its enemies, but not forgotten. Habakkuk went on in that third chapter to describe a time of revival indeed, as the Lord comes and judges the nations one day and sets up His eternal Kingdom. That prayer was answered.
God's people have been praying that prayer in every century since that time.
In fact, one hundred years earlier than Habakkuk, Isaiah saw a land in the northern parts of what we call Israel today, a land called Galilee of the Gentiles, the tribal areas of Zebulun and Naphtali. When he first sees it, it is a place of darkness, gloom, anguish. And then suddenly a place of great light. For unto them, and unto us, a Child was given. And the government will one day be on his shoulder, and his name will be called wonderful, counselor, mighty God. It was Jesus who brought revival to Galilee. And He brings it still.
Look at that land-Galilee- in the first century of this present age, and see what revival looks like. A man whose little boy is sick, but sick no more. A blind man staggers down the street one day, and swaggers the next, as the man from Galilee brings light and life. A woman who deserves to die for her sin of adultery is placed next to a group of the elders of Israel who also deserve to die in their sin. And none of them die. They are all given a chance to live and be revived by the great revivalist, Jesus of Nazareth. The deaf hear. The crippled walk straight. The diseased are delivered. Good news is given to broken-hearted poverty-stricken hopeless men and women and children. That's what revival looks like.
But the revival is interrupted. More darkness. More death. More desperation. The one who brought the revival is accused of blasphemy. He claims to be God. And who else but God is able to bring revival like this? They were right. Guilty as charged. And they very wrong too. They kill him. And desperation sets in again. Once more Galilee and Judea and Samaria, and the world, is a place of darkness and gloom and anguish. For One day. Two Days.
Then on the Third Day, the revival to end all revivals, or rather to begin them! The revivalist is revived. The disciples are revived when they see the work. Great joy. Great life. But wait. A pause, some instructions. Go to Jerusalem, pray, praise, wait. One final revival will come to the planet, and you will be the administrators of it. After you are revived, go into all the world and do what I did. Including die if you must, but there will always be someone to pick up the message and pass it on. Now Go.
They went. They waited. They praised. For several long days they waited, fulfilling the Old Covenant mandate for a week of weeks to pass from Passover. Their Lamb had been slain. Now it was time for the harvest, the day of festivity and rejoicing when the Levite, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow were to be brought in to celebrate the goodness of the God of Israel. True to form, our God made this Feast of Pentecost such a time of rejoicing that we have been rejoicing ever since. If you want to know what this revival looked like, read the Book of Acts. Demons dealt with, sicknesses stopped, the dead raised, and above all, sins forgiven, men and women and children united to God forever. Repentance from dead works, immersion into water and Spirit. That's revival. That's what it looked like in the Bible. But, the revival has broken out, returned, manifested, many times since those days. In another article I will share of what revival looks like in history.
34. What Does Historic Revival Look Like?
The great Revival began on the Day of Pentecost. God's Spirit produced God's message of repentance and God's manifestations of His glory. That revival has continued from that day to this in one measure or another, somewhere on the planet. I pray that it will come to my church, and yours.
Some of the occurrences of the fire of God have been so phenomenal as to make church history. I have written here before of the great Pyongyang revival that took place over 100 years ago in what is now the capital of the most brutally repressive regime on earth. It was a movement begun in repentance, through a Methodist medical missionary. It was characterized by confession of sins, long sessions of prayer, and the receiving of the Holy Ghost in such flaming passion as to empty out prisons.
The Revival broke out also in Wales during this same time period, the early years of the 20th century. Ministerial candidate Evan Roberts is the man most usually associated with this outpouring, but he was certainly not the only one used.
The inauspicious beginning of Roberts' ministry was a message shared with a youth group. He had recently had a baptism of the Spirit of God, though he was by no means a newcomer to the things of the Lord. During this renewal time he felt he must share the thoughts that poured into his soul with the folks at his home church.
The essence of his message: confession of sin, abandon anything even "doubtful" in your life, be ready to obey the Spirit instantly, confess Christ publicly. The response was not overwhelming. But some of those who did respond, a team of 5 girl singers, were taken by Roberts on a tour of South Wales. Within a year, 10,000 converts were added to the Welsh church.
That's what revival looks like. People repenting. People praying. The fire in a man's soul to speak the Word of God. More people repenting because of that fire. And quite often, miraculous manifestations to accompany and confirm the Word. Signs that follow, not lead the operations of the Spirit, which are first and foremost geared to saving people from their sins, and calling out a people for His name.
In America, following the Great Awakening, came the revival that is perhaps the grand-daddy of all Western revivals, the events that took place at Cane Ridge, in Kentucky. You can still go to the Log Cabin meeting place of Barton Stone and the rest, and view the grounds where the fire fell. Unfortunately, the meetings that take place there now are quite a bit calmer. No stories are coming out of gut-wrenching conviction, multiple thousands of penetrated hearts, and all the rest. But eyewitnesses were there at the beginning, and wrote their observations. There is no question that the Cane Ridge revival was a mighty move of God.
The happenings at Cane Ridge pre-date Pyongyang and Wales by 100 years. Though Barton Stone and a few others figure prominently, there seems to have been a general stirring of the waters in those days, as old denominational staleness was about to yield to the new wine. The Presbyterian Church in particular would never be the same. The Christian churches and churches of Christ would be formed out of the demise of denominationalism, and on the negative side, the ground would be prepared for the evil of the Shaker movement.
The catalyst for the opening salvos of the Spirit was a need for churches to come together for Communion. Only "licensed" persons could administer the sacraments, and these folks were few and far between. So at certain intervals, the churches would come together to experience the Lord's Supper.
As the Spirit began to bring conviction to men's hearts, and as the free grace of Christ was lifted up in contradistinction to the damning Calvinism that was being preached in that day, something happened. The spark kindled a fire that eventually brought tens of thousands of men and women, saved and lost, trekking to the hills outside Paris, Kentucky. They stayed for days. They could not get enough of this new life. Only when the food ran out did people start heading home.
These Presbyterian communion services began to look more like Methodist camp meetings. Fiery preaching, from as many as ten locations at the same time. Men so convicted that they passed out under the power of God. Dancing and singing that was called Heavenly by men advanced in the faith. No one had ever seen such manifestations, even among the Methodists.
Immediately the Pharisaic type began to criticize this new liberty, as they have always done and always will do, because such antics are outside their experience. Some preached a heavier Calvinism than ever to be sure they did not lose members. The losses mounted up anyway. This movement was not to be contained by these old wineskins. A new day had come to America, for this movement spread far beyond the hills of Kentucky.
Eventually it was Cane Ridge descendants that gave birth to Azusa Street, and all the other American revivals that have ensued. God will not be kept out of His own church. Those church leaders who continue to deny life to their people by dry sermons, dry programs, dry forms, will one day be set ablaze by the prayers of hungry people in their midst. The church is controlled from heaven after all. Woe to that church that has no hungry people.
35. A Child of Cane Ridge
I was born in Kentucky. Well, not really. I was born in Ohio, but the movement that became my spiritual ancestry was born in Kentucky.
It all started outside Paris, Kentucky, in a hilly countryside called Cane Ridge. The Spirit of God fell there and multitudes were turned to the Lord. Presbyterian minister Barton Stone tells in his autobiography of the incredible experiences of these days, as does evangelist Peter Cartwright of the Methodists.
Following all the fire came heart-felt desire to go on with God and with each other, no longer as Presbyterians and Methodists or any other man-made creed or organization, but as Christians only.
Unknown, it seems, to the present generation of revival descendants, namely the Christian churches and churches of Christ, is the basis upon which this new-found unity was to thrive. Barton Stone, who with Alexander Campbell formed the Restoration Movement that gave birth to these churches, spelled it out very clearly. There were four possible bases, three of which didn't count:
1. Book union. You find a creed or a confession and make everyone sign on. If they can't go by your book, they're out. Stone says these become tests of fellowship that only divide, not unify.
2. Head union. You take the Bible. Everyone must have the same understanding of every verse that you have. If they don't, they're out. But, as people, even leaders, grow in the things of God, their understandings of Scripture will change. Not the best way to have an ongoing unity.
3. Water union. Be sure everyone understands immersion, and has been immersed. Well, that's a great goal, from my perspective, but Stone says it's impossible in practical terms. Lots of confusion out there, lots of people dragging their feet. Some in disobedience. How can you tell what Christ has done in a heart?
4. Fire union! When the Holy Spirit is allowed His way in a church, according to Christian Church founder Barton W. Stone, every form of human impediment can be overcome, and the bond of unity is secure forever.
So when I came to the neighborhood church of Christ well over 50 years ago, I had actually stepped into the outcome of the Cane Ridge revival, a church that was supposed to be run by the fire of God! Didn't know what revival meant in those days. As I grew, we'd call evangelists and singers in for a week or two, and that was revival. Yes, some people came to the Lord, the church was excited for awhile. But nothing like the Ridge.
Then I went to Seminary. We talked about Campbell and Stone and all the rest. As history. Long since departed history. Yes, there was mention of Cane Ridge, and all its extremes and dangers, and how wise we were to have avoided the pitfalls of this kind of experience. We pointed out that our Pentecostal friends [seldom called them brothers in those days] had fallen right into those same traps, and were therefore to be avoided.
How I wish I had been told of Cane Ridge as a real, vital, necessary part of my life history, an ideal to go after! Oh for Founder Stone to be revived and allowed to tell his firsthand experiences to my fellow Restorationists! He would certainly remind them that a church purporting to restore the New Testament pattern cannot long live without the New Testament Power, the Power of the Holy Ghost from heaven.
If this article touches one whose life or assembly is perfect in form but- may I use the word- "dead", my suggestion is to ask God to open your eyes and the eyes of your elders to the fact that wonderful life-giving things are happening all around you. May you find your first love!
36. Revival: Has It Come?
It is the best and worst of times today. On one hand we hear of revival taking place everywhere, signs and wonders superabundant, youth being caught up in a truly unprecedented movement. On the other hand, apostasy has never been more prevalent among us, from the way some of us live, to the way we talk, to the awful things we are being fed from pulpits.
What should revival look like in our own day? Are you experiencing it?
Is it necessary even to ask the question I pose? Why would revival in our own day be different than in the Scriptures, or throughout history? Here's what I'd hope to see in my own church:
1) A constant flow of souls being saved and added to the Body.
2) The power of God available as needed.
3) Lives being changed.
4) Every meeting the leadership comes up with, attended in force.
5) Sins regularly being confessed.
6) Offerings are more than enough.
7) Vision embraces an entire city or region.
8) Church is meeting somewhere every day of the week.
9) Young people serious about the things of God, and are not ashamed to bring their friends.
Dream on, you say. But I speak of things that have always been in revivals, and should be the norm for believing assemblies.
How would that same revival affect your own life, and mine? Try out this list:
1) Every spare moment, we're in the Word and Prayer.
2) TV and other media used only in exceptional times or emergencies.
3) We're eating only what we need, and what is healthy. Our bodies matter.
4) We can't keep our mouth shut about Jesus. Our family and neighborhood are saturated with Good News.
And so on and on. The normal Christian life, Watchman Nee called it. Normal from God's viewpoint.
So why is the word "revival" mentioned in Scripture so scarcely? Jesus assumed we would follow Him, take up His cross, stay constantly attached to Him through His Spirit. Revival is not stressed because crucifixion and the resurrected life is. We weren't supposed to fall away and need reviving. Dire warnings are offered to those who play this game.
That which is common to all revivals of history and all saints who stay revived is the constant death to self, and the constant flow of Jesus life. Get only a handful of believers around you to commit to this lifestyle, and revival has arrived.
37. What Are You Doing Here, Elijah?
In the midst of a series of lessons I have been giving on Islam and the Koran, I interject this message that is burning in my spirit today. As you digest what I am saying, you will realize it is no mere interruption, but very timely in connection with the falseness of Islamic dogma.
Ever heard God asking you what in the world you are doing in a particular place? I believe I have heard it in church circles more than anywhere, for my life has been a church-centered one, for sure. My pilgrimage has led me into a lot of places where I simply was not at home, and I eventually moved on. In the moving around, though, I have had a rich experience of so much that God is doing in the church, but unfortunately I have also seen what man does in the church.
I find myself at present in what is called the "Revival" churches. The revival churches have given themselves that name. The question that I am now facing as I travel with these people is how much of this revival is of God and how much is of men.
Just how far should we go with a revival? They say that all revivals in church history have brought with them their excesses in experiential phenomena and in off-the-wall teachings. So, people conclude, let's throw the revival out!
Nah. Won't work. True revival brings joy and renewal. A non-threatening giftedness of the Spirit that truly edifies without being showy is another fruit of revival. Repentance, leading to the salvation of huge numbers of people can follow. Bringing people back to their first love and a burning passion for souls... Please! Revival is a good thing! God, revive your work in the midst of the years!
So I say, better to throw out the excesses. Like in the Cane Ridge Revival, the things that gave birth to an evil cult called the Shakers. What if discerning men would have seen that coming and drawn a line in the sand?
This signs and wonders crowd, though, is tough to deal with. If indeed the signs are real, and if they are from God - and it is hard to deal with either of those pre-suppositions at times - the people are convinced that what the teacher teaches in that particular meeting must also be from God. People who are fired up emotionally will buy just about anything.
I'm not a good judge of the experiential. I'm not always touched by emotional things. I can't always tell what "stuff" should be allowed in a meeting, and what should not. There are churches, I am sure, that would cringe at a heart-felt testimony, while on the other extreme there are groups that would allow people to bark like dogs in the meeting. I'll leave that alone, simply adding that good pastors care about the edification of their assembly, and are not afraid to hurt someone's feelings who happens to be out of order. And it is possible to be out of order. And it is legal to stop such a person!
Having said that, I still want to keep my hands off things that God might be doing. But when the teachers begin to open their mouths, let me have a say here, as one to whom God has been faithful in explaining His Word carefully and in detail for 50 years.
The Bible talks about those who say they are apostles but are not. The Bible talks about false prophets and false teachers. So all the visiting mouth-pieces in a given meeting are potentially false? Yes, but how often have you seen any of the above openly rebuked for false teaching? One group might accuse another group, but seldom if ever does the rebuke come where it needs to come: in the meeting!
I say, "Throw the bums out!" And if you think "bum" is too disrespectful a word for a man who occupies a pulpit, check out I Timothy 4, II Timothy 3, II Peter 2, Jude, and II Thessalonians 2 for a list of other nouns and adjectives that truly apostolic men have laid upon these evil ones.
Wise pastors need to keep their eyes open for the false teachings that abound in the "revival" today. I don't like putting quotation marks around that word, for I have been refreshed and blessed often in some of these meetings. But just as often as not I have been bombarded with a teaching that flies in the faith of the Spirit of Truth. Men of God, tell your people what's going on and what to avoid!
Spirit of Truth. That's His Name. The promised Spirit was to be the Spirit of Truth first and foremost. He was to come and glorify Jesus, Who is the Truth. He was to bring the words of Jesus to the apostles' memories. Truth. A church where Jesus is preached and people are saved is a church run by the Spirit of Truth. He does not speak of Himself, but of Jesus. Then Jesus pours that Spirit on a congregation whose eyes are turned on Him. Those who turn away from Jesus but who keep desiring more and more teachings and signs and wonders that have nothing to do with Jesus will receive another spirit for their efforts, but not the Spirit of Truth.
You see, the Devil can duplicate some things, but not truth. He can bring miracles, signs, wonders, yes and signs that make you wonder, but he cannot bring truth. He is a liar. He can approximate truth but not duplicate it. As the wise men of Egypt discovered that they had power, but limited power, so today the Enemy has been granted some authority, but when we walk in the Truth, we walk in the Light of God, and we have all that we need. And our ears don't itch for more more more.
You say, can you be specific about some of these lies of the Devil in the present revival? Surely. I thought you'd never ask. Any "word" that comes against a revealed word of Scripture is to be condemned and thrown out. We do not need it.
Take for example the spiritualization of the Biblical texts regarding a literal Kingdom of God coming to this earth. What used to be our hope for the future is torn down to a present day manifestation of miracles, some of them highly questionable. Once the texts are destroyed and re-assigned, it is an easy thing to build an entire system of theology from the ruins.
The Kingdom, they say, is not then. It is now. We must rule now. All seven mountains of influence in the world are ours now. Go conquer.
After all, they say, you are the manifested sons of God. Now. Here they have destroyed a Romans passage that speaks of all creation groaning and waiting for the sons of God to be revealed. How it could be more clear I do not know. Jesus is going to return. Evil is going to be burned up. His people will rule the earth with Him one day! We are going to fix this planet.
But to the Kingdom Now Dominionist folks, then is now.
They destroy the book of Joel with this fantasy. Bible people know that Joel 2, with its talk of an unprecedented army, is linked with Revelation 9. A day of gloom and horror coming to the planet, as something akin to the devastation of a Middle-Eastern swarm of locusts, only worse, will erupt from "the bottomless Pit."
Not so for the Kingdom-now folks. They are convinced that this army is an end-time bunch of spiritual warriors who will raise up a spiritual/physical revolution that will essentially change everything in God's favor.
God have mercy on those who twist His words so viciously.
There's more. What about false views of the rapture? Did you know that the pre-tribulation rapture started as a "word" in a Pentecostal church many many years ago? It was picked up by Darby and Scofield and the rest and multiplied millions today believe that Jesus will show up just before the real Trouble breaks out on the planet, take His people to Heaven, then come a third time for the Second Coming? Did you know that?
The breaking down of Scriptural authority and its transfer to men calling themselves apostles today has led to chaos of all sorts. While no one doubts the fact that women are to be used in ministry, and even occasionally in teaching-authority, at least temporarily. But look today at the universal acceptance of female pastors and leaders throughout the "revival." If God never authorized this shift through a foundational apostle, who did?
Perhaps worst of all is this upheaval in church government. It was just such a shift that brought us all into the Dark Ages. The church of the first century was being persecuted, driven underground. But by the time it had been freed from its prisons 200 years later, a remarkable change was already taking place. Slowly the church structure evolved into its earthly counterpart, the Roman Empire. The rest is among the most awful of church history. Persecution of believers by believers. Blood. Martyrdom. From the church!
How men love power! Now, women follow them into this darkness.
Slowly today the emphasis has switched from the authority of Spirit-inspired apostolic Scriptures to "Spirit-inspired" modern apostles. Everyone, they say, is to figure out which of the five leadership positions is his, because everyone is probably either an apostle, a prophet, an evangelist, a pastor, or a teacher. Everyone. Some are more than one. Some are all.
Power! Give us the rule! Put us in charge! We know how to lead the church, you do not!
Ignored totally is the list of Paul in Romans and I Corinthians that delineates a whole host of possibilities, including these offices, for God's people. We assume many more are not even listed.
Change is in the wind. Everything is being shaken. Everything is up for grabs by men who love such grabbing.
I have seen the new order up close and it is only new the first few times you attend. After that it is very predictable.
a. Same loud rock music with the same sound systems and instruments. That guarantees the youth will be excited. Churches that do not allow this music are often low in young population.
b. Same basic order of service.
c. Same "new" teachings that now are becoming old.
d. Same "strange" manifestations which also are becoming a part of the scenery. Bodies on the floor, etc. A real shock at first, but not for long after. That's why some groups try for more and more...
e. One thing is very different: the faces before us. These men/women are not our pastors. They are speakers, apostles, prophets, teachers. This service is not called church. It is a conference. I just paid hundreds of dollars to attend it. My church will probably not get my offering today. My pastor will not get a hearing this week.He's there and I'm here.
One thing has troubled me through my whole stay here, though as I say there have been moments of joy and glory: In the Scriptures, unless you are willing to twist and shove, there is no revival forecast for the end times. None. Accepting it is part of the price of admission into this movement. Like the Emperor's new Clothes. No one would dare point out this lacking.
But a great apostasy is foretold in the Bible. Could it be that the apostasy could come in the form of a revival, a pseudo-revival? A revival that would be so far-reaching that it would encompass all Christendom and more in one huge religion?
If the teachings that have surfaced are any indication, this is exactly what is happening.
Church, beware! Listen carefully. Follow God's apostles! God cared enough for your well being that He found a way for you to receive a copy of everything important they ever taught. Read it. Listen to it. Compare it to what you have been hearing. And don't be afraid to speak out!
But, and I repeat, don't throw out revival in the process. Revival is still good, even when men are not.
