Tag Archives: awakening

You Can’t Whoop It Up

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Looking back, the summer of 1988 determined the course of my life more than any other.  That summer I read two books.  The first was Why Revival Tarries, by Leonard Ravenhill.  The second was Prayer: Key to Revival by David Yonggi Cho.  The first book stirred my passion and hunger for revival.  The second introduced me to prayer empowered and directed by the Holy Spirit.  Through the pitfalls and mistakes of the past 24 years, the core of these two books has stayed with me, and I have returned to their messages again and again.

In 1992 I heard an interview with Leonard Ravenhill, and at that time he felt that the amount of prayer happening would result in a worldwide revival in less than 10 years.  He was partially correct.  Throughout the world there is revival happening.  Toronto burst on the scene two years after that interview.  At the same time, things in the United States have seemed to get worse.

Truthfully, there is more prayer happening in this country than anytime in my lifetime.  Throughout the late 1980’s and early ’90’s I committed to fasting one day a week and praying at least an hour a day for revival.  My friends thought I was nuts, and it was not uncommon for people to say “Why are you fasting?  You need to eat or you will die!”   No one ever envisioned that one day scores of people would make extended fasts a part of their normal life.  Outside of Mike Bickle’s church no one envisioned round the clock prayer either.  Now both are on the verge of becoming mainstream.

So why hasn’t the Third Great Awakening happened?  I think there are a few reasons.  As a note, I believe that there is a worldwide awakening happening–and I even believe that a broad revival has been quietly happening in the United States for some time.  But, as yet, there has not been the spark that erupts into a culture changing move of God.

The first reason is simple.  You can’t “whoop it up.”  There are men and women out there who believe that if you spend extended times in prayer, or “contend” for a “breakthrough,” or any number of other activities, you can move God to cause revival.  The primary reason to spend extended time in prayer is to spend time with God, and the second reason is to minister to God.  Prayer is ultimately about building a relationship and getting to know a person.  That Person happens to be the Creator of the Universe.  Unfortunately, many folks get into extended prayer to get something from God.  I think that’s why a lot of prayer for revival has produced so little fruit.  The truth is, God wants revival more than you do.

You can’t manipulate a revival into existence through prayer because that is performance based religion.  It is not based in grace.  We have grown so accustomed to “making things happen” through all sorts of techniques, but we have neglected the reality that it is the Holy Spirit who makes revival.  He is the one who brings the move of God, and we can’t make Him respond to our whims.  Manipulating the spiritual realm through our activity is one thing, and one thing only–witchcraft.  Paul even said this in Galatians 3:1 when he reproved them for trying to finish the work of the Holy Spirit in the flesh.  We can’t finish a work of the Spirit in the flesh.  Neither can we start a work in the Spirit in the flesh.

The second reason relates to the first, and has to do with the kind of work God is beginning.  God is looking at the interior, at the heart.  He is looking for those who will go low.  This new move of God is about God working from the inside out, not the outside in.  I mentioned in an earlier post that we are not going to see a sin-based revival this time.  Since the nineteenth century, most of the revivals have been marked by the public confession of sin.  As Bill Johnson has noted, the problem with this kind of revival is it depends on sin to continue.  That is not to say that repentance and turning to God will not be part of what happens–there is grave sin all around us, and repentance will be necessary.

I believe that the next move of God is going to be marked by a deep humility, and an acceptance of the truth that many in the church fail to understand.  It is the Presence of Jesus, the Word made flesh in us that will change us as individuals, and in turn change culture around us.  This isn’t a new teaching, but it is one that has been neglected.  In order to embrace it, you have to surrender.

For years when I heard the word “surrender” I thought it meant coming forward at a meeting.  That’s not surrender.  Surrender is admitting that you are in a mess that is bigger than you can solve.  It is admitting that only God can get you out of the mess, and only God can show you what to do next.  It means that one more prayer meeting, one more study course, one more program, or one more conference won’t make it any better.  Only letting the presence of Jesus out to flow through me can make it better.   Coming to that place is fundamentally different than trying to “whoop up” a revival.

II Chronicles 7:14 instructs us that if we humble ourselves and pray God will hear from heaven and heal our land.  For 24 years I have seen people quote that verse, but they only followed the “pray” part, and not the humble yourself part.  Ah, “there’s the rub.”

A month ago I repeated a little exercise that I did in college.  I took a white piece of paper out of my desk, I signed and dated it, and I presented it to God.  It was my contract.  That white piece of paper is the outward sign that I am surrendered to letting Jesus live through me.  Honestly, everything isn’t better, but I am more aware that Jesus is in me and living through me than ever before.  More and more, I feel less dull and under the spell of the world around me.

I encourage you to join me in this “white paper revolution” of surrendering to God.  If you  are in, send me an email at belonginghouse@gmail.com.

O Holy Spirit, come like a mighty rushing wind and awaken us out of our complacency, our apathy, and our indifference.  Disturb us, for we are too content to let people go on not knowing you.  Penetrate the closed gates of our hearts and make us live again.  O Holy Spirit, create among us a mighty Christian revolution and cast the fear of the unknown out of our lives.

Thanks for reading my posts, the past few have really touched a nerve.  My hit numbers have gone up dramatically.  If you like what I am writing, I encourage you to subscribe. 

The Third Great Awakening

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For some time many leaders across the church have talked about the need for a Third Great Awakening.  Many intercessors have spent years praying for this outcome–for me personally, this began in 1988.   In the past 24 years I have seen spiritual movements come and go, and I have seen many ministries rise and fall–but I have yet to see anything like a “great awakening.”

About two months ago I became very disillusioned and disappointed in the response of the church to prayer, and basically stepped back from almost all ministry activity.  In some ways this was a midlife crisis, and in other ways it was a need to get away from the “echo chamber” I was seeing in the Christian community.  I really didn’t want to know what another leader was saying, I wanted to know what God was saying.  I also needed to review what God has said to me in the past.

To my surprise, I have been encountering others feeling the same way I have–a need to step back, listen to God, unplug the ministry “machine,” and get into the scripture.  God is waking a number of people up to a simple truth–the secret is Christ in you the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).

About 4 years ago God showed me a vision of waves that took many forms.  The core of the vision is under the Prophetic Words tab on this page.  The last wave I saw was one that was named “TSUNAMI.”  That wave comprised several things–first it was a wall of water that moved from East to West.  It was formed out of ancient wells opening up, and it was powerful.  The Tsunami could destroy anything in its path, and it would change the landscape everywhere it went.  Along with this, there was a sense that those who rode this wave would experience a rebirth of freedom. 

I believe this wave is starting to rise, and that it is going come in unexpected ways.  If the church embraced the truth that is being revealed to a few leaders right now, the impact could be much larger than the impact that the Protestant Reformation had in the 16th Century.

For a long time I believed that part of reopening the Ancient Wells meant tapping into the revivals of the past that happened in New York and New England.  I have spent a lot of time, energy, and money traveling to remote places to pray in old churches, at grave sites, and on location in significant spots.  Although there was a lot of value in this to focus and reignite passion, I don’t believe God is going to repeat the events of the past.   I think our Ancient well is the well of truth in the core of the New Covenant–God wants to live in and through you.  For several weeks now I have been meditating on this truth.  Jesus is in you, and if Jesus is in you, then all that Jesus says he is is in you.   At first I made a list of a few promises.  Now I am starting to see the New Testament through a completely new lens.  It’s as if I am looking at a beautiful painting after centuries of grime has been removed.  I didn’t know how good the Good News was.   This truth–the reality of an inside out gospel, is on almost every page.

Both Ezekiel and Jeremiah foretold a day when the law of God would be written in our heart, and Jesus promised there was a place we could dwell in him.  I have struggled for years to appropriate these realities in my life, but I have had seasons of success and seasons of failure.   The issue is not just “how do I get saved?”  The issue is “how can I be the person I was made to be?”  How can I be in Him?  And the most powerful thing of all– ”how can I experience the stuff Jesus says I already have?”

There’s the rub.  We aren’t looking for a sin based revival where people publicly repent for a few days and then go back to “normal.”  We are looking for a body of people to rise up and say “Jesus says this is who I am.”  I am choosing to surrender to Christ in me, and he will live in and through me.  I am going to wake up to the reality that I am an heir, that the Law of God is written on my heart, that I am defined by who I am and not what I do, and that the reality of the life of God–eternal resurrection life–is in my physical body transforming me from the inside out.  And if God in me is transforming me, then God in me can touch you, and God in me can touch the world.  Maybe this is what Paul meant when he said that all of creation is longing for the revealing of the sons of God.  All creation is groaning for us to wake up, walk into who we are, and begin to redeem all creation.  What an earth shaking idea.

What would happen if a body of people embraced this?  There are little glimmers of healing, miracles, and outpourings here and there.  What if there was a body who embraced this as a whole?  It would shake a number of areas in society, and I know it would have a drastic impact on the religious system in many churches.  Maybe this awakening would be nothing short of a Tsunami.

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The Grumpy Gospel

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Periodically, a friend of mine and I will joke that I am a believer in the “grumpy gospel.”  I tend to have a very serious streak, and like a lot of city rats, can be pretty intense at times.  Artists also tend to have an edge, and I have a pretty sharp one.  So when I get that way, my friend laughs and says, “uh-oh, here come the grumpy gospel!”

Invariably, I respond in my best gravelly New Yawk accent “TRY HARDER.”  That usually breaks the flow of my intensity, and we have a good laugh.

Sadly though, many good Christian people are advocates of the grumpy gospel.  And it isn’t a joke.  They have traded the inside out gospel of Jesus Christ for something else, a form of godliness that denies the power.  Many times these dear ones are forced to live lives of “quiet desperation” to quote Thoreau.

The other day I was walking to my train and I passed the long row of free newspapers that you see in larger cities.  One of them was the Bay Windows, the local paper of the gay community.  As I looked, I recognized the man on the front page, the leader of a well-known “ex-gay” ministry.

“Another one bites the dust,” I thought to myself.  The leader had recently left the ministry, said that he was always gay, and that he had never experienced the victory that he claimed in public.  Sadly, this double life of outward sanctity and inward misery was forced on others as well as a method of healing.  I am not saying that all ministries dealing with same-sex issues are fraudulent–because I can recommend several.  What I am saying is this man came to a place, with all the spiritual disciplines, all of the “accountability,”  all of the the pressure to look a certain way to the Christian community, where he finally cracked up and got real.  It wasn’t working, it was hurting him, and hurting others, and I bet he was pretty grumpy.

I know for myself, in my own struggles with sexual sin, that outward efforts often made my situation worse.  You can’t make a broken heart better with an hour long accountability group.  It’s like trying to stop a massive wound where the patient is losing blood with a little band-aid.  It isn’t going to happen.

I remember when my life really hit bottom, I had someone hand me a book and tell me all I needed to do was memorize more scripture.  Ironically, I had spent eight years in seminary, and already earned two degrees in Bible.  Not only had I memorized scripture, I had memorized it in the original languages.  Big deal.

Another well meaning person said all I needed was more accountability.  Fortunately, people are starting to come clean about accountability groups.  Most of the time they fail because they are driven by fear.  I take that back, they work for people who really are fairly healthy, and “have it all together.”  But for the rest of us, they only make our problems worse.  Accountability is often another masquerade for the grumpy gospel–just try harder this week and bring us a good report next time around. (That is not to say that open transparent relationships with others aren’t important, they are very important, and you need other people in your life.)

It took me years of this cycle of failure before someone explained to me the real gospel.  You know that one, the one Paul says he’s not ashamed of because it is the power of God for salvation (Romans 1:16).  Someone sent me to Romans 8, and I read these words:

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death.

The grumpy gospel is the law of sin and death.  Paul describes it in Romans 7.  I am still amazed how many people preach and teach Romans 7 as if Romans 8 doesn’t exist.  But Romans 8 does exist:

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the spirit of sonship.  When we cry “Abba, Father!” it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God. (Romans 8:15-16)

The real gospel is a gospel where God, through the Holy Spirit, puts himself, Jesus Christ inside you.  And then, if we let him, Jesus begins to live in and through us to transform us from the inside out, and we begin to look like Jesus.  In another place Paul puts it this way,  “the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, and self control, against these there is no law.”

The real gospel makes slaves and servants into friends and sons.  The real gospel is not based on what you do, but who and Whose you are.   It is not based on trying harder or performing more successfully, it is based on being in relationship with someone who loves you and wants to make you the truest version of yourself.  Anything else is a pretty cheap imitation.

Trust me, you can try harder to be loving and patient, and you will become the most hateful, impatient jerk around.   And sadly, I have met many Christians who, although they have an outward smile and pleasant demeanor, are just angry impatient grumps.

So to sum up, if you are driven by your outward performance, driven by fear, caught in a cycle of failure, and keep secrets from people, you are probably subscribing to the grumpy gospel.  I bet if you ask those around you they will probably say you are pretty grumpy too.

The good news is, you can be set free.  All you need to do is ask the Holy Spirit to begin to take over–surrender to God being in control in your life.  The really cool part is, you can keep going back and keep getting set free!

Jesus, you living in me is the secret to life.  I want you, the Word made flesh, to be law of my life.  Write the law of the Spirit of Life in my heart and set me free from the law of sin and death that says I have to try harder.  Today I want all that you have for me, more than I could ever ask or imagine.  Amen.