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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