We are living in the most unique time in all of Church history. I truly believe this is the Church’s finest hour. There has been no generation since that first generation of the Church with such a unique responsibility as our generation has today.
Picture in your mind the following scene:Two men, Jack Smith and Joe Brown, die and go to heaven.
They’re the same age and are born-again Christians. They arrive at the pearly gates together. As they walk through, a crowd comes
running up. Standing before them are Noah, Abraham and Sarah, David and Jonathan, Ruth, Esther, Peter, Paul, John and Mary. In
addition to all these greats from the Bible, other great leaders from Church history are there with them—people like Martin
Luther, John and Charles Wesley, John Knox, Maria Woodworth- Etter, Aimee Semple McPherson, Kathryn Kuhlman and many
more.
All these great men and women come running up to Jack Smith and Joe Brown. Noah steps forward and says, “Tell us
what’s happening down there on earth. What has your life been like?” “Yes, tell us,” Abraham adds. “We’ve been waiting to hear all
about it.” All the others murmur excitedly, “Yes, tell us—tell us.” Joe Brown clears his throat to say something, but Jack Smith
cuts him off and starts in. “Well, you just wouldn’t believe it. It is so horrible down there. The darkness is so strong. Sin is rampant. AIDS is killing people by the thousands. If that doesn’t, abortion does. “On top of that, drugs and crime are exploding everywhere.
The occult, witchcraft and satanism are deceiving millions. Families are being torn apart. Two out of three marriages end in divorce, and most kids are being raised by either one parent or none. “The planet is being destroyed. There are hardly any more
dolphins, whales or forests. Then the Christians face all kinds of harassment and persecution from the media and the world. Our
church split four or five times before I quit going. “I tell you, it’s been awful down there. I’m just glad to be
up here with all you guys now. At least you have fun up here, don’t you? It hasn’t been any fun being down there on earth as
a Christian in this day and age, I tell you. It’s not anything like when you were alive.” Luther and the Wesley brothers almost speak in unison, “We faced harassment and persecution too, you know.” Almost all the others nod in agreement. “Well, yeah, I guess you did but not like we did,” Jack says. “Why, we had these famous ministers who—“ Paul interrupts him. Turning to Joe, he asks, “What about
you? How was it for you down there?” “Well, what Jack said is true all right,” Joe agrees, “but he didn’t tell you the whole story. I, for one, was having a ball right up until the moment I ended up here.” “Now you’re talking!” Peter exclaims. “You know all of us
longed to live in your day. We saw your day and what it was going to be like, and we’ve all wished we could have lived in your
time—“ “Peter, let the man talk,” Mary interrupts gently. Joe Brown continues, “Yes, we did see thousands die from
AIDS, and millions of babies’ lives were taken by abortion. But I also saw people totally delivered and healed from AIDS. And
our church shut down the abortion clinics in our city. We also helped drug addicts get free.” “How did you do that?” David asks.
Joe looks at David and explains, “We learned some things from you about killing giants. We prayed, trusted God and got
out there where the action was and did what we could. We cast out demons, healed the sick and changed things.”
David nods and mutters, “Yeah, sounds like something I would have done.” He turns to Jonathan, who is standing by his side.
“I like this guy,” Jonathan whispers. “He sounds like one of us.” joe Brown goes on to tell about all the people he introduced
to Jesus; the missions trips he went on during his vacations; the miracles he saw when he visited his city’s hospitals, nursing
homes and prisons. “What was it like in your church?” Ruth asks.
“We had a mighty move of God in our church,” Joe says. “We Started with about twenty people in Bible study and grew to three
thousand that first year. Within five years just about everybody in our city was saved, and we had several churches of twenty
thousand or more!” Everybody starts cheering at this bit of news. They keep asking Joe Brown more and more questions, and Jack Smith fades off into the crowd
We need to focus on what God is doing!
Do not be Afraid!
Pray for the gift of discernment, which is like a spiritual antenna. To live victoriously in the last days, our receivers need to be fine-tuned.
We need discernment to recognize the thing God is doing, as well as the counterfeits. When people talk about discerning of spirits, they seem to imply that devils are everywhere. It is even more important to discern the presence of the Holy Spirit, of angels and the work that He is doing
You are Key to His plan.
Romans 8:19 “For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.”
Find out what your role is and fulfil your purpose.
Be the best You that you can be.
Roberts Liardon
Excerpt from his book Final Approach: the Adventure of end-times living
SHIRLERY ARNOLD
Everyone is looking for revival. There is a great need for the church to experience a true awakening and we often look to the revivals of the past as our model. Many of us long to see the miracles and manifestation of God's presence in our day. But what is the key? What is the elusive secret ingredient for revival?
Every success and failure of a revival can be traced to its foundation. Before the manifestation of revival comes, the preparation of the soil and atmosphere has already been accomplished. So, the seeds for success or failure have already been planted by the time we see the evidence. Hindsight, being 20/20, provides the answers from our past experiences. Foresight, however, presents another kind of challenge. The preparation for revival is more important than the actual manifestation of revival. Frank Bartelman, an eyewitness to the Azuza Street revival, made this following statement: "The mistake was to become occupied with the effects of the revival
and not to watch and pray in protecting the cause of the revival..."
In recent years, we have seen the implosion of several moves of the Spirit because of improper preparation and irresponsible stewardship. God continues to move in response to our need and desperation. In those special moments of outpouring, we hope it will continue. Unfortunately they often do not because the foundation to sustain its momentum and impact is faulty and proper leadership,for the purpose of accountability, is not in place to keep it on track.
Having had firsthand experience with Revival moves of God in the last 20 years, I have a few observations. It is my utmost desire to see a true restoring and reforming move of God be sustained in our generation. The following observations are by no means the full answer to the questions we have asked previously. However, they are certainly key to the preparation and sustainability of the coming and imminent revival.
1. PERSONALITY DRIVEN VS SPIRIT LED
When a move of God is perpetuated through the personality of any one individual, it will have to be sustained by that same kind of
personality. While I understand that God uses people with their unique personalities, I also understand that our personalities can
hinder what God wants to do in the long run. When the spotlight shifts to a man or woman, it has a tendency to limit its impact to a smaller circle of people. We must always be careful to look to God as the source of everything instead of making celebrities out of the
people that God uses.
2. MEASURING THE PRESENCE OF GOD BY SPECIFIC MANIFESTATIONS
When a move of God's Spirit is characterized through specific manifestations, it is human nature to reduce what God is doing to a
simple form. When Rodney Howard Browne came to Lakeland,Florida, nobody expected the outpouring of joy and laughter that was
manifested. It was truly glorious to be in the midst of 10,000 people laughing and receiving the encouragement they so desperately needed. However, it became common practice to judge those who did not laugh as being unspiritual and not yielding to the Holy Spirit. God was doing all kinds of miracles in the midst of this outpouring. But, it wasn't long before the manifestation became more important than the fullness of what God was doing. We must not limit God to our finite understanding of his working. We must allow the Holy Spirit to express God's purpose through multiplied manifestations!
3. LACK OF PREPARATION AND POOR SOIL CONDITIONS
Before Kenneth Hagin went home to be with the Lord, he made a statement something like the following: "God is coming in another great wave of revival. I do not know when and I do not know how, but I do know one thing: I must remove everything in my life that would resist the move of God's Spirit." Preparing the soil for revival means that I must allow the dealing of God to remove everything in me that would resist God. At Epic church Lakeland, we are committed to making disciples who are strong in character and
in spirit. When God begins to move in our midst, it is our stated goal to be good stewards of the flow of His spirit. We are training people to pray for the sick, minister in powerful anointing and speak the word of God in faith and boldness. We are training our inner man to submit to the will and word of God. Our desire is that God find a well prepared soil to plant his seeds of revival in the earth. The weeds of soulish dysfunction will eventually choke out the good planting.
4. NO ACCOUNTABITY, NO LONGEVITY.
WITH OUT ORDERLY ACCOUNTABILITY, THE MOVE OF GOD CAN BE HIJACKED. Relationship cannot be discounted. Godly and accountable relationships will allow the move of God to be sustained when the inevitable fleshly manifestation is evidenced. When any one becomes "too big" to be corrected, they are already in danger. We are not supposed to work independent of the church and Ephesians 4 ministry. Many ships have landed on the rocks because of improper leadership. We must be willing to submit one to another as God begins to move. A prideful and independent spirit has already sown the seeds for its own destruction.
I believe we are in the midst of the greatest move of God ever known. The church must awaken and the harvest must be brought in. May our hearts be firmly committed to the authentic move of God's Spirit with a dedication to sustaining its impact.
Blessings
WAKE UP SLEEPING BEAUTY & HEAR THE PROPHETIC VOICE NOW!
I don't remember a time I felt such an urgency in my spirit to tell others about our Messiah and Savior Yeshua-Jesus. As I was praying one morning, I saw the American Church as Sleeping Beauty. She is prophetically likened to Samson who was lulled to sleep on Delilah's knees. Samson not only lost his strength when his hair was cut, but he also lost his vision. We also know from the book of Corinthians that the hair of the woman is her glory. Perhaps Samson could be viewed as a type of the church who has lost her power, vision and glory.
Unfortunately like Samson the church has fallen asleep on the knees of worldliness & pride, and lost her spiritual vision and perception. Her physical eyes have lost the clarity and spiritual insight to what is really going on today. The sad truth is much of the church is
“lukewarm”, "Powerless","Blind" and without the “Glory”Jesus promised his church.
Its time to "WAKE UPSLEEPING BEAUTY”! The hope of America & the Nations is not in our politics or military might. In these perilous times the church must wake up and not be just 10%,30%, 50% or 75% SAVED! The church must be 100% committed to Christ, His Kingdom & Reaching the Unreachable with the Love of God that NEVER FAILS!I believe Jesus our prince is going to kiss his bride and wake her up out of her slumber into a realm of revival power, spiritual perception and greater glory than we have ever seen before. I hope you will join us at this our first Revival People conference.
Sincerely,
Pastor Ken Albin
Author, Upside of Down
Rosmery Bethel
Have you ever been placed in a situation where you had to praise someone who you did not really know? Sometimes it happens to us while engaging in icebreakers during team building exercises. What do you say to praise someone you do not know? At best your praise is limited to what you have heard someone else say about him or her, or a very shallow description of what you’ve immediately observed about him or her like “he/she has a pretty smile and dresses very well”. Certainly there is nothing real meaningful that you can say about someone who you have not taken the time to know intimately.
In that same line of thought what do you say to a God or about a God whom you have not personally and intentionally taken the time to know? When we worship without a personal revelation of the One we worship the best we can do is worship from someone else’s story of intimacy and not our own. For our worship to be real, authentic, and powerful we MUST worship God out of a personal revelation of His Divine Nature.
In John 4:23, Jesus defines the paradigm of New Testament worship with these words “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.” (ESV) Whatever our worship is, in terms of expression, wherever our worship happens, in terms of location, our worship must contain at its core a marrying of Spirit and Truth reality for it to be the kind of worship that the true worshippers of God bring to the Father. The word “Truth” in the Greek used in this passage is the word alétheia, which literally translated means “nothing hidden”. There is a twofold way that this “nothing hidden” reality of our worship works; First, We must personally worship God in sincerity, without falsehood with nothing hidden, it is as we were in the garden before the lie, completely naked and unashamed before our God. Secondly, our worship must flow out of the divine revelation of God as revealed through Christ. Any worship that does not flow out of this place is not the kind of worship that the Father seeks.
It is important that the body of Christ moves from the forms, traditions and methods of worship and returns to the heart of Spirit and Truth Worship. As Revival People it is our mandate to restore, reclaim and resurrect Spirit and Truth Worship in the house of God.
Pastor Rosmery Bethel
Senior Pastor
Epic Church Bahamas
Just as God sat Ezekiel down in the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37, He has sat the church in a like place, with His strong Hand upon us. We must tune in with diligence to hear Him in this hour, as He unfolds His Heart for revival to His people. The Spirit of the Lord has set us in this place to revive us and restore us to our original state: a vast, strong army! Many have sensed His strong Hand and are beginning to declare “Revival,” not due to any despair or hopelessness, but due to what we hear and now know is His passion for us.
It is in that valley that I have not only learned God’s Hand upon me, but have had an encounter with Him. He has led me back and forth there over the past few years, and what He has shown me is overwhelming.He asked me the question, “Can these bones live?” Then He said, “My people aren’t answering this question because they don’t even know that the bones are dry!” Ezekiel’s response was, “Sovereign Lord, You know!” This shows his humility and desire to see what God sees. In order for us to answer God’s questions, we must get His perspective. Once you begin to “see” that the bones are dry, and very dry, you are affected by what has affected Him.
Revival IS God’s plan for us in this hour and it is imperative to be led by His Spirit for it to manifest. Here is the mandate for the Body in this hour:
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We must have revelation of our condition (“)
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We must reclaim and activate our prophetic voice (“)
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We must know His Word to specifically declare what He is saying (“)
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We must watch and listen torecover our God-given inheritance that has been relinquished,and restore the foundations that have been broken up (“)
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We must activate The Wind of God (His Breath) in our personal lives in order to have genuine impartation through all that we do.(
God is returning His Breath to the His people, allowing Him to hear Himself in us in all that we do!He sat us in this place—the valley of dry bones—to cause us to desire what He desires! He sat us in this place to receive and then release His breath and to bring the Body to its original state and purpose: to stand up on our feet as a vast army!
The Church has resorted to using performance,worldly wisdom and secular means… causing it to feel a false sense of accomplishment and success.God’s people are buying into the enemy’s deception… the Body’s bones have dried up and have almost disintegrated!God’s true identity has been masked! The fear of The Lord has waned because we have vision of the true face of The Great I AM!
God’s great question echoes before us again:“CAN these bones live?” Revelation, Prophecy, the Word of God, the Breath of God and the supernatural all happened in a valley of Dry Bones! Yet, the bones reconnected and breath entered them and they stood up as a vast Army! Can these bones live? My answer is YES! What is YOUR answer?
~Apostle Varle Rollins