Is 2014 your year for Revival?

 

I have seen a lot of post on FaceBook since January 1st about churches fasting and praying for a fresh move of God, and for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Some might call it revival

In January 2011, the church that I was then on Staff at as Children's Pastor concluded a 28 week revival. Going through that experience, I probably have a little different view on revival than most of the church world.

 Let me start out by saying a few things so no one misunderstands me.

1. I do believe in fasting to get closer to God, however fasting does not change God it changes us. If all we do is go without food for a period of time without spending that time seeking after God then all we have accomplished is self control and discipline, which is not really a bad thing unless your purpose was to hear from God. God does call people to a fast sometimes and I am wholeheartedly behind it. Some people choose to fast to hear from God or get closer to Him and I am wholeheartedly behind that also.  A lot of fasting that is going on now seems to be a fad that everyone does at the beginning of each year. A corporate thing that local churches do because that's what we do in January of each year. I also see a lot of people posting how much they miss what they are fasting and are counting down the time until they can indulge in those things again. Then they usually post a picture of their binge when they are done with their fast.

A minister that I highly respect once said that he would rather live a fasted lifestyle than to go on and off of fast. That seems to be where I stand on the subject. We should not allow things that stand in the way of us and God in our lives all year instead of going without it for a month then going right back to it the rest of the year.

2. I am not against people being hungry for more of God, seeking after him, and wanting to see a fresh move of the Holy Spirit. What I wonder about are churches and ministers that have been praying and seeking God for revival and a fresh move for years and never see it. I would like to ask some of them, " How is that working for you?"

3. I do believe that some revivals and moves of God are sovereign. Meaning that God just poured out a blessing by his own will and it was going to happen no matter what. However, most of the time we have to cooperate with God to see things happen.  If you have been praying for revival for years and have not seen it, maybe you should rethink your whole approach. God is willing! Are we? About half way through the 28 week revival people started complaining about being in church so much it was a huge change in their lifestyle. However, some of the same people that were complaining were the ones praying for revival. Are we willing to do what it takes to experience a revival and then are we willing to do what it takes to keep revival? Or,  will it end when the services end and everything goes back to the way it was. You see some people that went through that 28 week revival are now serving God in a radical way and continuing to live the revival lifestyle. Some of the people that sat through all 28 weeks of revival services  post things on their FaceBook page like. I'm depressed, I'm board, I'm stressed out!. What's the difference in these 2 types of people?

There comes a time when we must put legs to our prayers and obey what God has told us to do or we will never see the move that we desire to see. As I said I probably have a little different view on Revival than most. You see to experience revival it takes a change of lifestyle. Are we willing to do what it takes to see it? It's God's will that we experience him every day. It's God's will that we walk in a fresh anointing every day that overflows into the world around us and touches lives. But until we take that anointing to the people that need it and release it into their lives, we will never see that move that we are praying for. It's God's will for us to walk in the spirit, so we do not fulfill the lust of the flesh. However, if we continue to feed our flesh on all that the world has to offer we might never experience walking in the spirit.  Until we are willing to step out of our comfort zone and be the hands and feet of God to the world around us we will never experience the things that we have been praying for for the last 20 years.

If we always do what we have always done, We will always have, what we have always had. To expect anything different is Ludicrous.

Revival is not a series of meetings where everyone gets refreshed and touched by God. It might include it, but that not what it is. I think Charles Finney said it best when he said, "A revival is nothing else than a new beginning of obedience to God."

My friend we need to quit praying that God would send revival! He sent you to your city. Become the revival that you have been praying for! 

Can you imagine the revival we would see in our communities, if we would just step out of our churches and obey the great commission and Go into all the world and make disciples?  What if we would start to lay hands on sick people and pray for them when they ask us to pray for them, instead of just saying " I will pray for you" and then forgetting all about it and never really praying for them.

One night during worship toward the end of the revival the following list came to me and I wrote it down in my  notes on my phone.

You know you have experienced revival when…

1. When you start laying aside all weights & sin that gets in between you and God.
2. When you have a renewed love & passion for the things if God.
3. When you begin to serve God with not just your mouth but our actions.
4. When you fervently serve God not just at church but every day of the week everywhere you  go.
5. When you get so full of God that his presence begins to overflow in your life and begins to touch those around you.
6. When nothing else satisfies you, but more of God.
7. When you become so desperate for God that you do whatever it takes to get Him.
8. When your desires become God’s desires.
9. When your love for God becomes so strong that you just can't help but tell others.
10. When the fire of God in your life becomes so big that people start to come from all around to watch you burn.
11. When you submit yourself to God so much, that the change in your life becomes so evident that people can't help but notice and start to ask you what is different.
12. When the desire to be in God’s presence is so strong that you don't ask if you should go to church, but nothing can keep you from going to church.
13. When your love for God is so strong that you would never dishonor him by allowing sin in your life
14. When you love God so much you can't help but worship him not just at church but every day through your lifestyle.
16.  When you love God so much that you don't have to be manipulated to give. You can’t help but to give because you love Him and his works so much.
17.  When you rediscover your first love. The feeling & passion you had when you were first born again.
18. When you don't need to be led into worship, you just enter in.
19. When it ceases to be about us and it becomes about him.
20. Instead of constantly seeking a blessing from God you become a blessing from God.

Actually this list is the lifestyle that a christian ought to be living in the first place,  but because we become distracted from the things of God and become spiritually dead we need to be revived.

The reason we need a series of meetings is that we are so dead we need to be jump started. After we have been jump started, we should be able to keep the charge.

Revival is a lifestyle.
Someone once said " I would rather live a fasted lifestyle than go on and off of periods of fasting." I personally would rather live a revival lifestyle than attend a series of meetings.

Below are several Quotes on Revival that have greatly impacted my Life....

“There are two great reasons we don’t have revival.
1. We’re content to live without it.
2. It’s too costly. We don’t want God to disrupt our status quo.
The Christian life can only be lived one way, and that’s God’s way. And God’s way is that I leave all and follow Him". ~ Leonard Ravenhill

When is a revival needed? When carelessness and unconcern keep the people asleep. - Billy Sunday

Have you noticed how much praying for revival has been going on of late - and how little revival has resulted? I believe the problem is that we have been trying to substitute praying for obeying, and it simply will not work.” - A.W. Tozer

A revival is nothing else than a new beginning of obedience to God. - Charles Finney

We need to quit praying that God would send revival! He sent you to your city. Become the revival that you have been praying for!

The church that becomes focused upon maintaining itself instead of the gospel becomes a dead branch of the living vine... Thomas C. Oden

I'm sick and tired of only reading about church history; let's make some by the grace of God! - LEONARD RAVENHILL

Faith and works should travel side by side, step answering to step, like the legs of men walking. First faith, and then works; and then faith again, and then works again--until they can scarcely distinguish which is the one and which is the other. - General William Booth

The true follower of Christ will not ask, "If I embrace this truth, what will it cost me?" Rather he will say, "This is truth. God help me to walk in it, let come what may!" ~ A. W. Tozer

"Let's quit fiddling with religion and do something to bring the world to Christ." ~ Billy Sunday

Have you noticed how much praying for revival has been going on of late - and how little revival has resulted? I believe the problem is that we have been trying to substitute praying for obeying, and it simply will not work.” - A.W. Tozer

Revival is when God gets so sick and tired of being misrepresented that He shows Himself. - Leonard Ravenhill

A revival does two things. First, it returns the Church from her backsliding and second, it causes the conversion of men and women; and it always includes the conviction of sin on the part of the Church. What a spell the devil seems to cast over the Church today! - Billy Sunday

If you don't see a revival starting around you; let it begin in your own heart, then let it overflow to others...

You never have to advertise a fire. Everyone comes running when there's a fire. Likewise, if your church is on fire, you will not have to advertise it. The community will already know it. - Leonard Ravenhill


By Jerry Moyer
The Jubilee Gang
www.jubileegang.com

ALERT!!!! EMERGENCY!!! HELP!!!!!

ALERT!!!! EMERGENCY!!! HELP!!!!!

More than 70,000 people die in this world without ever having heard the gospel of Jesus Christ.

There are 4.5 billion people on the earth today that do not know Jesus.

That means that they are dying and going to Hell.

Does that concern you? Does it cause you to want to do something to bring people to Jesus?

In the Christian church world today, we have lost the urgency of sharing the Gospel with the world. We have fallen asleep with doctrine that says that we need to be a silent light to world; we need to make our church services comfortable for people that are unsaved, so they will want to come to our churches.

Keith Green once said "I'd rather have people hate me with the knowledge that I tried to save them."

If you were a fireman and saw a person screaming out a window of a burning house “HELP!, HELP!”  Would you just stand by and watch them burn and say well I pray they find their way out of that burning house! I don’t want to offend them so I’m not going to go show them the way out. NO you would do anything possible to help them. Yet we as the body of Christ stand by without any sense of urgency and people all around us sink into the depths of Hell.

Leonard Ravenhill put it this way “Could a mariner sit idle if he heard the drowning cry? Could a doctor sit in comfort and just let his patients die? Could a fireman sit idle, let men burn and give no hand? Can you sit at ease in Zion with the world around you DAMNED?"

Has the church world become so focused on growing our churches or ministries that we have forgotten what we are in ministry for in the first place. Jesus said in the Great commission to “go into all the world and make Disciples,” to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel.”  However, we have changed it to “make our churches so warm and inviting that people will want to come and are not offended.”

Healthy things naturally grow. If our churches are not growing, we have to ask ourselves, “Are they really healthy?”

Thomas C. Oden said, “The church that becomes focused upon maintaining itself instead of the gospel becomes a dead branch of the living vine.”

Over my 24 year in ministry, I have seen many churches that do not lead people to Jesus during their services. I have seen many Children’s Pastors that do not pray with children to be born again. That is reserved for kid’s camp or special services that happen only a few times per year. Ideally evangelism is not to take place in the church building, but out in the world during our every day life. But what if we knew that one of the people in our services this week was going to die after the service on the way home would it change our approach?  We do not know what the future for our self holds much less everyone in our weekly services.

I have been to Christian concerts where the artist presented the gospel but, never gave a chance for people to receive salvation. Many times it’s because of a teaching that has circulated the body of Christ that it is our job to just present the good news. If people believe it they will go get it. One preacher presented the gospel and said go home and think about this and if you really want it, come back tomorrow and be born again. The reason for this is because ministers do not want people to respond out of emotion or in the heat of the moment. They want to make sure that the people responding are serious and truly want to make Jesus Lord of their lives. Not just responding to an artist or preacher that is influencing them. This is understandable! I have the same concerns ministering to children. I could manipulate the service in such a way that my altars would be packed every service. For this reason I purposely stay away from these practices. However, I hardly ever end a service without giving the lost an opportunity to be born again. If the Gospel is properly presented and people are not manipulated we can rule out most of the people that really do not understand or are being moved by emotion.

On the night of October 8, 1871, D.L. Moody finished a message with some words he regretted for the rest of his life. So great was his remorse that he committed himself to never making the same mistake again. The title of Moody's sermon was "What Shall I Do with Jesus?" At the end, he announced, "Now I want you to take the question with you and think it over, and next Sunday I want you to come back and tell me what you're going to do with Him." But, next Sunday never came. As Moody dismissed his audience, the nearby courthouse fire bell sounded. At the time, no one had any idea how serious the blaze would become. As it turned out, the hall in which Moody spoke, the church he established, and his home were all destroyed in the inferno that became the Great Chicago Fire, along with more than 18,000 other buildings. But Moody hardly gave a second thought to his gutted home and church. They could easily be replaced – but not the lost souls. It was the memory of the audience he never saw again that was seared in his mind for the rest of his life.

The Bible says in 2 cor. 6:2 “behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” and I will add to this, for tomorrow may be too late!

Where is our urgency to lead People to Jesus? Where is our urgency to save people from hell?

There is a new trend that teaches that it is the parent’s job to lead the children into the new birth. I do not disagree with this. Ultimately, it should be the parent that prays with their children to be born again. I prayed with my son to be born again while driving in a car when he was just a child. But to be honest about this, a lot of parents do not have a firm grip on what being born again is themselves, or are not comfortable discussing it with their children. I pray that this changes.

If we always put it in the parents ball park and they drop the ball, or maybe they are not even born again themselves, or they do not go to church themselves, do we let these children creep through the cracks of our system? There must be a time where children have a chance to be born again while they are attending our services. It must be high on our priority list for children coming up through our churches.

If we let people leave our services unsaved because we believe that evangelism should only take place outside our church building, have we allowed people to slip through the cracks of our pet doctrine?

I am in no way saying that we should be preaching hell fire and brimstone every week to pack out our altars with people, however ask your self this question. “How long has it been since I gave people an opportunity to receive salvation and be born again in my service?”  Do you even remember? There is a disturbing trend that a lot of churches today just do not give that opportunity for people to be born again at church. Some churches I know personally have gone months even years and have not led any one person to Jesus.

Ultimately evangelism should be taking place outside the church and the church should be a place to bring the newly saved to be disciple however, let us not ignore the opportunity to lead someone to Jesus that could have came with a hunger in their heart to get right with God or give their live to God and we have just provided a religious experience for them or allowed them to have a religious awakening but they walk away without a true conversion, without being introduced to Jesus, without being born again because of a pet doctrine we have created because of abuse or manipulation that we have seen in the past.

Where is our Urgency? Have we fallen asleep? Have we learned to ignore the fact that without Jesus, without being born again that people will die and spend an eternity in Hell?

John Wesley said  “You have nothing to do but to save souls. Therefore spend and be spent in this work. And go not only to those that need you, but to those that need you most…It is not your business to preach so many times, and to take care of this or that society; but to save as many souls as you can; to bring as many sinners as you possibly can to repentance.”

Oswald J. Smith  said “Oh, to realize that souls, precious, never dying souls, are perishing all around us, going out into the blackness of darkness and despair, eternally lost, and yet to feel no anguish, shed no tears, know no travail! How little we know of the compassion of Jesus!"

William Booth the founder of the Salvation Army said 'Not called!' did you say? 'Not heard the call,' I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father's house and bid their brothers and sisters, and servants and masters not to come there. And then look Christ in the face, whose mercy you have professed to obey, and tell him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish his mercy to the world.'

William Booth  also said "Can we go too fast in saving souls? If anyone still wants a reply, let him ask the lost souls in Hell."

I believe the following video sums this up so well. its called:
"A Letter from Hell"


It is not my motivation for this article to come across condemning or that you feel guilty enough that you do something. It is simply a wake up call! For I fear that the church world as a whole has fallen asleep! 


Willie George said “reaching the lost is the lifeblood of a church. If you aren't winning souls, be so disturbed about it that you change!”

Jerry Moyer
Jubilee Gang Ministries
Website www.jubileegang.com
FaceBook www.facebook.com/jubileegang
Twitter www.twitter.com/jubileegang
YouTube www.youtube.com/jubileegang

Who Cares? by General William Booth

Who Cares?

General William Booth

On one of my recent journeys, as I gazed from the coach window I was led into a train of thought concerning the conditions of the multitudes around me. They were living carelessly in the most open and shameless rebellion against God, without a thought for their eternal welfare. As I looked out the window, I seemed to see them all… millions of people all around me given up to their drink and their pleasure, their dancing and their music, their business and their anxieties, their politics and their troubles. Ignorant-willfully ignorant in many cases – and in other instances knowing all about the truth and not caring at all. But all of them, the whole mass of them, sweeping on and up in their blasphemies and devilries to the throne of God. While my mind was thus engaged, I had a vision. I saw a dark and stormy ocean. Over it the black clouds hung heavily; through them every now and then vivid lightning flashed and loud thunder rolled, while the winds moaned, and the waves rose and foamed, towered and broke, only to rise and foam, tower and break again.

In that ocean I thought I saw myriads of poor human beings plunging and floating; shouting and shrieking, cursing and struggling and drowning; and as they cursed and screamed, they rose and shrieked again, and then some sank to rise no more.

And I saw out of this dark, angry ocean, a mighty rock that rose up with its summit towering high above the black clouds that overhung the stormy sea. And all around the base of this rock I saw a vast platform. Onto this platform, I saw with delight a number of the poor struggling, drowning wretches continually climbing out of the angry ocean. And I saw that a few of those who were already safe on the platform were helping the poor creatures still in the angry waters to reach the place of safety. On looking more closely, I found a number of those who had been rescued, industriously working and scheming by ladders, ropes, boats, and other means more effective, to deliver the poor strugglers out of this sea. Here and there were some who actually jumped into the water, regardless of all the consequences, in their passion to “rescue the perishing.” And I hardly know which gladdened me most-the sight of the poor drowning people climbing onto the rocks, reaching the place of safety, or the devotion and self-sacrifice of those whose whole beings were wrapped up in the effort for their deliverance. As I looked on, I saw that the occupants of that platform were quite a mixed company. That is, they were divided into different “sets” or classes, and they occupied themselves with different pleasures and employment. But only a very few of them seemed to make it their business to get the people out of the sea. But what puzzled me most was the fact that though all of them had been rescued at one time or another from the ocean, nearly everyone seemed to have forgotten all about it. Anyway, it seemed the memory of its darkness and danger no longer troubled them at all. And what seemed equally strange and perplexing to me was that these people did not even seem to have any care – that is any agonizing care – about the poor perishing ones who were struggling and drowning right before their very eyes, many of whom were their own husbands and wives, brothers, and sisters, and even their own children. Now this astonishing unconcern could not have been the result of ignorance or lack of knowledge, because they lived right there in full sight of it all and even talked about it sometimes. Many even went regularly to hear lectures and sermons in which the awful state of these people drowning creatures was described.

I have already said that the occupants of this platform were engaged in different pursuits and pastimes. Some of them were absorbed night and day in trading and business In order to make gain, storing up their savings in boxes, safes, and the like.  

"Who Cares?" An illustration of General William Booth's vision depicting the Church's apparent lack of concern over the fate of lost souls. (William Booth was the founder of the Salvation Army). This oil painting was commissioned in 1993 by Last Days Ministries (founded by Keith Green). Read William Booth's "Who Cares?" article. Order a 25" X 17" poster of this painting through LDM's website.  

Many spent their time in amusing themselves with growing flowers on the side of the rock, others in painting pieces of cloth or in playing music or in dressing themselves up in different styles and walking about to be admired. Some occupy themselves chiefly in eating and drinking, others were taken up with arguing about the poor drowning creatures that had already been rescued.

But the thing to me that seemed the most amazing was that those on the platform to whom He called, who heard His voice and felt they ought to obey it at least they said they did those who confessed to love Him much and were in full sympathy with Him in the task He had undertaken – who worshipped Him or who professed to do so – were so taken up with their trades and professions, their money saving and pleasures, their families and circles, their religions and arguments about it, and their preparation for going to the mainland, that they did not listen to the cry that came to them from this Wonderful Being who had Himself gone down into the sea. Anyway, if they heard it they did not heed it. They did not care. And so the multitude went on right before them struggling and shrieking and drowning in the darkness.

And then I saw something that seemed to me even more strange than anything that had gone on before in this strange vision. I saw that some Of these people on the platform whom this Wonderful Being had called to, wanting them to come and help Him in His difficult task of saving these perishing creatures, were always praying and crying out to Him to come to them. Some wanted Him to come and stay with them and spend His time and strength in making them happier. Others wanted Him to come and take away various doubts and misgivings they had concerning the truth of some letters which He had written them. Some wanted Him to come and make them feel more secure on the rock-so secure that they would be quite sure that they should never slip off again into the ocean. Numbers of others wanted Him to make them feel quite certain that they would really get off the rock and onto the mainland someday; because as a matter of fact, it was well known that some had walked so carelessly as to lose their footing, and had fallen back again, into the stormy waters.

 Video of the Who Cares? Vision that William Booth saw.

So these people used to meet and get up as high on the rock as they could, and looking toward the mainland (where they thought the Great Being was) they would cry out, “Come to us! Come, help us!” And all the while He was down (by His Spirit) among the poor struggling, drowning creatures in the angry deep, with His arms around them trying to drag them out, and looking up oh! so longingly, but all in vain to those on the rock, crying to them with His voice all hoarse from calling, “Come to Me! Come, and help Me!”

And then I understood it all. It was plain enough. That sea was the ocean of life-the sea of real, actual human existence. That lightning was the gleaming of piercing truth coming from Jehovah’s throne. That thunder was the distant echoing of the wrath of God. Those multitudes of people shrieking, struggling, and agonizing in the stormy sea, were the thousands and thousands of poor harlots and harlot-makers, of drunkards and drunkard-makers, of thieves, liars, blasphemers, and ungodly people of every kindred, tongue, and nation.

Oh, what a black sea it was! And oh, what multitudes of rich and poor, ignorant and educated were there. They were all so unalike in their outward circumstances and conditions, yet all alike in one thing all sinners before God all held by, and holding onto, some iniquity, fascinated by some idol, the slaves of some devilish lust, and ruled by the foul fiend from the bottomless pit! “All alike in one thing?” No, all alike in two things not only the same in their wickedness but, unless rescued, the same in their sinking, sinking… down, down, down… to the same terrible doom. That great sheltering rock represented Calvary, the place where Jesus had died for them. And the people on it were those who had been rescued. The way they used their energies, gifts, and time represented the occupations and amusements of those who professed to be saved from sin and hell followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. The handful of fierce, determined ones, who were risking their own lives in saving the perishing, were true soldiers of the cross of Jesus. That Mighty Being who was calling to them from the midst of the angry waters was the Son of God, “the same yesterday, today, and forever,” who is still struggling and interceding to save the dying multitudes about us from this terrible doom of damnation, and whose voice can be heard above the music, machinery, and noise of life calling on the rescued to come and help Him save the world.

My friends in Christ, you are rescued from the waters, you are on the rock. He is in the dark sea calling on you to come to Him and help Him. Will you go? Look for yourselves. The surging sea of life crowded with perishing multitudes rolls up to the very spot on which you stand. Leaving the vision, I now come to speak of the fact a fact that is as real as the Bible, as real as the Christ who hung upon the cross, as real as the judgment day will be, and as real as the heaven and hell that will follow it.

Look! Don’t be deceived by appearances men and things are not what they seem. All who are not on the rock are in the sea! Look at them from the standpoint of the great white throne, and what a sight you have! Jesus Christ, the Son of God is, through His Spirit, in the midst of this dying multitude, struggling to save them. And He is calling on you to jump into the sea to go right away to His side and help Him in the holy strife. Will you jump? That is, will you go to His feet and place yourself absolutely at His disposal?

A young Christian once came to me and told me that for some time she had been giving the Lord her profession and prayers and money, but now she wanted to give Him her life. She wanted to go right into the fight. In other words, she wanted to go to His assistance in the sea. As when a man from the shore seeing another struggling in the water, takes off those outer garments that would hinder his efforts, and leaps to the rescue so will you who still linger on the bank, thinking and singing and praying about the poor perishing souls, lay aside your shame, your pride, your cares about other people’s opinions, your love of ease and all the selfish loves that have kept you back for so long, and rush to the rescue of this multitude of dying men and women?

Does the surging sea look dark and dangerous? Unquestionably it is so. There is no doubt that the leap for you, as for every one who takes it, means difficulty and scorn and suffering. For you it may mean more than this. It may mean death. He who beckons you from the sea however, knows what it will mean and knowing, He still calls to you and bids you come.

You must do it! You cannot hold back. You have enjoyed yourself in Christianity long enough. You have had pleasant feelings, pleasant songs, pleasant meetings, and pleasant prospects. There has been much of human happiness, much clapping of hands and shouting of praises, very much of heaven on earth. Now then, go to God and tell Him you are prepared as much as necessary to turn your back upon it all, and that you are willing to spend the rest of your days struggling in the midst of these perishing multitudes, whatever it may cost you.

You must do it. With the light that is now broken in upon your mind, and the call that is now sounding in your ears, and the beckoning hands that are now before your eyes, you have no alternative. To go down among the perishing crowds is your duty. Your happiness from now on will consist in sharing their misery, your ease in sharing their pain, your crown in helping them to bear their cross, and your heaven in going into the very jaws of hell to rescue them. Now, what will you do?


by General William Booth