In his current (10/15/08) Fire in My Bones article, J. Lee Grady asks:

Where is the God of Elijah? Where is the God of Evan Roberts? Where is the true power of God that can sweep over a city and bring backslidden Christians to repentance and hardened sinners to experience the greatest miracle of all—the miracle of new birth?

Under the title- “Lord Give Us Hot Coals From Your Altar!”–Grady explores the Welch revival of 1904. A great post for everyone interested in revival to read.

He recounts how Evan Roberts often presented the same four-point plan for living the Christian life:

(1) confess all known sin

(2) deal with and get rid of anything “doubtful” in your life

(3) be ready to obey the Holy Spirit instantly; and

(4) confess Christ publicly

These points are still filled with anointing today just as they were in 1904.

Come Lord Jesus, send revival across this land from sea to shining sea, to the North, to the South, to the East, and to the West;  let your Spirit fill the churches and change our neighborhoods and our communities. In Jesus Name, Amen.           

(Robert & Aimee Semple via Wikipedia)

This story was sent to me as part of today’s devotional from Charisma OnLine:

A Story & Message from Aimee Semple McPherson:

I remember when Jesus called me to go and preach the gospel, my darling little mother has always stood back of me, God bless her. When I was going out into the work, Mother said, “Aimee (I was about to marry the evangelist under whom I had been converted), who is going to buy your things? You know Robert hasn’t any salary.”

“Mother, I know it.”

“Who is going to buy your shoes, your dresses, and look after you?”

“I don’t know, but I will ask the Lord about it.” I prayed before my open Bible; Jesus spoke from the pages: “Child, take no thought of what you shall eat, drink, or put on. The Lord knows you have need of these things. Consider the lilies, they toil not, neither do they spin, and yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”

I said, “Oh, thank You, Jesus!” And from that day to this I have never worried one second about what I had to eat, drink, and wear.

SCRIPTURE:
Matthew 6:25–34

Picture-Wall Street by Still Burning via Flickr

Lately, the economic news in America and Europe has been rather frightening as one bank and financial institution after another closes or faces bankruptcy with hopes of some kind of bailout.

Recently,there have been reports that the churches near Wall Street have seen lots of financial folks lately on their knees in prayer.

I have read a lot of accounts lately about the economy and no one really seems to know how to correct the mess we are in or whether the ‘bailout bill’ just passed by Congress will actually help or not. Some even think it could make matters worse.

I believe that God is calling his church and his people to stand up in faith and participate in his Kingdom/Revival economy.

I believe that a Kingdom/Revival economy is always successful regardless of the world economic condition.

I believe that God can choose to bless his people regardless of the dominant economy.

I believe that there are a number of important economic principles given to us from the teaching and ministry of Jesus.  The Kingdom/Revival economy starts with Matthew 6:33 and faith is what makes it all work: Seek ye first the Kingdom.

More on this later.    

I’m Still Looking For Revival

Myself, I am still looking for revival to sweep across all of North America and affect 100’s of churches in hundreds of different places all at the same time. Then like a tidal wave engulf the UK and wash up on the shores of France and Northwestern Europe. A revival coming soon near you.

A revival that crosses all the man-made divisions and denominations. A revival with no ‘superstars’ to elevate or tear down. A revival that looks to Jesus, engages culture, and brings repentance and change. A revival with lots of healing, that brings folks closer to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

So many are looking for Jesus to come for his church, I’m looking for him to come to it. Come to it? What exactly does that mean? I’m not entirely sure what that means except it’s a ‘word’ that I keep hearing in the Spirit and the church is going to get closer to Jesus and his people will hear his voice in a profound way.

I look for a revival that will bring with it ‘a changing of the guard’ and a whole bunch of new young leaders.  A revival that will change the face of the American church–the end of ‘churchianity’ and the beginning of greater outreach to the community.

This is what I was looking for when the Lakeland outpouring started and had hoped it would be the beginning of. In spite of all the controversy and division in the aftermath, I am still looking for revival…

I say, Come Lord Jesus and surprise us!  

In the West we recently experienced non-stop TV and Internet services coming from Lakeland, Florida. The participants unfortunately became celebrities over night. But there is an incredible revival going on completely hidden from view in one of the most anti-Christian despotic countries in the world–Iran.

I just read this article over the weekend in the June 2008 Charisma mag.:  “A Martyr’s Cry”  by Joel Kilpatrick.  Wow!, it is a must read for those interested in true revival.

It is the story of Haik Hovsepian, the Iranian AG leader who was martyred for his faith. It is a story about a land that has made it illegal to convert from Islam, however, Christ has different plans for Iran and like China, the Gospel is spreading at a phenomenal rate in this country, totally hidden from view.

Right now Iran is experiencing one of the greatest revivals of modern times–due to supernatural phenomena such as dreams and visions. A few short years ago there were only a few thousand Christians in the country, now there are 200,000+!

According to Carl Moeller, president and chief executive officer of Open Doors USA:

“Iran remains one of the worst places in the world for a Christian to live out their faith, preceded only by North Korea and Saudi Arabia,”

“The abuse of Christians, literally, in the justice system is legendary. Christians do not have the same rights as the other Islamic citizens. They are routinely discriminated against, restricted, and in many cases when they seek to evangelize and disciple, church leaders are arrested, interrogated, tortured and even killed for their faith in Jesus Christ.

“However, the church there is growing incredibly. In Iran there is a revival that maybe is only rivaled by the Chinese revival [of recent years]. Honest, seeking Muslims are having dreams of Jesus Christ.

“Some are being approached by what we can only call angels in parks and being confronted with their personal sins and told they need to come to Jesus Christ. It’s a revival the likes of which we’ve rarely seen in the history of the church. It’s been Holy Spirit-driven through dreams and visions and the technology available to us in the 21st century.”

What an incredible turn of events and totally unprecedented in an Islamic country, praise God! I can’t tell you how encouraging this is to me at this time, thank you Lord.   

The entire nation of Wales was touched by the Welsh Revival (1904-1906). It is said that the effects are still felt among some of the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of those who participated in the Revival. Over 100,000 came to Christ, pubs were closed, police had little of nothing to do, and sports had difficulty finding enough members to field a team.

The revival started with a few unknown young people, including Evan Roberts, 26  who had worked in coal mines and as a blacksmith before receiving a call into the ministry and had just begun his formal training when the Holy Spirit fell. Here’s a good website about the revival if you want to know more.

What if something like the Welsh revival happened today?—In America…

1. Most churches would not know what to put in their bulletins. After all there really is no order to the services. Usually a couple of hymns are sung, a solo or a testimony from the young folks who came along with Roberts, prayer for an hour or so, then Evan Roberts simply declares that everyone should:

1. Confess all known sin

2. Deal with and get rid of anything ‘doubtful’ in your life

3. Be ready to obey the Holy Spirit instantly

4. Confess Christ publicly

Then the holy Spirit falls on the place and folks are there for hours–no one wanting to leave.

2. Some folks will probably want to know what the heck ‘sin’ is?

3. Some will observe that getting rid of everything ‘doubtful’ sounds rather ‘religious’ and Old Testament—where’s the Grace in that?

4. Some of the ‘mega’ churches with televised multiple services would want Roberts and his crew to limit the revival services to exactly 55 minutes.

5. Liquor stores and bars would try to sue Roberts and churches for the loss of business and revenue.

6. The Police union would demand that the cities keep all their police on the payroll even though there’s little for them to do.

7. Restaurants near the larger churches would be unhappy because noon rush now hits between 2 and 4 and there is no way to plan for it.

8. What if there was a Sunday baseball game and nobody came including some of the best players?—Ditto for Football?

9. What if hardly anyone went to the ‘R’ rated movies anymore? Wonder what Hollywood would say about it–or do?

10. Adult books stores would have a hard time staying open & porno websites would lose their traffic.

11. State lotteries would go bust and Gambling joints would close.

12. Secularists and atheists would declare that revival is bad for the economy and needs to be controlled–the ACLU and liberal judges would agree.

13. The entire nation would be transformed as 3/4 of the people in the USA would come to Christ and change their lifestyle.

…If something like the Welsh revival happened today—In America!

Jonathan Edwards preached his famous ‘Great Awakening’ sermon- “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, on July 8, 1741 at Enfield, Mass. (later Connecticut). When I studied “Sinners…” in seminary it was presented as a bad example of ‘hell fire’ sermons that no modern minister would or should ever dare to preach. In Church History class, it seemed like no one could figure out why it became so famous.

Obviously, you had to of been there and the Holy Spirit had to of shown up in an amazing way, and from all accounts that certainly was the case. According to reports of the occasion, Edwards quietly read the sermon with very little flare, but when he started talking about natural un-regenerated people being held in the hand of God over the fiery pit of Hell, a great commotion broke out in the congregation with quite a few folks being convicted by the Holy Spirit. Here is an excerpt from the sermon:

“So that thus it is, that natural men are held in the hand of God over the pit of hell;

they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully provoked,

his anger is as great towards them as to those that are actually suffering the executions of the fierceness of his wrath in hell,

and they have done nothing in the least to appease or abate that anger,

neither is God in the least bound by any promise to hold `em up one moment;

the devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up;…”

It is said that when Edwards spoke with this imagery of Hell, that some in the church that day actually felt and saw the fiery pits of hell beneath their feet and smelled the burning sulfur. Historians find those accounts to be suspect (I don’t). However, regardless of what really happened, many came to Christ that day following Edward’s invitation at the end:

Therefore let everyone that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come.

The wrath of almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over great part of this congregation:

let everyone fly out of Sodom:

“Haste and escape for your lives, look not behind you, escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed” [Gen. 19:17]

What if Edwards preached his famous sermon today? Probably a better question- could it be preached today?:

1. The board of Elders would meet to vote on whether Pastor Edwards should be retained.

2. The UCC denomination would distance themselves from Pastor Edwards ‘negative’ theology. Pastor Jeremiah Wright would probably be a spokesman at a press conference.

3. The Professors at Yale University where Edwards graduated from would condemn the ‘exclusive’ theology of the sermon and promise to censure any future books or publications.

3. One lady with an unbelieving husband, in the congregation that day, would be on the evening news condemning the Pastor for scaring them and saying that a loving God would send ‘good folks’  like them to an everlasting Hell.

4. On “55 Minutes” TV show over the next weekend, a psychologist from Harvard would explain how it was all a hoax, that Edwards obviously hypnotized the entire congregation with his ‘hellish’ imagery just to increase the size of his church and get larger offerings. After all, Edwards is a maniac with 10 children.

5. On Bible Radio, the Dr. Smiley the chief cult headhunter would explain that the ‘Hell experience’ was similar to what ‘mind control’ cults subject their members too.

6. Jewish rabbi Dr. Conn on the weekend ‘Religion Dialogue’ TV show would be offended that Edward’s implied that ‘righteous people’ who don’t believe in Christ would end up in Hell. The Right Rev. Dr. Bishop Wonderful of the Episcopal Church would agree and sympathize. Dr. Ali of the Islamic U. would find that it is the first time that he actually agreed with a Rabbi.

Dr. Donald, the famous atheist, would point out that it confirms what he said in his latest book about religion being a divisive force that needed to be controlled. Pastor Charlie of the 20,000 member Valley Community Church would explain that most Christians today preach about the ‘love’ of God and how preaching about Hell is not the norm and actually a bad idea if you want to grow a large effective community organization and church reaching out in today’s culture.

The panel would conclude by agreeing that ‘God’s love for all people’ needed to be stressed today in the face of radical fundamentalist religion.

7. Osama Muhammad the al Queda leader would come on Algazerra TV and lay out plans to send Edwards and his entire congregation to hell in the name of Allah. After all, a visiting Muslim student converted to Christ that day.  

8. There would be at least 10 blog posts about how the service reminded them of the ‘so-called’ Toronto revival. According to reports, there were all sorts of undefinable noises coming from the congregation.  Some sounded like animals and many were flat on their faces just unintelligently moaning and groaning.

God could never be the author of such a confusing uproar. After all, show me in the Bible where anyone ever experienced the fires of Hell beneath their feet!

…If Edwards preached his famous sermon today!