More than Revival

There is a hunger for more-
A cry for God's power and might-
A yearning for what many call 'revival'.

The enemy, it appears to many,
has come in like a flood.
The waters are rising dangerously fast.

When will God raise up a standard against?
What will he do? How will he do it?

When you did terrible things that we looked not for,
you came down... Isaiah64.3


Years ago, when I was seeing signs from the Lord
that he in fact was planning a mighty 'move' of the Spirit,
the word 'revolution' was dropped into my spirit.

When this was given to me it was actually just bare bones.
First came the word 'revolution' and then three more words:
repentance, revival, and restoration.

I understood at this time that these three R's
signified three different and distinct phases of spiritual revolution.

I concluded that the
Spirit of God that guides into all truth
was pointing to more than that which we commonly refer to as ‘revival’
and that our attention is being drawn to a revolutionary
and scriptural process.

One writer declared, 'we are past the point of revival'.
Something more is needed.

The 'more' is contained in the understanding of revolution:
earth shaking, mind shattering, heartbreaking, life transforming- revolution.

Revival is talked about as though it were an end in itself.
We need to see it as part of a larger process.

Jesus didn't come to bring just revival.
He said that no stone would be left upon another
and in the new creation we discover
that this has been accomplished on every level.

No, the fire he sent in the earth was the fire of a mighty revolution..

"I am come to send fire in the earth..." Luke 12.49


So after I got the bare bones of this I was led to more,
given more light and revelation, so as to flesh it out.

...and when I beheld, lo, the sinews
and the flesh came up upon them...Ezekiel 37.18


It was years later that it dawned on me that the passage
in second Chronicles describes this very process.

If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray
and turn from their wicked ways(repentance),
I will hear from heaven (revival)
and forgive their sin and turn and heal their land (restoration).
2 Chronicles 7.14


We are going to see dramatic change.

God is indeed going to do things we looked not for.
He is going to do exceedingly abundantly above anything
we can think or even ask.

And when its all said and done we will see that he did indeed
fulfill our great expectations. The God of promise
becomes for us the God of fulfillment.


And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God;
we have waited for him, and he will save us:
this is the LORD; we have waited for him,
we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation. *
Isaiah 25:9 KJV

War on the Saints

A spiritual maxim was communicated to me years ago that went like this:

The Word without the spirit is death
The Spirit without the Word leads to deception.

For many years I felt like I was experiencing
the first precept of the saying.
That is: experiencing a lot of the preaching
of the word and man's emphasis on the Word
but a real lack of Spirit
communicated with the Word preached.

Not only was there a lack of power in most preaching
but there was a limiting of the Spirit in allowing
others to move in their spiritual gifting.

I experienced countless meetings
where I would be refreshed by the Spirit of God
during a time of praise and worshipful singing
only to have the life sucked out of me
by a speaker who blabbed on powerlessly ad nauseum.
Why do all these guys think
they have to fill an hour with their much speaking?

And then there was the frustration
of not finding opportunity to express
ones own spritiual gifts,
except on the rare occasion,
even when the scripture teaches that our coming together
was to be just for this each and every time.

How is it then, brethren?
when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm,
hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation,
hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.
1 Corinthians 14.26

And so, in reference to such as that
I was seeing the truth of the above maxim played out
in relation to the deadness and powerlessness
of the modern church gatherings
where the Kingdom is not supposed to be in 'word' but in power.

On the other side of the equation:
the idea of too much Spirit leading to deception
when not kept within the parameters
of scriptural truth I had only read about but never experienced.

Well, that is not true anymore.

Now is being played out before our eyes
this other aspect of the above stated truism
ie. that Spirit without Word leads to deception.

Now, I won't go into that.
We talk about it all the time on the itnernet
these days it seems as the Watchmen of God are warning
of modern error and deception.

Suffice it to say, that in our modern worship if you
cannot find it in the scripture it should be avoided.

When it says pray lifting holy hands good and well.
Praise, dance, shout, OK.
But blowing whistles and barking like a dog or roaring like a lion.
That goes beyond the parameters of the Holy Writ.

What I would like to do is to point you to a quote
found in a book which can be found online and
the truth shared below:



THE BASIC PRINCIPLE FOR TESTING TEACHINGS
BY TEACHING SPIRITS

Since thought, or "belief," originates either from the God of Truth, or the father of lies (John 8: 44), there is but one basic principle for testing the source of all doctrines, or "thoughts" and "beliefs," held by believers, or unbelievers, i.e., the test of the revealed Word of God.

All "truth" is in harmony with the only channel of revealed truth in the world--the written Word of God. All "teachings" originating from deceiving spirits--

Weaken the authority of the Scriptures;
Distort the teaching in the Scriptures;
Add to the Scriptures the thoughts of men; or
Put the Scriptures entirely aside.
The ultimate object being to hide, distort, misuse, or put aside the revelation of God concerning the Cross of Calvary, where Satan was overthrown by the God-Man, and where freedom was obtained for all his captives.

The test of all "thought" and "belief" therefore is its
Harmony with the written Scriptures in its full body of truth.
The attitude to the Cross, and sin. ****


The above quote was taken from the book War on the Saints
by Jesse Penne Lewis and can be found in its entirety online.


I thought this was excellent and really pertinent
to what were are seeing in the
church in this hour.