Pray for us, and Preparation for Revival (3)

Mary Jane and I will be traveling to Baltimore this weekend to visit with my Mom and to speak at the Middle River Assembly of God for both the morning and the evening services. Please pray for a safe journey there and back, rich fellowship with Mom and the saints of the Middle River AOG and for the Spirit's rich anointing in both of these church services. Thank you so much, and God Bless!

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1 John 5:14-15: “This is the confidence which we have before Him that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.” These verses align beautifully with the first half of 2 Chronicles 7:14: “and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face . . . .”

If we were to record our prayers over any given period of time, have those recordings transcribed and then categorized those prayers, how many of them would be truly focused on the Father and seeking to do His will, and how many of them would be focused on our needs, wants and desires. Remember always, please, the example of our Lord Jesus who said that His “food” was “to do the will of Him who sent Me and accomplish His works” (John 4:34). Seeking the Father’s will instead of our own is one aspect of our humbling ourselves and seeking His face. (We will deal with others anon.)

It is right and proper to make our needs and desires known to our Father. Paul exhorts us in Philippians 4:6, “. . . in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God.” He delights in meeting our needs, and we know that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father or lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning: (James 1:17).

When Jesus taught His disciples to pray (Matthew 6:9 ff; Luke 11:2 ff), He made provision for us to petition the Father for our daily bread (physical sustenance), forgiveness of our debts (sins), and deliverance (protection and rescue) from the evil one, but His direction to us in prayer is that our first priorities would be (a) to revere the Father’s name, that it might be “hallowed” or sanctified by both our confession and our lifestyle, and (b) that we make the faith declaration that the Father’s kingdom would come (into our lives, into our society and into the whole earth), that His will might be done on earth as it is being done in heaven!

When we align ourselves in prayer, faithfully, consistently, persistently and passionately, with these priorities, we are then positioning ourselves before Him in such a way that He can trust us with the Treasure of the Outpouring of His Spirit in Revival!

(To be Continued . . . .)

Preparation for Revival (2)

One of the most scriptures most frequently referred to when one hears about Revival is 2 Chronicles 7:14. In its context this verse referred to God’s promise to Solomon, because Solomon had built the Temple and dedicated it to the LORD with many sacrifices, and the LORD said to Solomon (vv. 12b-13), “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, of if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, (v. 14) and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Note that the LORD does specify precisely why He would cause such calamities to come upon Israel, but we can clearly infer from the phrase in v. 14 “will forgive their sin” that it would be in response to their sins, normally of idolatry as was their custom so very many times in the past. The LORD viewed this as “spiritual adultery.”

In my recent experience in Brazil, I learned that the most urgent desire of the pastors of every church where I ministered was on the subject of Revival. Beginning with this passage from 2 Chronicles 7 I began to seek the Father intensively during all of my spare time about Revival. I was almost shocked to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit in my heart say to me that He had been preparing me to teach on this for the past seven (7) years!

The first place I was led was to 1 John 5:14-15. Please read and meditate on this passage that we might walk step-by-step together in that which the Father has been revealing to me.

(to be Continued . . . .)

Preparation for Revival (1)

Our God is totally sovereign. He can choose to send Revival upon any group of people at anytime, anywhere. It is totally in the Father’s hands. However, our God is not haphazard! He values the outpouring of His Spirit, because such a Blessing is no trifle! It is, indeed, His very Life-force that he is giving to His people as a Gift of immense proportions. Our God is, furthermore, a God of great benevolence. Once He pours out His Spirit upon a people, tribe, tongue or nation there is an “overflow” that splashes out upon others who receive the Blessings of this overflow, and “worth” is not an issue. That is Salvation comes to the lost, Healing and deliverance to the needy and the hurting, because, just as He send the “rain upon the just and the unjust” alike (Matthew 5:45), so, too, does He send forth His Spirit of Revival upon the just and the unjust alike ~ Praise Him!

We also know that the truths and the principles of the Christian life are revealed to us in the Word of God, and there is always a balance that we must be aware of and apply, if we expect the Father to hear and answer our prayers for Him to send Revival. This is so important for us to understand. For example, Jesus tells us in Luke 12:48b, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.” Those of us who are seeking the LORD God to send Revival to us must understand this and appreciate the fact that we have been abundantly blessed with revelation, teaching, resources and knowledge of His Word, and He will hold us accountable to function accordingly.

On the other hand, regardless of what we do or do not have, what we know or do not know, Jesus also told us in Matthew 7:11 (Luke 11:13), “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give what is good (give the Holy Spirit) to those who ask Him?” We see, then, that there may be some conditions that must be met before we receive this Blessing of Revival we seek. We must be of a right condition – that of being poor in spirit and meek, for example – and we must be of the right state of desire – hungry and thirsty for righteousness, crying out to the Father to be fed!

(To be Continued . . . .)

Brazil Trip - Final Stop

The last leg of my trip to Brazil this year was at the Shalon Church in Curitiba. Curitiba is a major commercial center of 2 million people in the southern part of Parana State. Shalon (we would spell it Shalom) Church is a cell-based church of over 1,500 members with 800+ active cell groups. The pastor, Pastor Ojilon, is the brother who disciples Pastor Enoc of The Baptist Church of Glory in Londrina, and it was upon Pastor Enoc's recommendation that I was asked to speak there. There was an "Encontra" in progress that weekend for married couples alumni. Pastor Eno and his wife, Helena, were participating in this "reunion," and Pastor Ojilon and I had only a limited amount of time to spend together. I was able, however, to share the vision for Missions from Brazil the Lord gave to us in 2004, and he was extremely receptive. He also earnestly desired that I share my concept of the Four Pillars of Revival that I had been sharing with the other pastors, leaders and churches during this visit to Londrina and Marilia.

Before meeting Pastor Ojilon prior to my speaking at the Sunday morning service (6/29), we had not yet met. I had ministered to two of their four worship teams on Saturday afternoon. In additon, I was scheduled to speak at a special service for "jovens," i.e. adolescents and young adults Saturday night. Whenever we serve others, we must always be prepared to be flexible, gracious and to be "ready in season and out!" On the way to the church, my interpreter, Monica, informed me that "oops!" They had double-booked for that evening! I think that what happened was that Pastor Ojilon, in desiring to be gracious to me, had scheduled me to speak at this service "at the last minute," because the other event was a whol team of young people that had been booked several months ago to minister that night.

They do awesome dramatic presentations in Brazil, and this group was scheduled, after the worship session, to do a dramatic presentation followed by a message from the leader of this ministry team; they had traveled a full day's journey from the far northern area of Brazil. Therefore, they asked if I could bring just a short exhortation of about 15 minutes before they turned the service over to their other guests.

The next morning, Sunday, was my first opportunity to meet Pastor Ojilon, but before I was introduced to him, he was greeted by the leaders of both the worship teams and the young people to whom we had ministered the day before. They reported to him that they were so impacted by the brief times of ministry that they wanted him to hear what I had shared with them. Unaware of all of this, we flowed in the morning service with the Word, and many people responded to our invitation for ministry and impartation and several dozen surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

After the service we drove about 45 minutes out of the city to their camp. Following a time of foot-washing and prayer, Pastor Ojilon asked me to bring a "greting" to the married couples at the Encouter. I ministered very briefly, less than 15 minutes on God's commands to us as husbands, wives and parent from Ephesians 5 and Deuteronomy 6.

That evening, when Pastor Ojilon introduced me to the congregation, he shared with them the impact our ministry had on those of the worship team, the young adults and the married couples. He shared that some of the things that he had heard and received that afternoon were new and exciting to him - things he had never heard taught in his 20+ years of ministry! He then turned to me and, through the interpreter, asked me to not share what I had prepared for that night. Instead, he asked that I share with the entire church the full message of which I had shared just a part with the young people the night before.

I ministered on Spiritual Warfare and the Strategic Assaults of Satan in our day - the assaults of and our response to: (1) aggressive, virulent atheism in our schools and universities aimed at stealing the faith of our children, youth and young adults, (2) a militant homosexual agenda aimed at legalizing homosexual marriages in order to destroy marriage and the family as we know it which, in turn, is the foundation of the Church, and (3) radical Islamic jihad, both physical, economic and cultural (legal attempts to permeate our schools and communities). The response to the Word was, once again, powerful as the front of the church filled with those seeking impartation and making a full commitment to become engaged in warfare for and under the banner of Christ Jesus, the King!

I hope to receive a DVD of the video they recorded of that service, and if I do, I will make it available to you as soon as possible.

Once again, I cannot thank you enough for your love, prayers and financial support. May God, our Father, the Messiah Jesus and the presence of the Holy Ghost be with you to bless and empower you and your family day by day!

Hallelujah!!