Many Christian leaders hope to
see a big revival, locally or nationally.
I expect some see the recent presidential election result as great
encouragement in this. They along with
other believers well bemoan the great fall away from God in the country. They bemoan the falling morality and the
terrible behaviors we see everywhere.
Over recent years, we have all
seen efforts from well-meaning pastors and believers to move toward that
revival. In the area where I live, one
church for years held an all-night prayer meeting once a week to pray for the
city, the hope no doubt being to lead to a revival.
So many have seen actions like
that. But I have not seen anything come
out of this beyond whatever happened in that specific effort and the people
involved. I may not know all that
happened, of course, but certainly no regional revival took place. Our own community demonstrates the fall away
just as the nation does.
In some of our own past meetings
– especially healing services but also other programs open to and led by the
Holy Spirit - God did indeed show up in a powerful way, people were touched and
healed and amazed. People experienced
the presence and power of God like they never had. It was all wonderful. For years I thought these meetings and what
God was doing would lead to more and more being drawn in. But it never happened. Only once during an inner city healing
service did a woman attending call people she knew on her cell phone and tell
them to get down there while the meeting was underway. She did not want her friends and family to
miss it. But in general, even at the
most wonderful meetings where so many were touched and greatly impacted, people
did not go and bring all their neighbors and friends and others to future
programs as happened in the giant revivals of times past. There was no big revival.
Why not?
I am still wondering and
searching.
Best answer? It was
not God’s time.
We are in the last of the last
days. Well-meaning, serious Christian
leaders and others hope and pray for such a revival, but they likely either are
- or should be - coming to the realization they just don’t know how to make
that happen. They don’t know how to organize the effort so it will work. They don’t know what the effort should look
like.
That is not really their fault.
It is not their revival. They can’t do it on their own.
That is just not going to be the
way a revival in the last days will happen.
I’m talking about a real breakthrough where people really encounter God,
where people become born again Spirit-filled believers, where there is a
recognizable and significant move of God impacting the people and the region in
which they live, and hopefully even in the country as a whole, where large
numbers of unbelievers become real believers.
Here is a big lesson I have learned, and in a discussion recently
with one of my minister friends, I see he has learned it too. The
lesson: It is not going to come about
by serious people planning programs and campaigns and praying and asking God to
bless and guide the programs they have designed. Nope.
Those are actions of men. Even
though God has blessed such actions in the past, even though many ministers may
want to try one more time, even though God always blesses the preaching of the
gospel, that is not how the last days' revival will happen. It is going to come about by God himself
taking the actions he intends at his perfect time.
Now this is what will most likely happen. At some moment in the future the Holy Spirit
will move to make this all come about.
He will organize. He will put
together the organization and the steps and actions, no doubt I believe using
those really serious sold-out believers.
God has the plans. Jesus knows
what should happen. And the Holy Spirit
will put it all together.
Those whom God will use in this
as his workers will have to be absolutely open to him. No pride.
No seeking fame or glory at all for themselves. We are way past the point in time of building
careers. Sold-out. Those God will use must have great
patience. They must be at peace with not
following that natural desire to step out and take some action. Any action they take on their own will be
fruitless. It is God’s actions through
them, God’s words and plans, that will count.
We have to be open and seeking and listening. We have to see with spiritual eyes, hear with
spiritual ears. This last revival will
be like the end time judgment, an action God takes in his perfect knowledge and
wisdom and timing.
It is all God. All God.
He has put you where you are, and he will work through you and use you
in all this if you are in the right relationship with him and patient and open
and listening.
Remember: We can’t do it ourselves. No, we can’t.
Not alone. To fulfill his plan,
his objective, his assignment, he has to do it.
The plan and the approach is his, not ours. We have to become nothing. We must give ourselves up entirely. Be consciously and unconsciously open to what
he is doing, sensitive to him always, not ever pressing or forcing anything
that we think must happen but rather letting him work through us to accomplish
his plan, ready always to move and act as he would have us. We are not taking the initiative. He is.
Remember that old term - dying to
self. Dying to the old self, the old
priorities, the old interests, the old objectives. We are still learning what that means. We must learn what that means.
We must be absolutely ready to go
forward, to wage the battle, to do all that is required – at his guiding
through us. It is his initiative. He takes the initiative. He moves…through us and also directly as he
chooses.
It’s not us stepping out. More than ever, at this time in history, no
evidence or glory of or for us. It is
all about you, Lord. It is all you,
Lord. Everything. And if we don’t know
or see how something is to go forward or might happen that you have revealed to
us, well, that’s alright. You will reveal
what you want us to know at your time, your perfect time. It is never our time that counts, but yours.
One last thing: I do think this revival will not come about
in the format or ways of past historical revivals. I think it will not come through the normal
traditional practices of established churches, so many of which are so far
adrift from where we are in time and from teaching the full gospel and from
being true to God and his word. Rather, I
think somehow it will be out in the public arena, regardless of where meetings
and gatherings and such are held. It
will come about through the new wineskins I have been writing about. After all, it needs to reach all those who
don’t know. Maybe God will do some
overwhelming and undeniable miracles that will suddenly wake people up –
perhaps direct miracles or perhaps through people we would not expect or people
we do expect. Don’t know.
We are near this happening. Of course we are. We are near the return of the Lord.
Stay alert, focus on Jesus, keep
your spiritual eyes and ears open. Pray
in the Spirit at all times.
It is an amazing time to be
alive. Not pleasant. But amazing.
Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!
(December
2016)
Copyright © 2016 by John
Newlin
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