Live Video TONIGHT at 7pm (central time) : Revival : What to expect

First, in just under one hour I’ll be LIVE on video with others talking about revival and the coming moves of God in our nation.  Simply enter the room at www.praytherevolution.com/live and watch, listen and interact in the chat room.

I received an email of a blog post from my friend J.D. King the other day, and I feel it’s important to pass it onto you.

I have met many people who are nervous at best and skeptical at worst when people start ‘manifesting’ in a church service. 

Now, I know as well as you do that many people do get caught up in the emotion of such an event, and often times it’s not a direct response to a direct encounter with God.  Sometimes it’s a hungry person wanting something so badly that they initiate what they desire to experience.  Other times it can be the reaction of flesh to a new supernatural environment.  And, sometimes, it’s an overpowering encounter with God.

A scenario I often present and a question I often ask is this: God created the sun. The sun causes humans to react in a variety of ways depending on the degree of its intensity.  For example, if we stare into it, we see spots and we feel it in our eyes.  If we stand on black top somewhere near the equator with our bare feet, we can be scalded.  If we were to suddenly find ourselves in the center of the sun, we’d burn up instantly.

Now the question- if God simply created the sun, and God’s creation can cause us to react severely, how can we presume to stand in his presence with no obvious reaction?  If God’s in the room, do we just bow our heads reverently and stand there until the moment passes?  No way!

When God’s in the room we feel it!  We react!

In a moment I’ll share J.D.’s blog post with you, but first I want to share two chapters with you from my book, 20 Elements of Revival.  It’s one of the elements or phases that we are to expect as we move closer to revival in our churches and in our cities:

Element Three

Acts 2:2-3 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them.

Churches can’t be birthed out of human strength, wisdom or knowledge. It simply must be a supernatural move of the Holy Spirit. In fact, I believe it’s mandatory to avoid moving to latter elements until element three and four have become a standard and identifying trait of our ministry. We’ll look at element four in a moment.

Element Three- An extreme Spirit-filled environment

When I was a youth pastor in the San Diego area I was presented with a request. Every Friday night we would start the night with an hour of passionate prayer and then continue into a night of extreme Spirit-filled worship, preaching and ministry time. We’d start at 6pm and wouldn’t end many nights until after 11pm. We made no apologies for our radical behavior. When the weather allowed (which was often in San Diego!) we would set up on the lighted basketball court which was right next to the highway. Cars would often honk as they witnessed a bizarre scene of wild dance, lifted hands and seeming disorderly conduct! One night a core member of the youth group approached me. He wanted to bring his friends, who were not saved, but was convinced they would ‘freak out’ if they walked into such an environment. He thought a more sedate service would make it easier for them to comfortably encounter Jesus. Such a mind-set is draining the Church of its power! I challenged this young man. “Nick, bring them. Bring them and watch what happens.” He did bring them, and they all got saved in the furnace of Holy Spirit activity. Somewhere along the line many have bought into the idea that a more social and toned down introduction to God would result in mass salvations. We forget that without the fire of the Holy Spirit there is little to draw people into a passionate relationship with Jesus! We don’t need another socially tepid atmosphere- we need to invite the Holy Spirit to move among us! We must repent for embracing the idea that we have what it takes to compel people to ‘get saved’, when in fact it is the supernatural and stunning invasion of an invisible Force into a desperate heart that results in a deep and intimate relationship with our Father! May there be an expectation of angelic visitations, prophetic activity, signs and wonders, miracles and a fire so hot that anybody that walks into the room falls on their face and cries, “Holy!” There have been many times in my ministry where God was drawing us into a deeper place corporately. We might be compelled to sit in hushed silence for an extended period of time during a Sunday service, or quite the opposite may feel God so strongly that we groan and collapse to the ground. I’ll admit that as I look around at the crowd, and notice that several people are uncomfortable and disconnected, that the temptation is there to ‘tone it down’. After all, it wouldn’t feel good at all if ‘God moved’ this week and half the people didn’t return next week. Listen closely- I believe that such an attitude in the coming years will result in a severe judgment from God. We must NOT touch the presence of God lightly. God simply must conduct every corporate meeting. One should rarely look like another. Prophecy, dance, ‘groans that cannot be uttered’, brokenness, deliverance and other manifestations of the Holy Spirit must be expected, embraced and contended for. As we do this, many people won’t want to come to our Churches. Some will. Remember, we are not there to set up a system that will please people, but a temple that will be a dwelling place of the mighty Creator of the universe! Everything we do should be about the presence of God. As we do this, the unsaved will suddenly find themselves healed, delivered, free from addiction, seeing visions, having dreams, experiencing angels and desperately in love with Jesus! I made a serious commitment to God and to the current RHOP team. I would never allow our atmosphere in our prayer events or services to be toned down ‘out of respect’ of those less hungry. If a visitor comes through the door, the fire must burn hotter not cooler! Many Churches purposely have a less ‘offensive’ service as their main service and then have a ‘believer’s service’ at another time of the week. How can this be? The purpose of the church IS NOT to draw visitors! It’s to be a place of fire and prayer, teaching and challenge. This element is non-negotiable. A seeker-sensitive program may have its place in a Church- but not here! Not at this critical stage of the development of a city-wide dwelling place of the Most Holy One! We must remember the purpose of a Church- it is to be a house of prayer for all nations. That is the reason for its existence! If we press in and pray and worship and cry out night and day for weeks, months and years to come, we will experience a perpetual stirring of an atmosphere of fire. Prayer is a primary ministry, not something that simply paves the way for another ‘more important’ activity. This desperate hunger for God’s presence will cause us to dwell with Him for hours on end day after day. We won’t be so worried about a ‘messy’ Church service. We’ll err on the side of freedom as
people discover how to live a Holy Spirit driven life.

Element Six

Acts 2:6 And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language.

Element Six- It will be ‘messy’- different than the cultural norm

As we take everything that has preceded this point in ministry- all of the fire and agreement and prophetically established plans of action- we can expect people to look on us with wild confusion. When it goes public, it will be a strange and unique invasion into their world. As we have discovered previously, we don’t tone down the strange and wild flow of the Holy Spirit- we expect it to be turned up- way, way up! A roadblock that we have unwittingly established in our pursuit of the development of the City Church is that of relevance. We hear about the ‘emerging Church’ and being relevant in that context so it is easier for the lost to grasp the truth of God. The problem? There is more than one. First, such a mind-set presumes the culture of the world is somewhat normal and we must play ‘catch up’ in order to more easily be understood and welcomed into that world. We forget that the world we are attempting to invite people into will totally shock their system! When they find the life of Jesus in a legitimate way they will be speaking in tongues, prophesying, dancing in the Spirit, praying without ceasing and exhibiting other wild behaviors.  Also, we risk ‘dumbing down’ the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. The things of the Spirit must be discerned spiritually, yet we have become accustomed, even in our Churches, at attempting to grasp and explain God intellectually. Another problem is that we greatly limit God. We try to put ourselves in the other person’s shoes and then decide what type of ministry will be most appropriate for them. This is where the prophetic comes into play. It’s incredibly important that we hear God, receive what he has for us and then pour out accordingly. For example, I once received a letter from a visitor to our Church. He had a hard time believing we were so focused on worship, prayer, the prophetic, etc. He felt that the people of Manitou Springs would only respond to a seeker sensitive type of ministry. This person had a very narrow understanding of what the goal was and what it would take to accomplish it. I’ve heard it said that there have been fourteen Churches in Manitou Springs since the 1980’s that have started and failed within their first two years. This tells me something else must be done. A unique, earth-shaking, Holy Spirit driven move of God that heals, delivers and declares the power of a tangible yet invisible Holy Force is needed here- just as in the days of the first Church. Yes, many will resist. Offense will come. But, so will the abundant life that only comes as we walk in the Spirit. Plus, it’s important to remember the international focus. The mission here isn’t only about the wonderful people of this city, but it’s about the millions of others that will be affected as Manitou Springs becomes a power source for the nations. In our various pursuits of establishing a City Church, we must at this stage of the process be very clear and comfortable with the strategy of God. It will become easy to violate that strategy when demands and critiques start filling your email inbox. Keep in mind- new, apostolic moves of God have to be experienced first, then understood. Gideon’s plan of action would have been (and probably was) mocked, opposed and murmured against. It made no sense at all- but it was the instruction of the Lord. Only he heard it, and he was responsible to obey all the way to completion. It’s the same for us in these end-times. Evaluation Is there a unique, miraculous move of the Holy Spirit starting to pour into the streets? Is it counter cultural? Is it pure and holy and drawing attention to God? Is it slightly strange? Does it shock the local culture rather than affirm it? Be encouraged, you are well on your way to experiencing revival on a city level!

Now, here’s the email from J.D. King regarding the move of God at World Revival Church here in Kansas City:

http://www.worldrevivalchurch.com]
I recently received a highly critical email asking me about the responses of people in our televised revival services. Let me excerpt this email in part:

“I’ve gone to church all my life – 50 years. I had the misfortune of seeing your church service on television. I have never seen such a spectacle in all my life… The rock band screams out something less than coherent while people have what looks like seizures. It seems very concerted. Every third or fourth person is doing this seizure-like thing. Others fall on the ground and are covered by a green blanket. Where is all this in the scriptures?”

What I shared with this individual, I would like to share with you.
While some of the things that are happening in our services might seem unusual, they have precedent in the Bible and in church history. In the revivals of the past, people trembled in the presence of God. You can read about this in the written accounts of the Great Awakenings, the Welsh Revival, Azusa Street and others.
Yet, rather than focusing on history I would like to take a moment and look at Scripture. Throughout the Bible we discover that when people truly encounter God, they have strong reactions. The Lord’s strength and power is so mighty that people are often overpowered.
Moreover, there are a number of Bible passages where a strong response to the presence of God is shown.

• The glory of God overwhelmed the priests as they served in the temple. “The cloud filled the temple of the LORD. And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled his temple.” (1 Kings 8:10-11)

• Later, Ezekiel was literally overcome. “This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. When I saw it, I fell facedown” (Ezekiel 1:28).

• In a similar manner, Daniel was overwhelmed in the presence of God. “ I had no strength left, my face turned deathly pale and I was helpless. Then I heard him speaking, and as I listened to him, I fell into a deep sleep, my face to the ground. A hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees” (Daniel 10:8-11).

• When the unbelieving Romans were trying to take Jesus, they were overcome with His glory. “When Jesus said, "I am he," they drew back and fell to the ground” (John 18:6).

• The Apostle Paul was struck to the ground in the glory of God. “Suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’” (Acts 9:3-4)

• John the Revelator was significantly impacted, like others in the scriptures. “His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. When I saw Him, I fell at his feet as though dead” (Revelation 1:16-17)

I understand that what is happening in our midst is different than what you are used to. Yet, different does not mean unscriptural.
When Jesus touches a heart, there is great joy and passion. His power literally overwhelms. While this might look strange to others, it makes perfect sense to the one experiencing it.
If you are not comfortable with what is happening in our midst, that is okay. I would just ask you to let us go on walking an
d leaping and praising God as best as we can.
Again, thank you for your concerns. We trust the Lord will continue to bless you and enable you to grow in His grace!
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Posted By J.D. King to World Revival Network at 1/13/2009 10:31:00 AM

Thoughts?