Saturday, October 29, 2011

The Quest For Revival

I am writing this post out of heartbreak from an article I just read.  In my life I have had the opportunity to be in some powerful services.  I have been apart of many "major" revivals.  I stood in line for hours in a thunderstorm at Brownsville waiting to get in.  Back in 1994 I went to the Toronto blessing.  I have been in meetings with the Gray's from Smithton and several times with the staff from Brownsville. 

That being said, I am asking the same thing as the title of the article I read, "What Happened to Brownsville's Fire?"  Please click on the title to read the article.

If you have read any of my blogs then you will notice a trend.  I have an opinion on how to sustain revival.  I have my opinion on where most revivals go wrong. 

If you were part of Brownsville then you know that almost every message was repent, come running to the mercy seat, get your heart right with God.  Through this message countless lives where brought into the Kingdom.  People were set free and the Body of Christ saw times of refreshing.  However, the message of the law that leads us to Christ is the beginning.  The Bible says that the law is our tutor that brings us to Christ. (Gal. 3:24) "But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor." ~ Gal. 3:25 What should happen in every move of God that begins with repentence is that we move past it into the victory we have in Christ. 

Revival can be sustained for a season with preaching of the law.  The Bible says that the law has glory.  But it is a glory that is fading. (II Cor 3:7)  However, if the message preached switches from the law to the glory found in Christ and being made His righteousness, now we have a message that can bring people from glory to glory.  (II Cor. 3:9)

People shouldn't leave "revival" hurt, dusallusioned and in despair.  They should leave passionate, full of the Spirit ready to shake the world! 

( II Cor. 3:7 - 11) But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it. For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory.
 ( II Cor. 3:12 - 18) Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech, and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away. But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.