If you should attend an American Christian Church it's likely that at some point you'll hear the term "Revival" used. In conjunction, you'll probably also hear the word "Evangelism" spoken as well. These words conjure up images of fiery preaching that takes place in a tent on a steamy summer night by a traveling minister of the Gospel. Or perhaps a man standing on a street corner passing out gospel tracts to passersby attempting to engage them in a one on one discussion as to the eternal destiny of their souls. Everyone who calls himself a Christian has been commissioned to "go out into the world and make disciples" by whatever means is available to them. To that end, Americans give enormous amounts of money to support our local church's and overseas missionaries. Some of us are also involved in various capacities within the church or are busy conducting outreach ministries. With all of these ongoing evangelistic endeavors I wonder why the church is still in need of revival. What I mean is, given the number of Christians in this country and all of the efforts being put forth by them I would think that we would have folks standing outside the doors of our church's waiting to get in but of course that's not the case. Instead, statistics I've seen say that for every church that opens one closes and that most of the new members added are simply people who became dissatisfied in some way with their previous church.
It's really not that difficult to get new people to come to your church. As I mentioned previously, Some congregations offer relevant targeted programs designed to be of interest to people outside the church to get them inside the doors. There are door to door invitations that are extended to people and even personal canvassing of one's own friends and extended circle of influence. All of these are good and you'll almost always get some response from them. And while you may see a bump in the attendance numbers for a few weeks too often that's about it! While this is perhaps an acceptable scenario if one is selling Amway or some other multilevel marketing product to people, I don't feel as though it's an outcome that we as the church should be satisfied with.
Being able to keep what you have is a critical principle of heating and cooling that's accomplished by using insulation, we can get all of the people we want into the church but without having Jesus to meet them and keep them there we're wasting our time! If we're NOT living in victory and demonstrating to them a genuine and powerful life changing faith empowered by His Holy Spirit or offering them a hope that's beyond this life and showing them the love that's been shown to us then exactly what do we have to offer them? If people who come to our church's can't see Jesus in us then we have a much bigger problem on our hands than how to fill our sanctuaries. If weve not crucified our flesh or died to our"selves" then that's about all they'll see is a bunch of hypocrites! The devil will make sure of that...
I believe that we as the church have got to put our own spiritual house in order if we truly want to be the vessel God uses to bring revival in our nation! It's our personal choice to make whether we want to be the church of Laodacea or the church of Philadelphia, I say personal because each of us is a walking talking "church of something" we're all "selling what we're living"! I say "choice" because God gave all of us a free will, and we're free to decide which area's we do and don't give over to God. We each must individually choose to make Jesus Lord over everything in our lives! The alternative is to presume that the Holy Spirit is going to cohabitate with a bunch of dirty stinking rotten sin that we're still holding onto in our lives...or even worse, that He's unable or unwilling to deliver us from it... which is a lie straight out of the pit of hell!
That's living in defeat, not victory! We're called to Holiness which is the highest expression of love toward Jesus,Others and Yourselves! It's also the greatest aversion to everything which isn't holy, that means that we as individuals should have no tolerance for any form of sin in our lives! It is to be rooted out and dealt with. No exceptions, no blaming or finger pointing at each other, no excuses as to why we just can't do that or why "That stuff just happens" ...We've been empowered by the blood of Christ to be that Holy, spotless, bride of Christ and we're either going to pick that up and run with it or we're going to let the Devil deceive us into "Not being so unrealistic" or perhaps he'll convince us that by doing that we'll be "over our heads" and might find ourselves in places we've never been that are scary! Oh they're scary all right, but not to us! they are however terrifying to the demons we're harboring and if you want to see the devil squirm and panic build an altar in your home and then use it! Keep a prayer log of things you've prayed for and the answers you've gotten, or how about getting rid of that "portal of sin" known as a television!!! OOOHHHH! you really hate me now! You choose! blessings or curses, excuses or victories, ourselves or Jesus, our will or the Fathers, We've been deceived into believing that we can have both by the liar and we most certainly...cannot.
More than anything, I want to truly be crucified with Christ, to be a new creation that the Holy Spirit would find willing, empty and ready to be filled, So let it begin with my surrender!
I can't change anybody, but I believe that if I die to myself and am filled with the Spirit then ALL things become possible with Christ!
John 12:32
"And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself."
He said that by His death, which happened when they lifted Him up on a cross after nailing Him to it...that all men would be drawn unto Him.
You want a revival so great that you won't believe it? Do you want to see a move of the Spirit like what happened at Pentecost? I'm looking for it to happen at least one more time before He returns for His church, and I believe that when it does happen it's going to stun and bewilder the entire world! I want to work that harvest, and even though it's late in the day I'm signing on...Will you come too?
This is my first move!
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