Attitudes that accompany revival
My friend stopped by for a chat last night. We were talking about what’s going on in current events and the huge need in our nation for massive revival.
She then whipped out a section of Scripture (James 3:13-16) from the Message Bible that blew me away. We had been discussing the fact that prayer alone won’t bring an awakening, but that it must be accompanied by humbling ourselves and true repentance. What she shared was an illustration of how that might look. Here are the verses—buckle your seatbelts!
“Do you want to be counted wise, to build a reputation for wisdom? Here’s what you do: Live well, live wisely, live humbly. It’s the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts. Mean-spirited ambition isn’t wisdom. Boasting that you are wise isn’t wisdom. Twisting the truth to make yourselves sound wise isn’t wisdom. It’s the furthest thing from wisdom—it’s animal cunning, devilish conniving. Whenever you’re trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others’ throats.”
Verses 17-18 go on to say, “Real wisdom, God’s wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results ONLY IF YOU DO THE HARD WORK OF GETTING ALONG WITH EACH OTHER, TREATING EACH OTHER WITH DIGNITY AND HONOR.”
Mercy, humility, integrity, and compassion must be built into our lifestyle and accompany our praying and bold stance in the Word in this strange age. As we relinquish arrogant pride and the need to be the smartest, the wisest, or the most important, God can back our words, our prayers, and our lives, flooding the earth with what may be the last great outpouring from Heaven.
Dorothy
Read MoreDeep calls to deep
“In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.” Genesis 7:11
“He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.‘” John 7: 38
“Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts…” Psalm 42:7a KJV
A while back while praying with some other folks, I experienced the presence of God in an unusual way. Waves of worship in languages given by the Spirit of God filled the atmosphere, spilling out in joy, peace, and great awe. It felt as if I had entered a river, toes first, splashing and washing away the tiredness of my flesh. I saw swirling eddies and light dancing in the water with my mind’s eye, and realized that, try as we might, no human could really control a living river.
As I worshipped God, I reflected upon rivers I had known—fishing expeditions with my dad, float trips with my friends, rope swings over deeply-rooted banks, and the torrents of flood waters that often crash through the mighty rivers of my region. Rivers—life-giving, playful, refreshing, cleansing, powerful, dangerous, destructive—rivers.
I sang quietly to myself, “Oh, oh, the River of God! Wash it away, wash it away, wash it away in the River of God!” The river of God was washing me, and I allowed it to carry me into the deeper flows of the peace of God.
Then I caught a glimpse of how an outpouring of God might begin upon a people or a land. God said to Jeremiah, “…call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you…” (see Jeremiah 29:12-14).
When the heart cries of God’s people are toward Him, seeking Him with their whole beings for mercy, salvation, and restoration to be poured out upon themselves and their land, He listens and responds. During times of chaos, distress, crisis, and upheaval, men and women have cried out to God earnestly, beseeching Him for deliverance from their backslidings and sin, crying out for relief from the fruit of wickedness in the land. And as a result, revivals have nearly always erupted in those darker times.
By Noah’s time, although the earth was still young, wickedness had spiraled out of control and evil permeated the thoughts and intentions of the human race. The world was not merely corrupted by sin; it was saturated in it. Violence, greed, and all types of perversion ruled the day, and God had seen enough.
He directed Noah to build an ark for the preservation of the race and every animal species on the earth. According to 2 Peter 2:5, it is likely that Noah preached righteousness to anyone who happened by throughout the entire ark-construction project. The door to the ark was left open until the last minute; had anyone taken Noah’s message to heart, my guess is that they would have been welcomed aboard.
Genesis 7:11 gives the report of the fateful day when the flood began. “All the fountains of the great deep burst open” declares the Word, “and the floodgates of the sky were opened.”
In our day, as wickedness spirals out of control once again, and as evil thoughts seem to inundate the very atmosphere with perversion, violence, and greed, God is once again leaving the door of the ark open for a while longer.
And He is now stirring the depths of the hearts of His people—deep is calling unto deep—and He is pressing by His Spirit upon all of us—anyone who will—to “burst open” and allow the release of living waters from the innermost being.
As we cry out to Him and seek Him with all of our hearts, He will be found of us. The great depths within us, placed within our hearts from the moment we received Christ, will be met by the opened floodgates of Heaven, and another great Flood will occur.
In this Flood, souls will be saved, not lost; and as we cry out to Him, perhaps one last time the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord.
It is our time; may each one of us yield to the Holy One pressing upon our hearts in this hour and cry out to Heaven, “Send the outpouring of your Spirit! We must have revival!”
Dorothy
Read MoreContention Vs. Revival
I read something in Winkie Pratney’s book, Revival, years ago that stayed with me and changed the entire way I look at differences between true believers. I would like to share it with you.
George Whitefield, one of the revivalists Pratney wrote about, was used mightily of God during a key outpouring in American history. He preached his first sermon when he was 21 and continued without faltering throughout the British Isles and the American colonies until his death in 1770 at the age of 56. His style was described as the “preaching that startled the nation” (page 90). He spoke with authority, and said of himself, “I have not come in my own name. No! I have come in the Name of the Lord of hosts and I must be heard!” (page 92.) And heard he was. He typically preached twelve messages per week, and often spoke up to forty to sixty hours each week. The joy in which he walked was evident to all; one colonial woman said of his influence upon her, “Mr. Whitefield was so cheerful it tempted me to become a Christian” (page 96).
This man, who was used so powerfully by God to blast the message of the gospel to his generation, dealt with some of the same catty, factious, divisive forces that persist within Christianity in our time. Although he was a friend and contemporary of John Wesley, they did not see eye to eye on points of doctrine. Whitefield held to Calvinism; Wesley viewed the Armenian belief system as correct. In fact, at that time, many in the Church were sharply divided between these two branches of thought, and along with the division came bitter contention, criticisms, and smug judgments. Pratney wrote, “[Whitefield] had a deep humility, and broad charity toward others, loving all others who loved Jesus in sincerity. If other Christians misrepresented him, he forgave them; if they refused to work with him, he still loved them” (page 96).
One believer, more interested in controversy than in the furtherance of the gospel, asked Whitefield if he “thought he would see John Wesley in heaven.”
Whitefield replied, “I fear not. He will be so near the throne and we at such a distance that we shall hardly get a sight of him” (page 96).
Something beyond anointed preaching and tireless endurance burned within Whitefield’s breast. The love of Christ that shunned partisan sniping permeated his life and ministry as well.
Are you willing to speak kindly of others despite differences in doctrine, emphases in teaching, or manner of worship? Are you willing to forgo a juicy snide remark concerning a “rival” believer or ministry? Are any of us willing to set aside sectarian prejudices for the sake of keeping our motives pure before God?
These are the questions each of us must ask ourselves before the Lord. I believe that our generation will never experience the unlimited outpouring of God if true Christians refuse to lay aside suspicious attitudes and strife one against the other. Can we afford to continue in “me against you” and “us against them” mentalities at the risk of blocking the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon this dark generation? Whitefield didn’t think so.
May God help us all!
Dorothy
[The quotes from Revival are used by permission. Winkie Pratney’s ministry can be accessed at www.winkiepratney.com ]
Read MoreRevival
In our time, more and more believers are recognizing the urgent need for God to move in our nation to right wrongs, bring forth justice, and raise up leaders of deep, heart-felt convictions. Built into the very foundation of our republic has been the establishment of government for the express purpose of protecting the rights of law-abiding citizens to follow their own consciences freely and to lead their lives as they see fit—including, if they so desire, the unapologetic and unhindered pursuit of God’s will for their lives. Therefore, as we pray for kings and all who are in authority, we need to recognize that multitudes of lives are connected to their decisions, keeping in mind that it is God’s will for all of them to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (see 1 Timothy 2:1-4).
But in a culture like ours, caught up in gross sin of all kinds, more than political change will be needed. Unfortunately, at this point in our history, reformation and “dialing things back” simply won’t cut it. What we need is sweeping revival. We need a nation-wide awakening to God to hit—hard. We need a genuine move of God—the real thing, not just stirring music, thrilling messages, awesome programs, or prominent name-recognition.
I read a book years ago with a message that was both ancient yet strikingly current. The book was Revival, by Winkie Pratney, published in 1983. The back cover asked:
- Are you disturbed by the apathy and despondency of people today?
- Do you wonder what the future holds for this immoral world?
It went on to say, “In an age where values are questioned, families are falling apart, and where quality is being replaced by quantity, there is an ever-growing need for a revival of the morals and beliefs of a more stable time.”
I agreed with it then; I agree even more now. These thoughts are more pertinent today than they were in 1983; without God’s intervention, our culture will continue to deteriorate at an alarming rate. Without divine interference, neither the best programs nor projects good men have to offer will be adequate to stave off the eventual collapse of our culture or return us to kinder, gentler days, saner days. We must have revival.
Pratney wrote about revivals, reformers, and revivalists spanning history from before the Great Reformation in the 1400’s up to the time of his writing. He wrote that “true revival is marked by powerful and often widespread outpourings of the Spirit.” He also pointed out that in past revivals “many times preaching had to cease because the hearers were prostrate or because the voice of the preacher was drowned by cries for mercy” (page 16).
Quoting In the Day of Thy Power by Arthur Wallis, Pratney shares concerning revival, “It is God revealing Himself to man in awesome holiness and irresistible power. It is such a manifest working of God that human personalities are overshadowed and human programs abandoned. It is man retiring into the background because God has taken the field” (page 17).
“Revival is periodic; evangelism is continuous,” Pratney quotes from an April 9, 1965 article in Christianity Today. “Revival will always vitalize God’s people…but revival is not always welcome. For many the price is too high. There is no cheap grace in revival. It entails repudiation of self-satisfied complacency. Revival turns careless living into vital concern…exchanges self-indulgence for self-denial. Yet, revival is not a miraculous visitation falling on an unprepared people like a bolt out of the blue. It comes when God’s people earnestly want revival and are willing to pay the price” (page 19).
It is interesting to note that the article in Christianity Today was written two years before a double-barreled blast of God’s intervention hit this nation. Both the Charismatic Renewal, starting among Catholic seekers and spreading into Protestant denominations, and the Jesus Movement, capturing disenchanted and disenfranchised young people for Christ by the tens of thousands and more, are said to have started in 1967, two years after the Christianity Today article was printed. Hunger for more than what they were currently experiencing in their churches and relationships with God was driving believers to seek God’s intervention in the mid 1960’s.
Pratney also warned, “Evil as well as righteousness can have a ‘revival’; there can be an unholy uprising as well as a holy outpouring” (page 21). Proverbs 28:28a declares, “When the wicked rise, men hide themselves” and Proverbs 29:2b says, “when the wicked rule, the people groan.” One strategy of the devil is to use intense widespread ridicule, derision, and scorn of godly values and faith in Christ to discourage believers from confidently persisting in prayer for a sweeping, mighty outpouring of His power and holiness. Satan accomplishes this through stirring wicked men, rulers, and ungodly popular thought to coerce believers to retreat in fear from voicing their convictions or confident profession of faith. Perhaps, they think, if we don’t ruffle any feathers and we just play nice, those who hate our values will simply forget we are here and leave us alone. However, such fear works to the enemy’s advantage; when good men are silent, evil increases and gains leverage. Like it or not, this describes our time.
That is why we need God’s intervention. As a friend of mine used to say, “The devil’s not playing whiffle ball.” We find ourselves facing the big leagues, now—ready or not. But we have a God who is ready to intervene in a big way for the asking. It’s time now to let go of distractions and any fear we may have for our own safety and reputations. It’s time seek the Lord on behalf of our nation. It’s time for a move of God.
May God help us to take our stand before Him without shrinking back.
Dorothy
[The quotes from Revival are used by permission. Winkie Pratney’s ministry can be accessed at www.winkiepratney.com]
Read MoreHave you ever seen the rain?
Just this morning, I was enjoying breakfast at one of my very favorite fine dining establishments, Waffle House. I was minding my own business doctoring my coffee with Half and Half, when from the juke box (remember those?) I heard a familiar melody and words so dear to my heart. They speak to a deep place within me, and I wrote a blog about the lyrics in one of my earliest entries here. I believe the Lord wants me to repost it. Here it is:
As I was praying and doing chores a while back, a wisp of a song arose within me:
“I wanna know have you ever seen the rain?” (Creedence Clearwater Revival, © 1970.)
The words stirred something deep inside me, and as I sang them quietly, I felt the need to search out the rest of the lyrics.
This song had played during an era in my life when I was a camp counselor, living outside, sleeping under the stars, and swimming in Ozark lakes, creeks, and rivers. I wondered if the emotion I felt as I heard it was merely the stirring of the sleeping flower child still camping out somewhere inside of me.
And I remembered it was my older siblings who had introduced me to this music. Was the pull I felt just a reminder of how much I still loved and looked up to my big brother and sister?
Or was there something more primal, deeper than soul, drawing me? I had to know. This song touched something within me that day, so I googled it to see if the lyrics had anything to say to me.
In my search I found what others had written about the lyrics. To many of them, the song was sad and beautiful, simple and touching.
To me, however, it spoke of the rains of God. God’s rains often follow the tumultuous storms of discord, trial, and dismay in society. The storms erupt after periods of calm and complacency and spiraling hedonism. And as folks feel the very foundations of their lives shaken—those false values and structures in which they had so trusted—they start looking elsewhere—often Heavenward—for comfort and direction. And God sends the rains, raining a sunny day, raining a day of help, raining a day of salvation.
“Someone told me long ago there’s a calm before the storm
I know, it’s been coming for some time
When it’s over, so they say, it’ll rain a sunny day
I know, shinin’ down like water.”
Not everyone gets to see one of God’s rains. However, blessed is that generation so privileged to experience the outpouring. Strangely enough, Creedence Clearwater Revival wrote and sang during one of God’s downpours. I wonder if they realized it at the time.
The sixties and seventies witnessed the last bona fide widespread outpouring of God—at least in North America. I got in on the final days of that sweet time. The things I saw and experienced in the first four or five years of my walk with Jesus still elicit a deep longing for the rains to fall again.
“I wanna know, have you ever seen the rain?
I wanna know, have you ever seen the rain? Coming down on a sunny day?”
When you meet someone who has seen the rain, lived in the rain, danced in the rain, they seem like anyone else. But if you scratch a bit, dig a bit below the dry surface, the flood waters still run within them, longing to be joined again by the rains from Heaven.
And then they will ask you:
“I wanna know, have you ever seen the rain?
I wanna know, have you ever seen the rain? Comin’ down on a sunny day?”
Let it rain, Lord! Let it rain.
Dorothy
Read MoreHave you ever seen the rain?
As I was praying and doing chores a while back, a wisp of an old Creedence Clearwater Revival song arose within me:
“I wanna know have you ever seen the rain?” (John C. Fogerty, © 1971)
The words stirred something deep inside me, and as I sang them quietly, I felt the need to search out the rest of the lyrics.
This song had played during an era in my life when I was a camp counselor, living outside, sleeping under the stars, and swimming in Ozark lakes, creeks, and rivers. I wondered if the emotion I felt as I heard it was merely the stirring of the sleeping flower child still camping out somewhere inside of me.
And I remembered it was my older siblings who had introduced me to this music. Was the pull I felt just a reminder of how much I still loved and looked up to my big brother and sister?
Or was there something more primal, deeper than soul, drawing me? I had to know. This song touched something within me that day, so I googled it to see if the lyrics had anything to say to me.
In my search I found what others had written about the lyrics. To many of them, the song was sad and beautiful, simple and touching.
To me, however, it spoke of the rains of God. God’s rains often follow the tumultuous storms of discord, trial, and dismay in society. The storms erupt after periods of calm and complacency and spiraling hedonism. And as folks feel the very foundations of their lives shaken—those false values and structures in which they had so trusted—they start looking elsewhere—often Heavenward—for comfort and direction. And God sends the rains, raining a sunny day, raining a day of help, raining a day of salvation.
“Someone told me long ago there’s a calm before the storm
I know, it’s been coming for some time
When it’s over, so they say, it’ll rain a sunny day
I know, shinin’ down like water.”
Not everyone gets to see one of God’s rains. However, blessed is that generation so privileged to experience the outpouring. Strangely enough, Creedence Clearwater Revival wrote and sang during one of God’s downpours. I wonder if they realized it at the time.
The sixties and seventies witnessed the last bona fide widespread outpouring of God—at least in North America. I got in on the final days of that sweet time. The things I saw and experienced in the first four or five years of my walk with Jesus still elicit a deep longing for the rains to fall again.
“I wanna know, have you ever seen the rain?
I wanna know, have you ever seen the rain? Coming down on a sunny day?”
When you meet someone who has seen the rain, lived in the rain, danced in the rain, they seem like anyone else. But if you scratch a bit, dig a bit below the dry surface, the flood waters still run within them, longing to be joined again by the rains from Heaven.
And then they will ask you:
“I wanna know, have you ever seen the rain?
I wanna know, have you ever seen the rain? Comin’ down on a sunny day?”
Let it rain, Lord! Let it rain.
Dorothy
Read More