PRAY|THE|REVOLUTION

Our job every morning?  We wake up, brush our teeth, eat our Wheaties and CATCH ON FIRE!  It’s all about revival!

There is quite a diversity when it comes to foundational focuses of churches and ministries.  One could easily find a church to attend on a Sunday morning that focuses on teaching as a primary ministry.  It would be just as easy to discover a local church that excels at worship and another with small groups at the core of their experience.

The list goes on and on.  We can find churches centered on youth ministry, children’s ministry, evangelism, prophecy, prayer, world missions, prosperity, healing, personal growth, and on and on.

And, yes, we can find churches that consider revival to be the primary, foundational reason for their existence.

Hosea 6:1-2 (NKJV) ¹ Come, and let us return to the Lord; For He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. ² After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, That we may live in His sight.

We are called to LIVE in His sight!  Healing, freedom and encounter is the norm for the believer!

I would argue that regardless of our various flavors and DNA, every church on the planet MUST be all about revival as a core, central ministry.  It has to be the reason we gather.

We see in Acts chapter two that prayer fueled revival was the basis of their gathering.  As we consider this, it makes it easier if we differentiate between:

• primary purpose
• expected outcomes

The primary purpose is prayer fueled revival.  That’s why churches exist.  We are called to be a house of prayer where God shows up and burns like a fire.  God’s purposes come to pass as our primary purpose of revival is discovered.

Expected outcomes include anointed teaching, powerful youth and children’s ministry, prophetic evangelism, etc.

So, what exactly is revival?  My simple definition is this: It’s to be supernaturally alive as God manifests as He is and does what He wants in and through us.  It’s acknowledging the clear difference between death and life, apathy and passion, sadness and joy, lukewarmness and the raging furnace of God’s presence.

Simply– we can’t teach, minister, heal, deliver, grow or do much of anything that we are called to do outside of fiery revival.  We are limited to our human strength, perspective and ability. 

For the teacher, the pursuit of revival will cause them to preach like Peter in Acts 2.

Evangelism, discipleship and every other ‘expected outcome’ that results from zealous intercession birthed revival will truly shake the world.

I contend that every church in the world should be a place of extreme Holy Spirit activity, and when people approach the door on a Sunday morning (and every other day of the week!), they are literally overcome by the presence of God to the point of trembling, spontaneous deliverance, tears, laughter and a supernatural desire to embrace the cross of Christ. 

To live outside of revival can no longer be an option.  The world is dying and is in desperate need of resurrection power.

At the memorial service for our baby Livi the other night, I felt something pierce me.  I sensed the position that most of us would be tempted to hold– that we would stand in faith and not be shaken.  That is good– but it’s not enough.  We must not just stand, but a holy rage must erupt from the deepest part of our inner man.  It’s not OK for babies to die.  It’s not OK for the blind to not see.  It’s not OK for people to go to hell.

We can’t simply stand– we must press!  We must contend!  We must let the fire burn and let the cry burst from deep within, “No more!  It’s not OK!  We stand and press and declare the revelation of Jesus to our world!  Enough is enough!”

Amy and I learned one thing in particular over the past couple of weeks.  The way 10,000 people roared in intercession for Livi as we were on that stage in Lakeland, and the way the masses at IHOP cried continually in radical faith, and the way countless other people around the world that were watching via God.tv and online called for the dead to be raised IS THE SAME WAY WE MUST CONTEND IN PASSIONATE UNITY, NIGHT AND DAY, WITH PROPHETIC PRECISION FOR GOD TO COME AS HE IS AND TO DO WHAT HE WANTS! 

This is how revival will come and the transformation that results will be unlike anything ever experienced in history.

No more church as usual.  No more life as usual.  It’s time for the unusual manifestation of our supernatural, invisible, Creator God to be encountered.

John

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