Revival

I suppose the minute someone mentions the word Revival we have images of things like Azusa Street and old school pentecostal tent meetings flashing through our minds. But the theme is always the same the manifested power and glory of God. But what does that mean to a prophet? What does that mean for the Remnant Prophetic Company?

“Revival, above anything else, is a glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is the restoration of him to the centre of the life of the Church.”

It’s necessary to start by explaining that I strongly believe that there can be no modern revival until the contemporary prophetic ministry is in Renaissance once more. Yes we should cry our for repentance and we should be praying like never before – but the prophetic has to herald the revival. It must declare the intention of Heaven. Which means we had better get it back on track in its fully authenticity and we had better do it fast if we want to see a double portion revival in this generation.

We need a Renaissance of the Prophet and the the prophetic company before we can expect a visitation from God. And honestly, I don’t think we’re ready for the latter. Because a visitation is actually an inspection! 

41 Now as He [Jesus] drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, 42 saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, 44 and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
Luke 19:41-44 (NKJV)

visitation
g1984. ἐπισκοπή episkopē; inspection

Visitation is not even the goal my friends. That is short sighted to the point of spiritual blindness! While exciting and intoxicating, it is brief and sporadic. No! Habitation is the desire! But there can be no habitation until God’s inspection. Why do you think David cried out, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:” ?

And right here is where we miss it! We are all too often crying out for a visitation of God but we fail to realise and recognise that what we are really asking for is the inspection to determine our status for habitation!

REVIVAL OF THE PROPHETIC IS THE PRECURSOR TO INSPECTION FOR HABITATION!

God intended to bless and bring revival to the Holy City and the nation of Israel (spiritual shadow) but the action of the people brought destruction upon themselves! They were not ready for inspection because they had no perception of the time that they were in! And the time that they were encountering was a strategical epochal (kairos) moment of God’s gracious overseeing aegis and offer of intervention.

I believe that Acts 2 shows a divine pattern of how God visits His church in power. In this passage we see how God launched His church on Earth on this historic Day of Pentecost. There were three important manifestations of the Holy Spirit’s power and presence! In fact the Presence came before the power. Without Presence, any display of power should be treated with skepticism if not total suspicion.

1. The Wind

The first manifestation was the symbol of the WIND.

The wind of the Spirit speaks of the release of the BREATH OF GOD (Prophecy and prophetic abundance!) and this includes Dreams & Visions.

The Wind is the prophetic breathing into a generation. The sound from heaven. It is the sound of the Lord God walking in the Garden. The ‘ruach‘, the breath of the Spirit, the spirit of the prophecy breathing over us. This has to come first! 

The translation from the Greek of “mighty rushing wind” uses the term biaios pherō which transliterates as a “violently forceful forerunner!”

We must cultivate a prophetic atmosphere in our churches and in our own lives! But how?

1. Through seeking understanding and through teaching and
2. through exposure to the full expression of the authentic prophets. 

We must bring an illumination that the full expression of the prophet is not about giving personal words of prophesy but rather a corporate and united prophetic unction with proclamation, declaration and even rebuke into the heavenly realms. This type of prophetic is the precursor to what comes after. It is the herald – in a way – to what comes after – they thing everyone wants to see – the APOSTOLIC FIRE! 

2. The Fire

3 And there appeared to them tongues that had the appearance of fire, these tongues being distributed among them, and one of these tongues took up a position upon each of them. 4 And all were controlled by the Holy Spirit and began to be uttering words in languages different from their own native language and different from those spoken by the others, even as the Spirit kept giving them ability to speak forth, not in words of everyday speech but in words belonging to dignified and elevated discourse [they were prophesying!!!
5 And there were in Jerusalem Jews who were in residence there, devout men who reverenced God, from all nations of those under heaven. 6 Now, when this sound was heard, the multitude came together and was at a loss to understand this, because they were hearing each one of them uttering words in his own dialect. 
Acts 2:3-6 

Right after the Wind blew, then came the Fire as an unusual manifestation of the supernatural! That is what will come if we follow this model of Wind, Fire, Wine! I think what excites me most about Acts 2 is that when the supernatural came it was not restricted to a few – it appeared corporately and everyone saw the expression of it. This is where the Church of Jesus is heading! Evolving and emerging to the characterisation of Ephesian 3:10.

The FIRE of the SPIRIT.  The baptism of fire. THE POWER OF GOD will cause the body of Christ to function in a dramatically different way. It will not be contained by man within the wall of their state of the art auditoriums but will invade the streets!

3. The Wine

The Wine of God is linked in the Book of Joel to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It is God’s full expression through the Spirit! The Wine experience is when all three elements of Exodus 32 combine in one season in one generation!

HIS WAYS! 
HIS PRESENCE! 
HIS GLORY!

Two important caveats about the wine:

1. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.” Mark 2:22 (NKJV)
   
2. Some will not recognise it for what it truly is and they will try and quantify or ridicule it to reduce it to a level they can equate with.
   

Why do I say this? Because of Acts 2:13: “… Others mocking said, “They are full of new wine.””

Drunkards babble forth extensively. I mean in the natural. This was the only thing that the onlookers ‘others‘ could equate it to – but what were these full of the new wine babbling about? THE WONDEROUS THINGS, THE MYSTERIOUS THINGS, THE AWESOME THINGS, THE MIRACULOUS THINGS OF GOD! 

Acts 2:14-21 (NKJV) 4 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. 15 For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third (9am) hour of the day. 16 But this is that was spoken by the prophet Joel:

17 ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions,
Your old men shall dream dreams.

[Here comes the distinction]
18 And on My menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days;
And they shall prophesy.

[Here comes the result]
19 I will show wonders in heaven above
And signs in the earth beneath:
Blood and fire and vapour of smoke.
20 The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
21 And it shall come to pass
That whoever calls on the name of the Lord
Shall be saved.’

The Full Effect

Once that full expression of the Spirit is upon us – it will no longer be bound and confined to the walls of the church. But the Upper Room experience will hit the streets and the church will explode with growth! I love God’s plan! 

Many pastors are telling me that their church is “in revival”. And I don’t dispute that – I’m so excited to be a part of people who see that and think like that. But the outbreak we are seeing is only the tip of the ice-berg! God doesn’t want to just have revival outbreaks that last a few weekends or for or as long as the guest speaker is in town. God wants to linger longer.  God desires HABITATION!

This my friends is why we must prepare for visitation. So that we can be found worthy of His habitation in our lives, in our families, in our households, and in our churches. Come to life!

In pursuit of His Fullness,