Why we don’t have revival

Isaiah 55:6 (New International Version)

Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.

Joel 2:13
So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm.

2 Chronicles 7:14
if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

I believe that God will not send revival, renewal, awakening, just to vindicate the church, by proving to the world that we were “right” after all, when our hearts have not been right even when our beliefs have been. It is not enough to look at the state of the world and shake our heads, or to look at the direction the world is going in disbelief when we ourselves have become unworthy to be listened to by our lack of integrity. If the world is going to pot, it is because we haven’t been salt and light. It’s as simple as that. The godless direction that society is heading is happening on our watch. It’s time we woke up and took some responsibility.

Notice that 2 Chr 7:14 doesn’t say “If my people… pray…”. We’ve been good at praying.
Cold, heartless, dead, formulaic prayers. All talk and no substance.

The bible says we need to:

(1) Humble ourselves. Fast. Put on sackcloth (figuratively) and mourn. Weep and mourn for the lost world.

(2) Pray. We still need to pray, it’s just the attitude that needs to change

(3) Seek God’s face. Stop asking God to bless us. Be like Abraham, and ask God to show us his glory. Be like Moses, who God knew face to face. Be like Jesus. WWJD. 1John 2:6

(4) Turn from our wicked ways. “What wicked ways?” Selfishness, self-reliance, self-centeredness, self-pity, “what about me/it’s all about me”. Sure things are tough, really tough. Sure they’re bad, really bad. But this isn’t all about us. It’s about God, it’s about Jesus and it’s about the kingdom. Satan cannot cast out Satan. Selfishness cannot cast out selfishness. Selfish ambition cannot cast out greed. Jesus, when things were bad, was honest with God the Father (he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”). Paul was beaten and left for dead, but that didn’t stop him living for the kingdom.

James 4
Pride Promotes Strife
1 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?
6 But He gives more [a greater] grace. Therefore He says:

“ God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.”[c]
Humility Cures Worldliness

7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

Something has to change. But let’s not get negative and introspective. God has provided the prescription, as David Wilkerson points out, from the book of Nehemiah. When the walls of Jerusalem are broken down, as they are, it is not a time for complacency and smugness. It’s a time for agonizing prayer, but don’t forget that the joy of the Lord is our strength as we agonize. It’s not oxymoronic, it’s part of the divine tension of Truth in the Kingdom of God.

Jesus is for losers

the self-made need not apply…

Grace from the blood of a tree…

Lord, I’m so thirsty… take me to the waterfall.

The Days of Awe

Today marks the start of the Jewish “Days of Awe” or 10 days of repentance, fasting and prayer that begin with Rosh Hashanah and end with Yom Kippur. The description of this is in Leviticus 23, where the start of the New Year is marked with the Feast of Trumpets, and ends on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur).

I have been impressed with the need to pray for Israel, in part because of the tumult surrounding that country and the political situation which is in the news. No more about that here, you can read that for yourselves. I just felt the sense that God was calling me to pray for Israel and for the Jewish people as this is a time in which observing Jews are fasting and praying and seeking God.

In the midst of this, I am reminded of Paul’s prophecy that “all Israel will be saved”, I am reminded of the exhortation in the psalms to “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem”, I am acutely aware of God’s love for Israel and the Jewish people, and for the desire that they recognise their Messiah. I pray that they are able to receive the perfect atonement that He, Jesus, Yeshua, has made, thus upstaging the need for sacrifices; the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom and the temple in Jerusalem is no more because it is no longer needed for sacrifices, in the sense that it once was.

But I am also acutely aware of the shameful way which we, “Christians” have treated God’s chosen people Israel, at least in part through the dreadful heresy that is “replacement theology”. The truth is we are the ingrafted branches, as the Gentiles, and God as done away with the dividing wall between us through Jesus, Yeshua, through the perfect blood of His sacrifice.

So I have been praying for Israel, and for the Jewish people. And in so doing I saw a mental image of Israel in flames. Unlike the flames of war that have so ravaged that nation, this was a picture of Israel in flames, where the flames represent the flames of revival, the fire of God. I thought, “that’s interesting, that reminds me of how Elijah was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire.” Then I realized that, in a spiritual sense, the flames represented the return of Elijah, coming back in the same chariot of fire which he left upon. As it was prophesied:

Malachi 4:4-6 (New King James Version)

4 “ Remember the Law of Moses, My servant,
Which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel,
With the statutes and judgments.
5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.
6 And he will turn
The hearts of the fathers to the children,
And the hearts of the children to their fathers,
Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”

John the Baptist was a type of Elijah at the time of Jesus, likewise God is coming in the spirit of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the Fathers (as I see it now, Israel) to the children (the church) and vice-versa.

Secondly, at the mount of transfiguration, there were three men in the vision: Moses (representing the old), Elijah representing the transition, and Jesus representing the new covenant:

Matthew 17

1 Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; 2 and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. 3 And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. 4 Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us[a] make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
5 While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” 6 And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. 7 But Jesus came and touched them and said, “Arise, and do not be afraid.” 8 When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.
9 Now as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, “Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead.”
10 And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”
11 Jesus answered and said to them, “Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things. 12 But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished. Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands.” 13 Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist

Elijah is coming and bringing restoration to both the church and to Israel, and not a moment too soon!

It is interesting that Jesus’ last words upon the cross, before He spoke “It is finished” were interpreted as calling forth Elijah. Although that wasn’t what Jesus was saying (he was quoting Psalm 22:1 in Aramaic), this is an interesting thought. There is something in this, that even as Jesus dies on the cross, there is the sense of a foretelling of the days of Elijah, the days of the preparation of Israel.

Jesus Dies on the Cross

45 Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
47 Some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said, “This Man is calling for Elijah!” 48 Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink.
49 The rest said, “Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him.”
50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.
51 Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, 52 and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; 53 and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.
54 So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

So let us not forget, during these days of Awe. Elijah is coming to turn the hearts of the Fathers to the children, and to turn the hearts of the children to the Fathers, and let us not forget that “all Israel will be saved” and also never forget to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem”.

It’s time to cross the streams

Remember Ghostbusters? At the end, the demon/ghost couldn’t be overpowered. The end of the world was near. The answer was to “cross the streams” of the laser-powered ghost capturing things. It’d never been done before. It was dangerous. Deadly.

But also necessary given the certain death the crew were facing.

So it is with the church. God has raised up various movements. Some strong in worship. Some strong in the prophetic. Others strong in healing. Others evangelism. Others missions and church planting/apostolic vision.

Now as the times are getting harder, the world darker, the scenario all the more desperate, it is time to cross the streams. When we do the spiritual nuclear explosion is going to shock all of us, especially the world.

Isaiah 43:19
See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.

Squeezed and Pure

A couple of things were going through my mind, thinking about some of the difficulties we go through in this life, and how it is that God is using the trials that … let’s face it … are just part of life to teach us how to trust Him and to reveal and purify the motives of our hearts. In a way, I was thinking how I was glad to have gone through some of the things I have gone through, because now for the first time I think I’m starting to get real in my relationship with God. I thought about what I wrote in “The cord of three strands” about keeping it real, and this verse came to my mind.

1Peter 1:6,7

…now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine

For some reason I was thinking about the colour orange, and the song “Orange Crush” was going through my mind… I look across at the kitchen bench, and see an orange juice bottle. On it are the words Pure… 100%. Freshly squeezed. The brand is McCoy.

God is preparing our hearts, teaching us to keep it real, so that our faith may be proved genuine. As our genuine faith is revealed may it point the way to Jesus. That is coming. When others see our reality they will see Jesus.

Hebrews 12:7,8 and 12-14

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.
Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13″Make level paths for your feet,”[b] so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.
14Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

Holiness here, I believe, speaks of purity and keeping it real.

Matthew 5:8

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Soaring, flying… breaking free

OK, so it’s pure cheese of the reprocessed nacho gloop variety, but I can’t help seeing the analogies in this song to our relationship with God….

Isaiah 61:7 (Amplified)

Instead of your [former] shame you shall have a twofold recompense; instead of dishonor and reproach [your people] shall rejoice in their portion.

Isaiah 55:12

For you shall go out [from the spiritual exile caused by sin and evil into the homeland] with joy and be led forth [by your Leader, the Lord Himself, and His word] with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

Nahum 1:12-13

12Thus says the Lord: Though they be in full strength and likewise many, even so shall [the Assyrians] be cut down when [their evil counselor] shall pass away. Though I have afflicted you [Jerusalem], I will not cause you to be afflicted [for your past sins] any more.

13For now will I break his yoke from off you and will burst your bonds asunder.

The cord of three strands

When David stood before Goliath, he knew that God was going to bring deliverance not only for him but also for the people of Israel, and not only that God’s manifest destiny for Israel would be preserved and not destroyed.

What was it that David had that gave him such complete confidence that when he came out to challenge Goliath, he would prevail?

I believe that it was the strength of David’s relationship with God, that he had built up over the lonely years of shepherding, when he was overlooked by his family, as he learned to worship God and to serve Him only, he developed a strong bond with God the Father Almighty, the Lord God Almighty, the Lord of Hosts.

In Ecclesiastes 4:12 we read that a cord of three strands is not easily broken. I believe that there were three key aspects to David’s relationship with God that enabled him to stand fast in the face of death.

(1) Faith
(2) Preparation
(3) Keeping it real

Each of those strands is in turn made up of three components. So we have
Faith, the presence of God, the call of God. David not only believed God, he had also been set apart by God, anointed by God (the call of God) and he also had cultivated the presence of God by becoming a worshipper.
Likewise, we have no business standing before Goliath unless we likewise have faith: we believe God; we’ve been called: appointed, anointed; we have cultivated the presence of God around our lives through seeking Him in prayer, through the word, and through worship. If we do that, we have the first strand in our lives intact.

Which brings me to the second strand. We have preparation. This in turn requires the presence of God (the anointing, the call of God, worship), and it requires humility, and it requires us to show up having done the absolute best with what God has given us. Consider the parable of the talents. Jesus has given us gifts, He has given us talents. And we’re to use them. But not the things that He hasn’t given to us. David was not (at the time of facing Goliath) a battle-hardened warrior. That was the problem. He was a shepherd boy, with a lot of time on his hands. Did he sit around thinking “oh dear, poor me, I’m only a poor useless shepherd boy, what can God ever use me for, I’m not a warrior, I’m not particularly talented, I’m not especially clever, oh poor me”. No he did not. He practiced with his slingshot. In the hours and hours of boredom, watching over his “few sheep”, he did not waste what he had. He learned to be a crack shot. God used this to overcome Goliath.

So you’re thinking “Well, I have absolutely nothing, I’m not even any good with a slingshot, I’m a complete unco, God could never have used me”. Wrong. God will use whatever you have. That is where the humility component and the anointing component come in. If David truly had no skills in at all, he would have overcome Goliath with “just” the anointing on his life. Humility required of David that he recognize that Saul’s armour wasn’t going to work. He went in the strength he had, having learned the lessons from the stories of his ancestors, in particular Moses and Gideon. But the preparation strand means that effort was required, and time was required, and waiting on God was required. God knows the timing. Our times are in His hands.
In the meantime we don’t sit twiddling our thumbs, we put our hands to the plow whatever is in front of us and we use the time wisely to prepare.

Finally, we have the component of “keeping it real”. Which is similar to the strand of preparation, yet different. The emphasis of this strand is humility. We understand not just that we can do nothing apart from God but that we can do everything in Him. All things are ours. All things are possible, to those who believe. So this strand is combined with faith. In fact its faith, hope and love wrapped in a cloak of humility.

So we have the three strands of the cord that must tie us to God, and does tie us to God in Christ.

The faith strand, made up of faith, the presence of God and the call of God. In other words, the anointing.
The preparation strand, made up of our talents and effort (preparation), the presence of God and humility.
The “keeping it real” strand: faith, hope and love wrapped up in the cloak of humility.

Remember we are God’s workmanship, and we are created to do good works in Christ.

Colossians chapter 1, the Message:

“The lines of purpose in your lives never grow slack, tightly tied as they are to your future in heaven, kept taut by hope.”

There is a hope laid up for us in heaven, that God wants to use us to bring to earth. Touching heaven, pulling down the blessing, and changing earth. All things are possible, if we believe.

Breaking free

The old has gone, the new has come.

A picture of an archaeological dig. It’s a field. The field is us. Jesus has purchased the field with His blood. He’s digging the field, poking, prodding, searching for artifacts, treasures. Breaking up the hard ground.

In the field is some sort of artifact. A bronze cylinder, beautifully inlaid with some sort of filigree pattern. It looks like a solid object. Looks are deceptive. Jesus is cleaning the object, then He begins to tap the object to remove encrusted dirt— it’s not even clear at first that it’s dirt, maybe it’s some sort of ceramic inlay, it looks like a part of the object. But no, it is dirt.

He firmly taps the object on the end. The dirt falls off like scales. It’s clear the object is a container— it has a mechanism for opening, a button, that was barely visable but can now be seen now the plaster/dirt is gone. He pushes the button. There is resistance. After being shut for so long, the object does not want to open. But Jesus is persistant. He pries open the container, just enough to let the oxygen into the container, the light in. As He does this, the resistance is less. The light and the oxygen is making the container come alive. There’s a restoration taking place inside.

Suddenly, an enormous explosion. Power. Not like normal explosion, that releases destruction. No, an explosion that releases life. An explosion that releases new life, the power to heal, the power to transform.

Matthew 13
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

As incredible as it seems, given the hardness of the ground, to all appearance, why are we of great value? Why does Jesus give everything He has just to get us… the hard, parched field in the middle of nowhere?

Because He knows what the field contains. He knows the potential that is in us. He knows the pearl that is hidden in the field, and He will find it. If we will let Him.

Let him. Let Jesus have His way. It will be worth it.

Accepted in the Beloved

God has made us accepted in the Beloved?

How, you ask? Through His own beloved Son, we are accepted. He reigns, and we reign in Him, and we are the righteousness of God by proxy. If you accept Him. If you believe in Him.

God so loved the world that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, shall not be left alone, shall not be left to themselves to die, shall not be forsaken, but shall have eternal, everlasting, timeless, permanent, unchanging, glorious life, redemption, salvation, hope, joy, peace, newness of being, rebirth, sanctification, revival.

In him and through him and to him are all things.

Where is there room for a lack of self-esteem, when God himself esteems you so highly that He would die for you?
In fact He did esteem you so highly that He did die for you.

“Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.”

Yet Jesus Christ died for you, because He esteemed you that much. Because He loved you that much,
He poured out every last drop of His precious blood, in order to make you accepted and acceptable to God.

In the light of that… where is there any room for self-doubt? Self-condemnation? Despair?

Jesus Christ died for you, He died for me.

Wake up O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will rise upon you.

Walk in the light as He is in the light!! …if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

All sin, all unrighteousness, everything that is not right… made right
everything that is not whole… made whole
darkness… made light

In Him, and through Him and to Him

Amen

The word of the Lord

I will delight myself in the Lord, He will give me the desires of my heart. I will commit my way to the Lord, and He will bring forth my righteousness as the dawn. God delights in my way; my steps are ordered by the Lord; when I fall I shall not be utterly cast down. I will not be ashamed in the time of evil, I will be satisfied in the day of famine. God upholds me with his hand. As I wait for the Lord and keep his way, he will exalt me to inherit the land. Because I trust in Him, He shall deliver me from the wicked.

God is my dwelling place, he has gone ahead to prepare a place for me. God will never, never forsake me: not by any means. In his presence is fullness of joy. He prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

Let the beauty of the Lord be upon me, and establish the works of my hands for me. I commit my way to the Lord today, knowing that my plans will be established. My plans will succeed as I commit what I do to the Lord. He will establish peace for me. He has done all my works in me. He will comfort me and establish me in every good work. I am his workmanship, created for good works in Christ that He has prepared in advance for me, that I should walk in them. He has a plan for my life. He has plans to give me a future with hope. He has plans prosper me and not to harm me. What they meant for evil, God meant for good.

God is the Lord my God. He teaches me to profit. He leads me by the way I should go. The Lord has redeemed me, his servant.

God heals all my diseases. He forgives all my transgressions. He redeems my life from destruction.. He has borne my griefs, he has carried my sorrows. He has borne my sicknesses and carried my pains. He shall prolong my days. I will not die, but live and declare the works of the Lord. He was bruised for my iniquities. By his stripes, I am healed. Because He made the soul of Jesus an offering for sin, Jesus will see me, His seed, and God will prolong my days. The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in my hand. I will see the labour of my soul and be satisfied. God will divide me a portion with the great. God will divide the spoil between me and the strong, because of what Jesus did. Because Jesus made intercession for me, a transgressor.

I will sing of what the Lord has done. I will enlarge the place of my tent, and stretch out the curtains of my dwellings without sparing. I will lengthen my cords and strengthen my stakes. I will not fear; I will not be ashamed. I will forget the shame of my youth, for God has called me. God will lay my foundations with sapphires. God will make my pinnacles of rubies, and my gates of crystal, and my walls of precious stones. In righteousness I will be established. I shall be far from oppression, I will not fear. Terror will not come near me. No weapon formed against me shall prosper. Every tongue which rises against me in judgement, I will condemn. This is my heritage from the Lord, and my righteousness is from Him.

I will come to the waters. I will buy, and I will eat. I will buy milk and wine without money and without price. I will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord. I will incline my ear, I will come to Him. He will make an everlasting covenant with me. God has glorified me. I will seek the Lord while he may be found. I will call on Him while He is near. I will forsake my wicked way; I will forsake my unrighteous thoughts. I will return to the Lord and He will have mercy on me. God will abundantly pardon. God’s word does not return to Him void. God’s word will accomplish what pleases him. Gods word shall prosper in the thing for which it was sent. I shall go out with joy. I shall be led forth with peace. The mountains and hills will break forth into singing before me. The trees of the fields will clap their hands. Instead of thorns, God will bring forth the cypress tree. Instead of briers, God will bring forth the myrtle tree. This will be an everlasting sign to God, the Lord, that will not be cut off.

I will keep justice. I will do righteousness. I will be blessed when I do this. If I hold fast to His covenant, God will give me a house, and a place within His walls, and a name, and an inheritance. God will give me an inheritance even though I am barren in human terms. My name shall not be cut off. God will bring me to His holy mountain. He will make me joyful in His house of prayer. My burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on His altar. Gods house will be a house of prayer for all nations, and I will be a part of it. God gathers the outcasts, and He will use me to gather still more, in His name.