Revival brings Jesus back to his central role.
Revival brings us a fresh revelation of the
character of God.
If there's anything we're lacking in the body
this day, it's the fear of the Lord.
It's this recognition of who He is and
it's a life lived out before Him.
You do a study, just take the words
fear of the Lord, fear of God, go
through the Hebrew Scriptures, you'll be amazed.
You'll be absolutely amazed.
It talks about a whole lifestyle that's lived
before Him.
It begins with that recognition.
Turn with me to Exodus 20.
The recognition of who God is.
And then in light of that, it deals
with how we live before Him, having recognized
who He is.
And then it deals with the protection and
security that one has walking in the fear
of the Lord.
I can't get into it now, it's a
wonderful subject, but just run references.
Go through the Scriptures and run references and
you'll see.
In Exodus the 20th chapter, verse 18, when
the people saw the thunder and lightning and
heard the trumpet and saw the mountain and
smoke, they trembled with fear.
They stayed at a distance and said to
Moses, speak to us yourself and we will
listen, but do not have God speak to
us or we will die.
Moses said to the people, do not fear.
The NIV says do not be afraid.
It's seeking to bring out the sense.
That's fine, but the Hebrew is simply do
not fear.
God has come to test you so that
His fear will be before you to keep
you from sinning.
Isn't that strange?
Don't fear.
God's come so that His fear will be
before you.
Don't fear.
That's why the NIV says don't be afraid.
Look, don't panic.
He's not going to slaughter you.
He's not going to wipe you out right
now.
But fear.
Recognize who He is.
Never ever forget this day and you'll live
differently.
The simplest way I can explain it is
it's almost like you look up and you
see the bright light of God and that
light comes down and shines a path around
us and we walk within that path because
we recognize who He is.
We walk moment by moment in His light
and in that place is total security.
The man who fears God fears nothing else.
The man who fears everything else obviously doesn't
know the fear of the Lord.
So in revival there is that recovery of
the holiness of God and with that the
fear of the Lord which tends to life,
the fear of the Lord which is the
beginning of wisdom, the fear of the Lord
which keeps us from sin.
Another thing that is restored, brought back to
the body is a revelation of heaven and
hell.
A revelation of heaven and hell.
Someone preached a message recently at Beth Messiah
basically about not having treasures in this earth,
about living in light of eternity.
And I just preached a very similar message
to that in New York called Put Away
Your Idols.
And I talked about when I was over
in Kenya I was sharing with a missionary
couple from Canada and I said there's a
sense where I envy you.
Because here they were, a white family in
a black country.
Here they were there for one purpose only
which was to win people to the Lord.
They couldn't fall asleep in the world.
They couldn't become complacent in the world.
They couldn't get caught up in earthly treasures
because they were totally away from everything that
was common to them.
Everything they were used to for one purpose
and one purpose only, to win people to
the Lord.
And I said there's a sense in which
I really envy you guys.
Because where I am, you've got to constantly
remind yourself.
In the United States and in Montgomery County
and in the affluent lifestyles that most of
us are around, you've got to constantly remind
yourself that you're only passing through.
You say, well, I'm aware of that, Mike.
But you've got to constantly remind yourself that
everybody else around you is passing through.
You say, well, I'm aware of that too.
Well, you've got to remind yourself that they're
lost forever without God.
And we don't believe that.
Well, we believe it mentally.
We give a cent, but in our hearts,
motivating, acting, activating us, we don't.
What am I saying?
This is a biblical truth that has largely
been lost to us in this generation.
The reality of heaven and hell, the reality
of eternity, the fact that we are only
passing through.
Yes, God is concerned with this world.
He is concerned with this life.
This is the arena where everything happens.
He's concerned with healing and blessing and meeting
our needs.
Absolutely, definitely yes.
For his glory and because he loves us
and so that we can help other people.
He's concerned with those things.
But the fact of the matter is.
In revival, many times people are given a
vision of hell.
Evan Roberts, who had prayed for revival in
Wales for 12 or 13 years on a
regular basis, was given such an overwhelming vision
of hell.
It brought on such deep travail on him.
The last year before the Welsh revival in
1904, the travail was so heavy on him.
It was reported that his landlady kicked him
out because she couldn't take all of his
groaning.
People are seized.
All of a sudden they see something.
I remember the pastor of the church I
was saved in.
He used to be a nightclub entertainer and
he got saved and led several of his
brothers to the Lord subsequently.
But he was reading Luke 16 and he
saw the reality of hell and being lost
forever.
It jumped off the page and he ran
to the bar was brother brother was.
He said, man, this is real.
This is real.
In revival, people see it.
The blinders are taken off.
After after the message was preached and Beth
Messiah about living in light of eternity.
I said to some of the brothers, I
said, you know, it's a real good message.
I said, but there's nothing we could do.
I said, we're more than we're 90 percent
wrong and 10 percent right.
Our hearts are so far off that all
the repenting in the world at that altar
is only going to get us an inch
closer.
We've got miles to go.
All we can do is seek God every
day and just wait for him to break
through and break us out.
You know what I'm saying?
It's like it's like so far beyond us
to really catch hold of that vision, that
reality.
Maybe every so often it grips us that
it really takes a revival.
It really takes God bringing things back in
and then we see it.
Richard Wurmbrand said that that in the persecuted
church, they can't understand how we Western believers
don't try and win everyone we know to
the Lord.
I mean, it's so clear to them that
people are saved or lost.
It's so clear when you have somebody spit
in your face, when you have somebody fire
you from their job, from the job you
work, when you have somebody burn your house
down, when you have somebody throw you in
jail, when you have somebody torture you, you
recognize very clearly that these people need Jesus,
that Yeshua died for them, that their sins
are everywhere and they need to be forgiven.
So revival will bring back the revelation of
the reality of hell.
Just a simple question to ask yourself, when's
the last time you wept for someone who
was unsafe?
Or are you more upset over your home
team losing in a sport than over someone
going to hell?
Or are you more concerned when a piece
of furniture is damaged than when someone doesn't
hear the gospel?
I mean, you make the application in your
own mind, you come up with the analogy
that fits, but that's reality.
And I've asked God for a revelation of
eternity, a revelation of heaven and hell to
the extent that I could bear it, because
if he gave a full revelation, that'd be
it.
That'd be the last prayer that was ever
answered because we'd collapse.
We'd be dead as soon as we saw
it, glimpsed it.
I prayed for an understanding of his justice,
how it could be so.
But you see, our gospel has become so
man centered and it's such an unjustifiable position
to the human mind that someone could be
lost forever or suffer forever.
That basically we've rationalized everything away, although we
still know it's in the word and we
still know it's true and we'll violently disagree
with anyone who says it's not true, that
eternal punishment is not what the scriptures teach.
In terms of our actual practice and orientation
and lifestyle, it's really just a doctrine that
we mentally assent to.
I was writing the answer to a question
in some new notes for Sid Roth on
why did God allow six million Jews to
die in the Holocaust.
And you could say why did he allow
11 million to die in general, but here
this is specifically for Jewish people.
And the more I tried to be sensitive
to the question, the deeper the hole I
dug for myself.
In other words, the more I tried to
empathize with the heart that could ask that
an incredible suffering and cruelty and barbarism that
took place, the more I went down with
that, the harder it was for me to
give an answer.
I was almost making excuses for God.
And in the midst of this, God just
reminded me, look, he's not guilty.
He's not to blame.
He never does anything wrong.
We don't have to justify him.
Our whole thing, we try and justify God
in our teaching and show people why what
God really does is OK and it's acceptable
and he really is a good God to
our way of thinking, etc.
We're trying to prove that to people instead
of saying, listen, God commands you to repent.
God commands all men everywhere to repent.
That's a basic thing.
He has the right to because he's God,
because we've sinned against him and he's angry.
Well, that revelation of eternity comes from the
revelation of who God is.
It comes from the revelation of what Jesus
accomplished, the greatness of the sacrifice.
It all then flows out naturally into eternal
issues.
You see, there's a flip side of restoration
of truth here, which is the revelation of
the reality of heaven will loose us from
attachment to earthly things.
It will loose us from our hyper affection
for things that are going to pass away.
It'll cause us to realize that we're pilgrims
and strangers because we've got a better lasting
hope.
It's a funny thing, but wherever I live,
I've always had the feeling.
Well, let me let me interrupt and say
this.
I've got a specific time frame from the
Lord, barring something unexpected in terms of what
he's called us to do here in Maryland,
how long we're to be here for.
OK, so I have a certain sense of
slight permanence, whether it's two years or six
or eight or ten, whatever God said to
me.
The fact is, there's that slight sense.
But everywhere I could remember living for years,
there was always that sense.
I wonder how long we'll be here.
And I never could feel totally at home
no matter where it was.
I said, well, that's because it's on planet
Earth.
We moved into our house.
It was six months late in being built.
We stayed in someone's basement up to that
point until it was ready.
We moved in.
And I actually had to walk around the
house after the first few days and remind
myself, be thankful because there is something set
in me, a recognition of the fact that
we're just passing through.
And I am thankful and I do appreciate
it.
But we're just passing through.
What am I saying?
Well, that's that's part of it.
That's healthy.
That's good when our attitudes are like that.
But the fact is, there's very little revelation
of heaven.
I mean, I recognize we're passing through.
I recognize we're in a war.
I recognize we're called to serve.
But there's very little excitement about heaven.
I talked to a word of faith pastor
and he went to a church that was
kind of half dead church.
And he was kind of judging them a
little bit as he looked around and they
were singing a song about heaven.
And the spirit started to convict him and
said, they've got more of the hope of
heaven than you do.
You so much put your faith in this
earth and the blessing of God for here
and now and today.
And most of us, if we're honest, live
for the blessing of God today because we
haven't suffered.
God just made it clear.
You've lost the hope of heaven.
You've lost the reality of what God calls
in you to really sacrifice.
You've got to have that.
You've got to have that reality.
How could someone be a martyr unless there
is the reality of heaven?
So in revival, as things are set right,
there's a new revelation of heaven that just
causes people to to get freed up from
so many fleshly, worldly, earthly concerns and gives
them a vision of life to come.
Gives them a vision of what it'd be
like to be in the presence of God
without sin, without the devil, without the flesh.
With absolute overflowing joy, our portion for him.
And another thing that revival restores is in
general.
In general, it brings believers back to living
a biblical lifestyle, living by faith.
Being giving sacrificial people.
Having a heart, one for another, walking in
love.
In other words, we live as if the
Bible were really true.
I know it may sound crass and you
may be insulted by me saying that we
don't live as if the Bible were really
true, but you examine yourself and you see
where you come up on that on that
scorecard.
I know where I come up, at least.
But in revival, as things are restored.
Yeah, of course, I just love these people.
Sure, I'll just give and help.
Sure, I'll lay down my life.
I'd love to.
Sure, I'm free from this concern.
Sure, I've overcome this sin because I'm living
as if the word is really true.
You say, man, it sounds like revival really
helps.
Fact is, it's been observed that America has
been without a true revival for a very
long time now.
We have not had, you've had the Azusa
Street outpouring and that was a great revival,
but it was of a different dimension.
It was of a dimension of restoring the
power of the spirit for ministry and witness.
In terms of the dimension of an overall
recovery of New Testament truth, that wasn't a
primary thing that it was doing.
It was it was bringing us in terms
of an end time restoration, bringing us into
something that God had promised long ago.
But in terms of in terms of some
of the other aspects of revival that we've
talked about, it didn't bring all of them
about.
Sure, Jesus was central.
Sure, the fear of God was there.
Sure, people got revelation of heaven and hell.
But the main emphasis that spread from Azusa
was a little bit different.
If you look at our country, we've really
been without a revival for over 100 years.
You really look at it, really considered some
of the ones that we're describing and speaking
about, and that's why the country's in the
situation that it's in.
There's a book that Mary Stewart Ralphie wrote
called The Cure of All Ills.
And she says in the back, she's got
this letter, I have found it.
In 1978, I undertook a survey of the
great revivals of the church age.
A decade of study unveiled the priceless truth,
which has been like a fire shut up
in my bones that I couldn't contain.
Namely, that only in times of mighty revival
does the Holy Spirit act as yeast and
strike through the whole lump of society's dough
in a flash and in one leavening solve
moral, social and political problems.
In other words, she's saying the answer is
revival.
I mean, reduce everything to a fundamental truth.
And what's the answer?
The answer is revival.
She says just on the back of her
book here, discover how you alone individual can
become a son of thunder, reshape human landscape
and change the destiny of this generation.
Time and again, ordinary people cause moral earthquakes,
revivals of religion that suddenly transform the character
of nations, prevent it wars, stabilize society, empty
jails, idle police, laid-off judges, bankrupted breweries,
closed theaters, converted atheists, nearly eliminated drunkenness, crime
and gambling, restored purity to the church, virtue
to government, integrity to commerce.
Discover when Atlantic City's entire population was saved.
Denver shut down for prayer.
Average churches of 120 grew to 1,400
in one and a half years.
Portland's merchants closed three hours each midday for
prayer.
Well, that's what revival does.
That's what revival does.
When we were in Mombasa, one intercessor was
sharing with us the dynamic prayer meetings that
take place in City Hall in Nairobi, the
place packed out, people praying.
Someone told me they visited tremendous dynamic times
in God.
We haven't glimpsed it again.
As I taught early on in these classes
about major characteristics of revival, it was just
to show us we've never experienced one in
our society.
As revival sets things right, it will have
the effect of setting things right in the
world, as we just saw.
There will be that return to biblical morality.
Why?
Because of the influence of the people of
God.
We mentioned earlier, but I'll just say it
again.
One reason will be because a lot of
people get saved.
And when crime kingpins and drug kingpins and
the customers of sin all get saved, well,
crime goes down, sin goes down, morality goes
up.
What would happen if some of our media
heads got born again?
What would happen if some of our leading
newspaper people got born again?
I mean, you'd have a change in the
whole mindset of our society.
And then the fear of God comes back.
Why?
Because the people of God become the salt
and light of the earth.
Because the people of God hold up a
standard of righteousness.
Because the people of God show forth what
God is really talking about by living godly,
moral lives.
Look over in 2 Peter, the second chapter.
By the way, not just godly, moral lives,
but lives that are actively going out, touching
the world, not just self-centered, trying to
feed me, me, me, but lives that are
reaching out, lives that are confronting with the
gospel.
When you get a revelation of hell, you
better believe you preach the gospel with a
lot more fervor and a lot more sacrificially
and to a lot more people.
Look at what it says.
Make it a 1 Peter, chapter two.
He says in verse eleven, Dear friends, I
urge you as aliens and strangers in the
world to abstain from sinful desires which war
against your soul.
Live such godly lives among the pagans that
though they accuse you of doing wrong, they
may see your good deeds and glorify God
on the day he visits us.
He's talking about pagans seeing the lives of
believers.
And even though they're putting these people down,
they are so confronted by the truth through
their godly lives that they end up glorifying
God when he comes.
In other words, they get saved.
Isn't that what Yeshua taught?
Basic fundamental, Matthew, the fifth chapter.
The salt of the earth, the light of
the world, city set on a hill can't
be hid.
Let your light so shine before men that
they will see your good works, your good
deeds and glorify your father in heaven.
I mean, have we ever seen that?
People so confronted by our godly lives, by
our good works, by our sacrificial living, by
the holiness that comes out of us, that
people turn and glorify God.
Well, as the body is set right, it
has that impact in setting the world right.
And obviously, if we are the standard of
righteousness for the world, if we are the
standard of righteousness for the world, then what's
going to happen is very simple.
As we present the law of God to
the world, people will become convicted of sin
and breaking the law.
We've got to bring it.
We can't.
We can't look for society to bring it.
We've got to bring that revelation of right
and wrong as we bring it back.
Conviction will increase and people will know that
they've sinned.
And when we preach to them about salvation
from sin, it'll make more sense.
Sure, there's a certain understanding of all human
beings of right and wrong.
There's a fundamental law that God's place within
people.
But when the people of this world are
not confronted with the godly witness of the
people of God, people just go around sinning
with total impunity.
Let me just read something that I wrote
to you in terms of I didn't write
it to you.
I'm going to read it to you.
I wrote it.
If you read if you read it, then
I wrote it to you.
But I just want to show you where
we stand and what God needs to do
right now at this very moment.
There are more believers living here in the
United States than at any time in history.
Hundreds of churches, both memberships in the thousands
and dozens of ministries claim to be touching
the world.
Gospel radio and television shows are at 24
hours a day and Christian literature pours off
the presses at an unprecedented pace.
Believers are neck deep in praise tapes and
teaching materials.
But something is terribly wrong.
Our society is crumbling all around.
This fear of God has all but disappeared.
The world sins with total impunity and the
people of God say we're blessed.
Something horrible has taken place.
The church has backslidden without even knowing it.
Like Sardis, we have become the perfect model
of an inoffensive Christianity, having a reputation of
being alive, yet being dead.
Like Sardis, we have so come to terms
with our pagan environment that we provoke almost
no opposition and make virtually no impact.
And like Sardis, situated high on a mountain
rock, we have felt safe and secure in
this world.
Why else has persecution ceased?
How else do we explain the fact that
Americans can sin so much with so little
guilt unless we have ceased to be the
salt of the earth in the light of
the world, unless we have ceased to be
the standard of righteousness for our society?
Paul taught that where there is no law,
there is no transgression.
Do the people of the world know that
they are breaking God's law when we have
not lived it out and proclaimed it?
Can we accuse them of irreverence when we
have given them nothing to revere?
The fact is we have gotten so fat
that we can't even get out the church
doors to touch the world.
Our contemporary gospel has breeded complacency instead of
compassion, success instead of sacrifice, prestige instead of
prayer.
We no longer ask what we can do
for him, but rather what he can do
for us.
Don't you see the incredible carnality of it
all?
Well, I could go on, but you get
the picture.
What we need is revival.
In other words, revival is the cure.
It'll set things right, make Jesus central again,
restore the fullness of God to us, cause
us to live a biblical lifestyle in light
of eternity and have a tremendous effect in
this world in terms of setting things right,
setting things straight and seeing God manifest in
our midst.
Father, we thank you for your coming, for
your coming in power, for your manifestation.
We pray that you would manifest yourself in
our lives first and then manifest yourself in
the body.
In Jesus' name, amen.