Dear People Who Keep Company with God,
A good friend spoke to me concerning what has been going on in our church said, “This is nothing new, it is the same thing God did in Toronto almost 15 years ago”. He was saying this in somewhat of a critical way; it wasn’t that he had not embraced what God was doing, but he was sincerely looking for the promised revival that we have all heard about and anticipated for years.
When the Holy Spirit began to move in our church I knew this was not the promised revival, but rather it was the grace of God accelerating us. He was getting us from where we were to where we should be in a quick fashion in preparation for what He will do in the coming days.
Revivals are sent by heaven to bring heaven on earth and as the word indicates they “revive” something. They bring new life back to an existing biblical truth.
In the early 1600’s Martin Luther met with God during what he called his Tower Experience; a great revelation through Scripture that man is justified by faith only. Untold millions of people have since come to understand the love of God in Christ. Salvation could not be earned; it is a free gift, a finished work. The First and Second Great Awakening in our nation in the 1700’s and 1800’s were fruits of that revival. Billy Graham is an example of someone who powerfully ministered the truth of that revival and saw thousands receive Christ by faith.
The Pentecostal revivals beginning at the turn of the 20th century brought back the truth of the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Similar to the Book of Acts, the Holy Spirit came with great power, signs and wonders. Weak, unstable believers were transformed into mighty servants of God (Acts 2:14). The gift of tongues was restored to declare His wonders (Acts 2:11). The Scriptures were opened up and understood in new ways (Acts 2:14, 25). Men and women who served Him realized they could prophesy (Acts 2:18).
During the 1940’s and 50’s the healing ministries of men such as A.A. Allen, Jack Coe, Oral Roberts and many others took the truths of the Pentecostal revival and saw multitudes healed and saved. The Charismatic move of the 1960’s and 70’s further spread the understanding and experience of the Holy Spirit into traditional denominational circles. The Gifts of the Spirit were in operation again in many rank and file believers. The prophetic move of the 1980’s gave new reality to the scripture, “your sons and daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams” (Acts 2:17).
In the 1990’s, a greater revelation of the Heavenly Father began to be restored to the church. In Toronto they called it “The Fathers Blessing”. As people began to interact in a personal way with their heavenly Father the orphan spirit began to lose its grip on their hearts and minds. Physical healing, inner healing, deliverance from demonic maladies and a renewed sense of Holy Spirit empowered witness and missions has slowly worked its way into the hearts and minds of multitudes of believers world wide.
This is the grace of God we have been experiencing, catching us up on what heaven has released so that we might more fully experience heaven on earth.
“I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord” 2 Cor. 12:1 The gospel of the Kingdom is the message heaven is currently restoring to the earth. As we pursue this message and press through the veil that holds us earthward, we can expect to be “caught up into paradise and hear inexpressible words” (2 Cor. 12:4). Those who seek such encounters with God can expect fulfillment of the promise Jesus made to Nathaniel,“You will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (John 1:51).
All of this is preparing us for the next wave of revival, the revelation of the Lord of the earth, Jesus Christ (Rev. 11:4). The ultimate desire of heaven is that we would know Christ in all of His fullness (Eph. 1:10), and in that knowledge, conform us to the full stature of Christ in every way (Eph. 4:13).
Many Blessings, BW