· Author: John Franklin (He wrote this article April 11, 2014 posting it at The 6:4 Fellowship)
As of the writing of this article, it was just a few weeks ago
that God came and granted the deepest moving of His Spirit in revival that we
have ever experienced in the history of our church. The purpose of this
article is to tell some of the testimonies of what happened to give you a sense
of the depth of God’s work, what we did to prepare ourselves for revival, and
the major lesson learned for any person or church seeking God for revival so
that you may experience God do the same in your midst.
TESTIMONIES
On the second day God began moving. A sense of His presence pervaded the
service that evening, but I knew God was up to something special when I heard
the report of one young man going home, gathering up his multi thousand dollar
hobby to place on his burn pile because it had become an idol of his
heart. God continued the next day with deep public confessions of sin,
relationships being reconciled, whole families being transformed and services
that went on for hours. One young man became transparent about
pornography, another young woman confessed and sought forgiveness for
lesbianism, and a host of other people fell under deep conviction of sin.
After what was supposed to be the concluding service Sunday morning our
speaker, Laine Johnson, had left early Sunday afternoon for an eight hour trek
back to Michigan. About 9:30 or 10:00 that night after the evening
service, we called him and asked him to return and extend services, which he
graciously did. God continued to move creating a ripple effect in our
community.
How can I, in this short article, possibly communicate to you
what it was like? How can I describe to you that the conviction of sin we
felt was not merely an admission that we needed to repent, but rather a deep
grief, a profound brokenness, a personalizing of offending our God. As
one church member said recently, “So many of our revival services before were
good, and they touched us, and we felt the need to do better and serve God
more, and we wanted to do that – but this was different. Those revivals
affected us more outside in. This revival affected us inside out. “
WHAT WE DID TO PREPARE
I had a friendship with James Pool of LifeAction
Ministries. God had stirred his heart with a unique vision about how a
church could seek God for revival. I sensed it was of the Lord, so I
proposed to my church leadership that we be a pilot location to test this new
model of seeking God for revival. They agreed. (Before I go any
further, I want to make absolutely clear that God grants revival. It does
not come because of our planning or strategies or a new model. I cannot
say this enough. However, we do know principles by which God works.
What I am about to write are principles that are Biblically and historically
present when God has sent revival). Below were three basic principles and
practical actions we took.
Prayer
To my knowledge there has never been a significant movement of
God in revival that was not preceded by prayer. If you are reading this
article as a part of the Acts 6:4 Fellowship I assume you know that, but it
bears saying again anyway. So we formed a prayer team that led our church
in prayer preceding the revival. We had special times of prayer by our
deacons and two special days of prayer for our entire congregation. We
signed people up to pray for a specific pew. We created prayer bookmarks,
prayer refrigerator magnets, and church posters with three specific prayer
requests that we asked our people to pray. Additionally, James used the
LifeAction OneCry prayer network of around 9,000 people to pray that our church
and area would experience revival.
Preparation
In order to further prepare the hearts of our church we utilized
two more means.
First, I began preaching almost 3 months of sermons on
revival and important points about it. I spoke on what revival is
Biblically; I told testimonies from revivals in history, and I highlighted
certain expectations necessary to meet God, such as prayer, confession of sin,
readiness to immediately obey God, etc.
Second, we distributed a 30 day devotional on revival called
Asleep in the Land of Nod by Dave Butts. This devotional educates, challenges,
and provides prayer points to pray for revival. We asked our people to
start reading it daily one month out.
Weekend Event
I mentioned earlier that we extended services after God moved,
but originally the weekend was designed to be made up of preaching from a
speaker acquainted with gifted in the area of revival, and lay volunteers who
has personally experienced revival who gave testimonies and facilitated small
group processing based on what the speaker presented. There were to be
five times of preaching, testimonies and small groups.
THE MAJOR LESSON LEARNED
I have desired revival for some time, and since 1997 had spoken
nationally about it, written about it, and produced a DVD on it. However,
I always sensed there was something missing in my understanding. Through
watching God work in my church and through the preaching of Laine Johnson, the
light bulb went on about where God begins when He brings an individual, a
church or a nation back to Himself. In all revivals God convicts of sin,
but I learned in this revival that God does not begin with sin in general, but
with one sin in particular.
The context of James 4:1-10 is a church that has departed from
God (“you adulterous people” vs. 4), and stands in need of revival. In
verse 6 James urges them to humble themselves before God, saying, “God opposes
the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” This raised a question for me,
“If God opposes every proud person and gives grace to every humble person, what
does that look like practically? What does it look like when God is
opposing me, another Christian, my church, or my country?” That answer is
very broad and will have varying degrees of intensity, but let me give you a
few examples. He will withdraw the experience of His presence. I will
be in need of wisdom and receive no guidance. I will be in conflict in my
relationships with no resolution. My son or daughter will be wayward and
He will not respond to my cry. There is carnage at the base of my family
tree. I will be turned over to strongholds of sin (Romans 1:18ff).
My church will have a form of godliness, but no power. It certain
instances it may even grow as bad as 1 Cor. 11:30 where we become weak, ill, or
die. You have heard that you can stand on the promises of God? Well
here is one of the promises – every time my heart is exalted, God opposes me.
However, the converse is also true. Every time I humble
myself, God gives me grace. The Biblical definition of grace is God’s
provision for my need in whatever that is at the moment. So what would
that look like? Well, the opposite of what is above. When I need
wisdom a Scripture will come to mind, a friend will appear, or I will be
enlightened in prayer. God will pursue my wayward son or daughter.
His presence and power are manifested in my church to set people free, to
deliver them from strongholds and addictions. Relationships are
reconciled. My family tree is transformed.
If you receive nothing else from this article, know
this: God’s grace began to be
poured out after we humbled themselves before God AND one another.
The repentance that happened was NOT behavioral at first. It was a heart
attitude of submitting to Him, of humbling ourselves, confessing our sins and
transgressions to one another so that we were healed. In other words, the
clog in the spiritual pipeline does not become unstuck just because you
pray. It becomes unstuck when you humble yourself and pray. This is
why Christians have been praying for revival for years in our churches and
nation, yet God has not only failed to grant it, but has increasingly opposed
us as evidenced by turning us over to skyrocketing sin and gross immorality.
What we discovered in our church was that we were a proud people
and we didn’t even know it because we had adopted cultural standards by which
to judge ourselves. When people humbled themselves before God and one
another, God’s grace and power began to flow in profound transformation.
Let me urge you the reader, as you seek God’s revival for your life and church
to begin by studying what it biblically means to humble yourself. The
lesson I learned is that pride/humility is the gateway through which all the
blessings of God’s working flows.
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