Attitudes that accompany revival

Posted by Admin on Jul 17, 2015 in Prayer Perspective, Revival | Comments Off on Attitudes that accompany revival

My friend stopped by for a chat last night. We were talking about what’s going on in current events and the huge need in our nation for massive revival.

She then whipped out a section of Scripture (James 3:13-16) from the Message Bible that blew me away. We had been discussing the fact that prayer alone won’t bring an awakening, but that it must be accompanied by humbling ourselves and true repentance. What she shared was an illustration of how that might look. Here are the verses—buckle your seatbelts!

“Do you want to be counted wise, to build a reputation for wisdom? Here’s what you do: Live well, live wisely, live humbly. It’s the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts. Mean-spirited ambition isn’t wisdom. Boasting that you are wise isn’t wisdom. Twisting the truth to make yourselves sound wise isn’t wisdom. It’s the furthest thing from wisdom—it’s animal cunning, devilish conniving. Whenever you’re trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others’ throats.”

Verses 17-18 go on to say, “Real wisdom, God’s wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and recette propecia cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results ONLY IF YOU DO THE HARD WORK OF GETTING ALONG WITH EACH OTHER, TREATING EACH OTHER WITH DIGNITY AND HONOR.”

Mercy, humility, integrity, and compassion must be built into our lifestyle and accompany our praying and bold stance in the Word in this strange age. As we relinquish arrogant pride and the need to be the smartest, the wisest, or the most important, God can back our words, our prayers, and our lives, flooding the earth with what may be the last great outpouring from Heaven.

Dorothy

Deep calls to deep

Posted by Admin on Jul 16, 2015 in Revival | Comments Off on Deep calls to deep

“In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.” Genesis 7:11

“He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.‘” John 7: 38

“Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts…” Psalm 42:7a KJV

A while back while praying with some other folks, I experienced the presence of God in an unusual way. Waves of worship in languages given by the Spirit of God filled the atmosphere, spilling out in joy, peace, and great awe. It felt as if I had entered a river, toes first, splashing and washing away the tiredness of my flesh. I saw swirling eddies and light dancing in the water with my mind’s eye, and realized that, try as we might, no human could really control a living river.

As I worshipped God, I reflected upon rivers I had known—fishing expeditions with my dad, float trips with my friends, rope swings over deeply-rooted banks, and the torrents of flood waters that often crash through the  mighty rivers of my region. Rivers—life-giving, playful, refreshing, cleansing, powerful, dangerous, destructive—rivers.

I sang quietly to myself, “Oh, oh, the River of God! Wash it away, wash it away, wash it away in the River of God!” The river of God was washing me, and I allowed it to carry me into the deeper flows of the peace of God.

Then I caught a glimpse of how an outpouring of God might begin upon a people or a land. God said to Jeremiah, “…call upon Me and come and recette propecia pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you…” (see Jeremiah 29:12-14).

When the heart cries of God’s people are toward Him, seeking Him with their whole beings for mercy, salvation, and restoration to be poured out upon themselves and their land, He listens and responds. During times of chaos, distress, crisis, and upheaval, men and women have cried out to God earnestly, beseeching Him for deliverance from their backslidings and sin, crying out for relief from the fruit of wickedness in the land. And as a result, revivals have nearly always erupted in those darker times.

By Noah’s time, although the earth was still young, wickedness had spiraled out of control and evil permeated the thoughts and intentions of the human race. The world was not merely corrupted by sin; it was saturated in it. Violence, greed, and all types of perversion ruled the day, and God had seen enough.

He directed Noah to build an ark for the preservation of the race and every animal species on the earth. According to 2 Peter 2:5, it is likely that Noah preached righteousness to anyone who happened by throughout the entire ark-construction project. The door to the ark was left open until the last minute; had anyone taken Noah’s message to heart, my guess is that they would have been welcomed aboard.

Genesis 7:11 gives the report of the fateful day when the flood began. “All the fountains of the great deep burst open” declares the Word, “and the floodgates of the sky were opened.”

In our day, as wickedness spirals out of control once again, and as evil thoughts seem to inundate the very atmosphere with perversion, violence, and greed, God is once again leaving the door of the ark open for a while longer.

And He is now stirring the depths of the hearts of His people—deep is calling unto deep—and He is pressing by His Spirit upon all of us—anyone who will—to “burst open” and allow the release of living waters from the innermost being.

As we cry out to Him and seek Him with all of our hearts, He will be found of us. The great depths within us, placed within our hearts from the moment we received Christ, will be met by the opened floodgates of Heaven, and another great Flood will occur.

In this Flood, souls will be saved, not lost; and as we cry out to Him, perhaps one last time the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord.

It is our time; may each one of us yield to the Holy One pressing upon our hearts in this hour and cry out to Heaven, “Send the outpouring of your Spirit! We must have revival!”

Dorothy

Contention Vs. Revival

Posted by Admin on Jul 15, 2015 in Revival | 1 comment

I read something in Winkie Pratney’s book, Revival, years ago that stayed with me and changed the entire way I look at differences between true believers. I would like to share it with you.

George Whitefield, one of the revivalists Pratney wrote about, was used mightily of God during a key outpouring in American history. He preached his first sermon when he was 21 and continued without faltering throughout the British Isles and the American colonies until his death in 1770 at the age of 56. His style was described as the “preaching that startled the nation” (page 90). He spoke with authority, and said of himself, “I have not come in my own name. No! I have come in the Name of the Lord of hosts and I must be heard!” (page 92.) And heard he was. He typically preached twelve messages per week, and often spoke up to forty to sixty hours each week. The joy in which he walked was evident to all; one colonial woman said of his influence upon her, “Mr. Whitefield was so cheerful it tempted me to become a Christian” (page 96).

This man, who was used so powerfully by God to blast the message of the gospel to his generation, dealt with some of the same catty, factious, divisive forces that persist within Christianity in our time. Although he was a friend and contemporary of John Wesley, they did not see eye to eye on points of doctrine. Whitefield held to Calvinism; Wesley viewed the Armenian belief system as correct. In fact, at that time, many in the Church were sharply divided between these two branches of thought, and along with the division came bitter contention, criticisms, and smug judgments. Pratney wrote, “[Whitefield] had a deep humility, and broad charity toward others, loving all others who loved Jesus in sincerity. If other Christians misrepresented him, he forgave them; if they refused to work with him, he still loved them” (page 96).

One believer, more interested in controversy than in the furtherance of the gospel, asked Whitefield if he “thought he would see John Wesley in heaven.”

Whitefield replied, “I fear not. He will be so near the throne and we at such a distance that we shall hardly get a sight of him” (page 96).

Something beyond anointed preaching and tireless endurance burned within Whitefield’s breast. The love of Christ that shunned partisan sniping permeated his life and ministry as well.

Are you willing to speak kindly of others despite differences in doctrine, emphases in teaching, or manner of worship? Are you willing to forgo a juicy snide remark concerning a “rival” believer or ministry? Are any of us willing to set aside sectarian prejudices for the sake of keeping our motives pure before God?

These are the questions each of us must ask ourselves before the Lord. I believe that our generation will never experience the unlimited outpouring of God if true Christians refuse to lay aside suspicious attitudes and strife one against the other. Can we afford to continue in “me against you” and “us against them” mentalities at the risk of blocking the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon this dark generation? Whitefield didn’t think so.

May God help us all!

Dorothy

[The quotes from Revival are used by permission. Winkie Pratney’s ministry can be accessed at www.winkiepratney.com ]

Revival

Posted by Admin on Jul 14, 2015 in Prayer Perspective, Revival | Comments Off on Revival

In our time, more and more believers are recognizing the urgent need for God to move in our nation to right wrongs, bring forth justice, and raise up leaders of deep, heart-felt convictions. Built into the very foundation of our republic has been the establishment of government for the express purpose of protecting the rights of law-abiding citizens to follow their own consciences freely and to lead their lives as they see fit—including, if they so desire, the unapologetic and unhindered pursuit of God’s will for their lives. Therefore, as we pray for kings and all who are in authority, we need to recognize that multitudes of lives are connected to their decisions, keeping in mind that it is God’s will for all of them to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (see 1 Timothy 2:1-4).

But in a culture like ours, caught up in gross sin of all kinds, more than political change will be needed. Unfortunately, at this point in our history, reformation and “dialing things back” simply won’t cut it. What we need is sweeping revival. We need a nation-wide awakening to God to hit—hard. We need a genuine move of God—the real thing, not just stirring music, thrilling messages, awesome programs, or prominent name-recognition.

I read a book years ago with a message that was both ancient yet strikingly current. The book was Revival, by Winkie Pratney, published in 1983. The back cover asked:

• Are you disturbed by the apathy and despondency of people today?
• Do you wonder what the future holds for this immoral world?

It went on to say, “In an age where values are questioned, families are falling apart, and where quality is being replaced by quantity, there is an ever-growing need for a revival of the morals and beliefs of a more stable time.”

I agreed with it then; I agree even more now. These thoughts are more pertinent today than they were in 1983; without God’s intervention, our culture will continue to deteriorate at an alarming rate. Without divine interference, neither the best programs nor projects good men have to offer will be adequate to stave off the eventual collapse of our culture or return us to kinder, gentler days, saner days. We must have revival.

Pratney wrote about revivals, reformers, and revivalists spanning history from before the Great Reformation in the 1400’s up to the time of his writing. He wrote that “true revival is marked by powerful and often widespread outpourings of the Spirit.”  He also pointed out that in past revivals “many times preaching had to cease because the hearers were prostrate or because the voice of the preacher was drowned by cries for mercy” (page 16).

Quoting In the Day of Thy Power by Arthur Wallis, Pratney shares concerning revival, “It is God revealing Himself to man in awesome holiness and irresistible power. It is such a manifest working of God that human personalities are overshadowed and human programs abandoned. It is man retiring into the background because God has taken the field” (page 17).

“Revival is periodic; evangelism is continuous,” Pratney quotes from an April 9, 1965 article in Christianity Today. “Revival will always vitalize God’s people…but revival is not always welcome. For many the price is too high. There is no cheap grace in revival. It entails repudiation of self-satisfied complacency. Revival turns careless living into vital concern…exchanges self-indulgence for self-denial. Yet, revival is not a miraculous visitation falling on an unprepared people like a bolt out of the blue. It comes when God’s people earnestly want revival and are willing to pay the price” (page 19).

It is interesting to note that the article in Christianity Today was written two years before a double-barreled blast of God’s intervention hit this nation. Both the Charismatic Renewal, starting among Catholic seekers and spreading into Protestant denominations, and the Jesus Movement, capturing disenchanted and disenfranchised young people for Christ by the tens of thousands and more, are said to have started in 1967, two years after the Christianity Today article was printed. Hunger for more than what they were currently experiencing in their churches and relationships with God was driving believers to seek God’s intervention in the mid 1960’s.

Pratney also warned, “Evil as well as righteousness can have a ‘revival’; there can be an unholy uprising as well as a holy outpouring” (page 21). Proverbs 28:28a declares, “When the wicked rise, men hide themselves” and Proverbs 29:2b says, “when the wicked rule, the people groan.” One strategy of the devil is to use intense widespread ridicule, derision, and scorn of godly values and faith in Christ to discourage believers from confidently persisting in prayer for a sweeping, mighty outpouring of His power and holiness. Satan accomplishes this through stirring wicked men, rulers, and ungodly popular thought to coerce believers to retreat in fear from voicing their convictions or confident profession of faith. Perhaps, they think, if we don’t ruffle any feathers and we just play nice, those who hate our values will simply forget we are here and leave us alone. However, such fear works to the enemy’s advantage; when good men are silent, evil increases and gains leverage. Like it or not, this describes our time.

That is why we need God’s intervention. As a friend of mine used to say, “The devil’s not playing whiffle ball.” We find ourselves facing the big leagues, now—ready or not. But we have a God who is ready to intervene in a big way for the asking. It’s time now to let go of distractions and any fear we may have for our own safety and reputations. It’s time seek the Lord on behalf of our nation. It’s time for a move of God.

May God help us to take our stand before Him without shrinking back.

Dorothy

[The quotes from Revival are used by permission. Winkie Pratney’s ministry can be accessed at www.winkiepratney.com]

Don’t box God in while praying for the nation

Posted by Admin on Jul 6, 2015 in Praying for America | Comments Off on Don’t box God in while praying for the nation

The last time July 4th was on a Saturday like it was this year was 2009. That day I had a very unusual experience in prayer.

You see, fifteen or twenty years ago, I started a personal tradition—every 4th of July I put aside some time to pray for America. Each year is different. Some years I pray about issues while other years I pray for various government leaders.

But on that July 4th in 2009, something a little different happened. I began like I usually do by praising God and seeking Him about how He wanted me to pray; I expected to pray for the president or about one of the many issues facing the country.

Instead, I couldn’t get the Scripture I had read earlier that morning out of my mind. It was Luke 2:41-51, about Jesus’ adventure in Jerusalem when He was twelve. Verse 43 haunted me. “…the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. But His parents were unaware of it.” I noticed a sense of panic gripping me—evidently I was relating on a very deep level to what Mary and Joseph must have felt when it dawned on them that their Son had been missing for an entire day.

I reread verses 44-46. “[They] went a day’s journey; and they began looking for Him among their relatives and acquaintances. When they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem looking for Him. Then, after three days they found Him...” I was fixated upon the horror of discovering that your child was missing and not knowing whether he was alive or dead. Since I could not shake the sense of heaviness, I yielded to it as I began praying for the children and teens of the nation.

I found myself praying for every one of the nation’s children to be safe in their activities for the entire holiday weekend. I prayed against two main scenarios—little ones getting separated from their parents and teens losing their friends in a crowd. I also prayed in the name of Jesus against abduction attempts of all sorts—that they would be thwarted and for adults in charge of kids to be on high alert.

When I realized that I had prayed along this line for most of the morning, I honestly felt disappointed. I had wanted to pray for the nation, not kids, but I ran out of time and needed to leave for a barbeque. In my spirit, however, I sensed God correcting me: “You did pray for the nation.”

Monday evening, July 6th, I was in the kitchen making dinner as one of the local TV newscasts started. I could hear the teasers opening the broadcast from the set in the living room. “Tonight we will take you to a local church where an alert volunteer stopped a child abduction Sunday morning.” I dropped what I was doing and raced to the living room, waiting for the opening story. And this is what I learned:

A 10-year old girl was attending children’s church Sunday morning at the church I used to attend. A registered sex offender—a pedophile—had been skulking outside her classroom, unobserved. He caught her attention and motioned for her to step outside. When she walked into the hall to see what he wanted, he put his arm around her and started escorting her out of the building. However, just in time an alert volunteer noticed what was going on, and he abruptly demanded the man to stop. The girl was led to safety by another volunteer and the would-be abductor was arrested.

I sat in awe, taking it all in, and wept as I recalled my intense time of prayer two days earlier on the 4th, interceding against child abductions that holiday weekend. And I thought about how disappointed I had been with the prayer direction God had given me that morning—and how grateful I was that I had obeyed His prompting.

God’s desire is for every one of us to yield to His leading—however He prompts—resulting in prayers that hit the target. As more and more of us make ourselves available for Him to lead us as we pray, more and more bull’s eyes will be hit.

How can America be saved? First of all, PRAY—and that by the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Dorothy

Why I pray for America

Posted by Admin on Jul 4, 2015 in Praying for America | Comments Off on Why I pray for America

I have been fortunate in my life to be surrounded by believers who take the call to pray very seriously.  When I got saved in college, my first church was a Tuesday and Thursday night dorm Bible study led by young Christians who had a deep relationship with Jesus. These brands of fire freely and openly spilled out their hearts in prayer and worship to God every time we gathered together.

The church I attended as a young career woman was birthed in prayer and even held regular 10 pm to 3 am prayer meetings on Friday nights for a while. Those meetings added gas to the fire that burned within me, and nothing less than seeking God fully satisfied me.

After I left that church, I attended another church while I sought God for direction. I even traveled to the Soviet Union with 6 other folks from that church to preach and win souls. What a time we had, praying in Red Square the words of Psalm 2, “Why are the nations in an uproar? Why do the peoples devise a vain thing?” Little did we know, on the Saturday we flew out of Moscow to return to America, that Monday morning the tanks would roll into Red Square and the Soviet Union would quickly become the former Soviet Union, within days. Indeed, the nations were in an uproar, and we were in on the secret before it hit the press.

Then God planted me in my current church, one that was also birthed in prayer. The leadership and lay people surrounding me in this church value prayer, pray readily and regularly, and have amazing testimonies bearing witness to the effectiveness of prayer.

Therefore, as I look at my nation, I must pray. It’s in my DNA; it is built into the very fabric of my relationship with God. When I see obstacles in my nation, I am challenged by my rich heritage to stand my ground and trust God.

I feel I owe it to the Founders who pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to guard, nurture, protect, and defend the fledgling nation.

I owe it to past generations of men and women of God—Charles Finney, D. L. Moody, William J. Seymour, Billy Sunday, Aimee Semple McPherson, and all the rest, both known and unknown—who took advantage of their American liberty to pour out their lives for the cause of Christ.

I owe it to my dad, who although he never claimed to know God intimately, was willing as a young man to risk his life in service to  a country which guaranteed that his daughter, yet to be born, would bear the sacred right to lead her own life, speak openly, and worship God without any fear that acting on her convictions could lead to loss of her freedom…

I must pray. I must pray the Word of God over my nation. I must seek her deliverance when evil threatens her. I must stand my ground even if it takes the rest of my life. I can do no less, so help me God.

Jugglers

Posted by Admin on Jul 3, 2015 in Praying for America | Comments Off on Jugglers

But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 2 Timothy 3:13, NASB

But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. 2 Timothy 3:13, KJV

In the King James Version of 2 Timothy 3:13, impostors are called “seducers”. According to the Encarta Dictionary, a seducer is a persuader who uses deception to get what he or she wants sexually. However, the same reference further reveals that the term isn’t limited to sexual enticement; a seducer also tries to talk someone into doing other things they wouldn’t normally do by painting a picture of how “amazing” or “truly noble” those things are. Lastly, the same source states that the term “seducer” can be used to describe a person who manipulates others into giving them their support or agreement.

The term “impostor” used in the NASB indicates the false, illegitimate character of this type of person, whereas the word “seducer” in the KJV further reveals the manipulative, self-serving motivation by which they are driven.

In Greek, “impostor” is the word goēs and indicates not only a deceiver and an impostor, but also reveals some other very interesting peculiarities (see < http:// www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G1114&t=KJV >).

The first definition right out of the box for this Greek word is “a wailer” and “a howler”. Remember, impostors lie and manipulate, so this wailing and howling is not the genuine cry of pain, remorse, or compassion—no, the wail and howl of the impostor is a grand charade to further his agenda of conning and deceiving. Would you be surprised to learn that one of the strategies which activist Saul Alinsky included in his book, Rules for Radicals (© 1971), to force societal change was to loudly, disruptively, and continuously complain—to howl and wail—against the status quo? (Incidentally, Alinsky dedicated this book to “…the first radical known to man…Lucifer”.)

Another definition of goēs is “enchanter”—a person, according to the source, who would utter incantations in a sort of a howl.

But to me, the most intriguing definition of all is included in the second meaning along with “enchanter”—a “juggler”. You may wonder how this word “juggler” could possibly be related to “impostor” or “seducer”. Well, this is where it gets very interesting.

These days, information—extremely important information—gets thrown at all of us constantly. Any attempt to make sense of current events is dizzying and can make you feel as if you are watching a multi-object juggling routine in hyper-speed! You start to learn about one thing going on and before you know it, a second, and then a third, and then a fourth—all breaking news—all “just in”—slap you, one after the other, in the face. Changes and crises abound—whether in health care, invasive privacy concerns, military changes and new crises in the middle-east and the Ukraine, deepening concerns about the integrity of the IRS, changes in the traditional definition of marriage and a growing antagonism toward those who hold to traditional views, chilly relations on the part of the administration with Israel, predicted decline in America’s status as the world’s economic leader and super-power, changes in what is commonly accepted as right and wrong—all these things and so much more fly at us from every direction at the speed of light.

Most of us do not have the reading capacity of President Kennedy who was reported to read four newspapers in 15 minutes every day. And yet the daily, perpetual juggling of volumes of highly detailed information about ever-changing, significant events intensifies all the more, mocking our inability to comprehend even one piece, let alone grasp the entire scope of information.

Most folks just throw their hands up in the air, let the info fall to the ground, and walk away. Who can keep up with it all?

I propose that this “juggling routine” takes place by design to keep men and women of good will and honest heart off-balance as they attempt to bring order to the chaos they see.

However, I also believe that there is a strategy from the Throne Room of God to empower His people to deal effectively in the face of this constant juggling of toxic and disastrous events and information.

Consider this: It was rumored that baseball legend Ted Williams was able to see—as if frozen in space—the seams on any fastball hurled his way. Could it be that God might be “magnifying your vision” with one or two of the very serious issues facing our nation? Are you passionate about any of the crises or changes gripping our culture? What angers you? What makes you uneasy? What is attempting to rob your peace? Take note. Could it be that the issues that bother you the most are the “seams on the baseball” flying at you? Could it be that the Living God has prompted your ire and is coaching and preparing you to hit that issue out of the park in consecrated, heartfelt prayer?

It is my belief that God’s will in these difficult days is to send assignments to His men and women, boys and girls, “freezing in space” for each one of us the details concerning those things about which He is prompting us to pray. Look. Our God so much greater than any impostor or juggler of oppression and folly that ever existed.

So when you see alarming information being juggled at warp-speed before your eyes, thank God that He has His “Ted Williams” prayer people stepping up to the plate all over the nation and around the world. They are poised, ready, waiting, bats in hand, anticipating those fastballs…and, seeing the seams, with their prayer muscles bulging, they swing with a force that could only come from Heaven and connect—sending those balls way out of the park.

Get ready to play ball, Ted Williams—you!

Dorothy