Our last post was “You Can Have Revival If You Want It.” We saw that God is generous, rich in grace, and has poured out his grace abundantly on us in Christ. So if the church isn’t in revival and full of power, the problem isn’t on God’s end. It’s usually because the church really doesn’t want revival. The church doesn’t want to yield to the Holy Spirit and give up control. The church doesn’t want the message that brings revival. The church doesn’t receive the people that Jesus sends with his Spirit.
Rodney Howard-Browne said the Lord told him, “The only reason I don’t move is because you don’t let me.” He realized they were missing out on God’s move because his priorities differed from God’s priorities when they had a church service. Let’s consider if our programs are quenching the Holy Spirit and dishonoring Jesus. Do we have time for Jesus in them?
Are You Willing To Change And Yield To The Holy Spirit?
Proverbs 1:23 promises that if we listen to Wisdom’s rebuke, God will pour out his Spirit on us. This promise leaves no excuse for the church to not be in revival and filled with God’s power. He gives grace to the humble but resists the proud, so if his grace is not manifest among us, it reveals a problem with pride.
Humility yields to the Holy Spirit. It yields to God’s word, and it honors the Holy Spirit’s priorities. Pride resists. The abundant supernatural manifestation of God’s grace is lacking in many religious meetings because the church is disobeying the instructions of scripture for Christian meetings and because the people don’t value what is important to the Holy Spirit. They have their own priorities, and they are not God’s priorities.
Who can tell me about a revival in all of history that did not require repentance and change? Who can show me a revival message that didn’t offend many people? Reproof offends the proud, but the wise welcome it. Correction requires us to either humble ourselves and receive God’s grace, or to harden our hearts in pride so God resists us.
Is Religion Replacing Relationships?
1st Corinthians 11 gives instructions for communion, which was the central part of an early church gathering and was a meal in which people reclined at the table together. The Holy Spirit values relationships and his power flows in that context. Do we value and prioritize what the Holy Spirit values? I hear from people all over the world who say they want communion but they can’t find it because the churches are all programs.
I met a guy whose wife suffered from fibromyalgia for years. He told me that he felt hurt because his mom was always in church when he was a child and never had time for her kids. He said he couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be with Jesus and see those miracles. I said, “I live it. I’ve been watching Jesus do miracles for years. Why don’t we meet and pray for your wife together?” We met briefly last Wednesday. I asked him to put his hand on her belly. I held her hand and prayed to release God’s glory. In a few minutes, she was sobbing. “I don’t feel any pain. My foot never stops hurting, and it’s gone.” He messaged me a few days later and said she never had pain since.
Relationships are central to God’s instructions for a Christian meeting, but I keep hearing people who have trouble finding relationships in the middle of so many church services and religious programs. They go to church and come back feeling lonely. Some feel that their parents were so involved in the church that they didn’t have time for them. My new friend grew up in church. He felt that it pulled his family apart rather than bringing them together, and he couldn’t imagine seeing Jesus heal someone. Religious programs had replaced relationships and had also replaced power.
A positive example that contrasts with that was my experience at The Son Spot in Ocean City, Maryland. Children played happily in the back as we all communed together. They were part of the community and were a joy, not a “bother” to anyone. They tended to keep following the Lord with their whole hearts as they grew up, in stark contrast to many teens in other groups who were disconnected from their parent’s faith. The church shared many meals, and people were encouraged to share words from the Lord and read the Bible publicly.
Some Christians manage to find relationship in spite of the programs…but the religious programs consider those other events to be optional, but they consider the “main thing,” which is a church service that doesn’t facilitate relationships, as “essential!” In the Biblical view, relationships ARE essential.
Does Your Church Service Have Time For Jesus?
Romans 15:14 says the brothers are full of knowledge and able to instruct each other. Colossians 3:16 says that we should let God’s word dwell in us richly, teaching and admonishing each other. 1st Corinthians 11-14 has instructions for a Christian gathering. Chapter 11 says we must discern and honor the whole body of Christ.
Chapter 12 says that the Holy Spirit chooses to manifest his grace through every member of the body so that one is ministering healing, another is prophesying, another is giving a word of knowledge, etc. Every member edifies the whole body of Christ, and we cannot say to one member, “I don’t need you.” To say “I don’t need you” to any member of Christ’s body is to say “I don’t need you” to Jesus himself.
When the Bible says that the Holy Spirit chooses to distribute the manifestations of his grace to every member of the body, but our meetings do not make it possible for God’s grace to manifest through every member, it is as if we were saying to the Holy Spirit, “What is important to you isn’t important to us. We have our way of doing things.” How arrogant! Jesus is full of grace, and the manifestations of God’s grace among us are manifestations of Christ.
But when the Holy Spirit gives his grace to any member of Christ’s body and we don’t have time or a place in our program for that to manifest, it is the same as if we didn’t have time or a place in our program for Jesus. Jesus himself could walk into many church programs and nobody would notice, because it takes humility to receive Jesus. He doesn’t appeal to pride. If the Spirit of Jesus is not manifest with power and glory among us, it is simply because we don’t want Jesus and are too proud to receive him. But if we receive those who Jesus sends, we receive Jesus.
Chapter 13 says that if we don’t have love, we are like a noisy gong or clanging cymbal. This describes so many religious programs. There is lots of noise and a big show, but people leave feeling lonely. People all over the world send me messages describing this as their experience when they go to church. They go sick or tormented by demons, and they come back the same way. In Jesus, God’s love manifested in power, but religious meetings meant for spectators lack the manifestation of God’s love in power. I myself have gone so many times to a meeting longing for someone to pray for me with power, for a real prophetic word, for some kind of edification, but I can’t find it anywhere. Few are even disciples of Jesus. They are trained to watch, be quiet, and listen, not to act or obey Jesus. I go to these meetings, I am not edified, and I have no opportunity to edify others.
We cannot welcome Jesus unless allowing his Spirit to manifest through every member of Christ’s body is our priority. Many churches don’t have revival because they want their show instead. When most members of the body of Christ aren’t even moving in our meeting, it is as if the body of Christ is paralyzed.
How Can A Healthy, Active Christian Stand Such Meetings?
We have a gospel message that consistently produces power and is confirmed with signs and wonders. We regularly see great moves of the Holy Spirit when we preach that the heavens are open because Jesus’ body was torn for us. This abundant outpouring of God’s grace and love manifest in power is not happening in many Christian meetings simply because the people prefer another message that doesn’t manifest in power. They prefer cotton candy sermons instead of the pure, unadulterated message of repentance, faith, God’s Kingdom, and God’s grace. Some prefer to beg God in unbelief to open the heavens, and since they believe the heavens are closed, that is what they experience.
Many active disciples of Jesus can’t stand one more such program. It feels like they are being forced to eat and never allowed to exercise. And much of what they are expected to eat is junk food. They would rather just read the Bible together than hear another coaching message full of human wisdom. The Bible says the swamps and marshes won’t be made fresh (Ezekiel 47:11), but many people are actually expected to be swamps and marshes in the religious programs, with water always flowing in but not out. That is intolerable for disciples of Jesus.
1st Corinthians 14 instructs us that if one prophet is speaking and a revelation comes to another person, the first person should sit down and allow two or three other prophets to speak. In your religious meetings, whether church services or small groups, do you humbly submit to the Holy Spirit and obey this instruction of scripture? Or do you harden your heart in pride and say “I like our order better than what God instructs?” It also says that others should test what is said. Do you obey this instruction, or disobey it in your religious meetings? Can people ask questions about what is said? Or is there just one speaker and testing anything is forbidden?
Are You Quenching The Holy Spirit?
Jesus and the early church in Acts sometimes had large meetings. But these were not the regular Christian meetings and they were generally evangelistic, not for Christian discipleship. It’s not wrong to have a large meeting if there is a proper occasion for it, but they should not replace our obedience to the Bible’s instructions for regular Christian meetings and discipleship.
The Holy Spirit chooses to manifest his grace through every member of the body, and scripture says “Don’t quench the Holy Spirit.” (1 Thessalonians 5:19) It’s not that God needs to send revival. It’s that the church needs to stop quenching the Holy Spirit, and instead, submit to him.
Some say, “We let people pray for each other in our church services.” 1st Corinthians says that the person is only edified if they understand, and it commands that everything be done for edification. But I have often gone to a meeting and people prayed for others, but nobody could understand what was being said to be edified. How do prophecy, words of knowledge, and words of wisdom edify people if the music is so loud that nobody can understand? People invite me to pray for healing in a church service, but it is very difficult because we can’t hear to speak. Ministering healing effectively usually involves interviewing the person, talking, and asking what they feel and what is happening.
Many churches have small groups, but the small groups function like a miniature church service. They have one speaker and people do not test what is said, in disobedience to the Bible’s instructions. Because of that dynamic, unbiblical human traditions abound and often carry more weight than the words of scripture.
I used to regularly share words of knowledge of healing at three churches in the United States. I often get words of knowledge in other places now, and wonderful miracles happen. Yet how many times have I been sitting in a church service and got a word that the Lord was healing someone from cancer or a blood disease, and yet I couldn’t share it in that context. I would have yelled it out after the service was over, but the music was too loud and everyone was rushing home. Because the church did not honor the Holy Spirit’s choice to manifest himself through different members of Christ’s body, a person left with cancer and they could have left without it. They didn’t have that healing miracle simply because they didn’t want it. Other things were more important to them.
Do you think I’m being dramatic? I’ve shared words of knowledge in other places and a tumor disappeared, a blood disease was healed, or a person’s life was saved. Yet I can’t do that in most church services. I went to a ladies’ drug and alcohol recovery house on Wednesday. However, this time some of the leaders from a certain church were leading it. They are used to doing all the talking and they ran the program the same way at the recovery house. They didn’t give others a chance to speak. They figured that the people they took on outreach could pray for the ladies (in spite of all the loud noise), but they didn’t even stop to imagine that the Spirit of Christ might want to speak through anybody other than themselves.
I came with four words of knowledge for healing. They were ending the meeting but I went up and interrupted right as they were ending, saying I had something important to share before we finished. All four words of knowledge hit the target, others received prayer as well, demons manifested, and the ladies received healing miracles. An angel moved a lady’s neck until it was adjusted. All of that almost didn’t happen because the leaders were not honoring Jesus by honoring the body of Christ. It only happened because I was quite assertive as they were closing the meeting. If the Bible says that the Holy Spirit chooses to manifest Christ in the various ways 1st Corinthians 12 names, through every member of the body, we must humble ourselves and submit to what the Holy Spirit wants to do.
Hundreds of times in the last 20 years, I have seen healing miracles and people delivered from demons before or after a “church service,” or other religious program but not during the church service. Now some church services have loud music as people are quickly leaving and there isn’t even the opportunity for people to be healed or set free from demons after the religious program, because it is too hard to talk to them. I have often seen more people healed or delivered from demons at a restaurant, in my apartment building, or at the park than in a church service. Church services are frequently the environment least conducive to ministering in the Holy Spirit’s power.
What Should I Do If I Want Revival?
Ask yourself if your church is not in revival, why not? If the things that happened all around Jesus are not abundant in your midst, why not? He is the same and his presence dwells in us. Ask God for his correction, read the Bible, and submit to what God says. I’m convinced that the church service as it is for most, considered essential by many, is done in disobedience to God’s instructions in scripture. It may be permissible for special events, but should not be considered regular Christian fellowship. If you’d like to take a deeper dive into that from a scholarly perspective, check out Dr. Tom Wadsworth’s series on how the early church viewed their meetings.
What can you do if you want revival? Here are a few points:
-Honor all men and especially every member of Christ’s body. When you receive anybody Jesus sends, you receive Jesus.
-Humble yourself and obey Jesus rather than being imprisoned by people’s religiosities. Jesus prioritized people, evident in his compassion and the time spent healing the sick and expelling demons. Honor Jesus by making his priorities your priorities. Religious people who have their own priorities will judge you, but seek to please God, not man.
-Obey scriptures’ instructions for Christian meetings. If there is no context for that and the others are not interested in changing, then start your own meetings.
-Go where Jesus is going. Find people who are hungry, humble, and want Jesus, and you’ll see Jesus’ Spirit manifest in power. We see so many miracles in drug and alcohol recovery houses, for example, but it seems many people are losing interest and prefer another religious meeting where people aren’t healed or set free from demons. Some prefer pleasing people and growing in rank in the religious organization. They could be experiencing God’s power, they know what happens when we go to the recovery houses, but that’s not their priority.
-Recognize your need and ask the Holy Spirit for help. Billy Graham once remarked that most of what the early church did was impossible without the Holy Spirit, but most of what churches do today can be done easily without the Holy Spirit. Don’t be satisfied with religion that relies on human strength or human wisdom. Be satisfied with nothing less than God’s manifest glory.
-Embrace the message that produces power and is confirmed with signs and wonders. Return to the simplicity of Jesus and what he has done. Don’t waste your time on human wisdom. If it’s a pure gospel message, it comes with power.
If you honor Jesus, he will show himself to you. We’ve gotten wonderful reports from people who started “Open Heaven” groups, prioritizing participation and the manifestation of Jesus through every member of Christ’s body. They decided to prioritize what was important to Jesus, so the Holy Spirit manifested in power!
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Go to Heaven Now
Featured Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
