Woe to all of you who want God’s Judgment Day!
Why would you want to see God, want him to come?
When God comes, it will be bad news before it’s good news,
the worst of times, not the best of times.
Here’s what it’s like: A man runs from a lion
right into the jaws of a bear.
A woman goes home after a hard day’s work
and is raped by a neighbor.
At God’s coming we face hard reality, not fantasy—
a black cloud with no silver lining.
Amos 5:18-20 (The Message)
I have often found myself praying for the return of the Lord as of late. Things seem to be growing worse in our society and those who want to serve the Lord with integrity and fervency seem to be lacking within the walls of the church… and it seems that those serving outside the walls do so only to advertise their particular “ministry” not to actually just share the grace of the gospel of God and Jesus Christ.
So for me, I had found myself just breathing in and out the words of the original greek in Revelation… “maranatha” (come quickly Lord Jesus, come quickly) as I wondered what in the world we who profess to know Christ were really all doing here… and actually needed to be doing here.
Then the inhale and exhale of my soul became “breathing in Your grace, breathing out Your praise“
This was the perfect time to be handed the opportunity to read and review a new book by Alvin Reid and Malcom McDow on the subject of revival… because my spirit was indeed in need of revival.
As I began reading through this book and continued breathing in His grace and breathing out His praise I was reminded that as a believer in this day I needed to be praying for and seeking revival not the coming judgment of the Lord.
The passage above from the prophet Amos is a great reminder to us all to be praying for more of the grace of God upon those we see walking in rebellion instead of sitting back and waiting on God’s wrath to fall…
When His wrath comes it will not be pretty… and as Amos warns us… the closer that day comes the worse the world as a whole will get for the demonic forces of death will be stirred to action all the more as they see their day of destruction coming.
As much as I have my days where it all seems pointless and hopeless and I just ask God how much longer… I was reminded through FireFall that we are not to lose hope… but to look for revival.
I am a woman who does not appreciate sensationalism… I find it quite foolish and I only see it as something that preys on the easily convinced and impressed. Anything that overly attempts to stir my emotions as opposed to appealing to my fully capable of reasoning mind I automatically become skeptical of… and that even more so includes the things in today’s world of Christendom.
So what I appreciated about this book was the fact that it appealed to my spirit and my mind. Reid and McDow begin the book by walking through the documented revivals throughout history… beginning from the beginning.
Have you ever considered that the day God used Moses to bring Israel out of Egypt, He also instituted within them the spirit of revival?
What about Elijah and his standoff on Mt Carmel with the prophets of Baal… have you ever thought of that fire fall from heaven that consumed the sacrifice and the altar that day as the moment of the beginning of a revival within a nation?
What about that day in the upper room when the disciples of Christ gathered together and waited for the promise of their Lord to come and the tongue as of fire filled the room and ignited with them a fervency that led them to leave the locked doors of the upper room and fill the streets of Jerusalem proclaiming the salvation found only in the gospel of Jesus Christ?
Yes… Revival!
As I read through this book, I for the first time realized what happened to me on December 9, 2001. I have wondered for years whether that was my true salvation experience or if it was something else… I just started calling it, “wholly surrendered” because I didn’t know what else to call it.
The thoughts/teachings of some that it was a second baptism of the Holy Spirit didn’t theological measure up for me because God is quite clear that…
There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.
Ephesians 4:4-6
So as I read through this book Reid and McDow spoke of revival… I knew then that was what I experienced that day… revival. A revival that began that day and has carried me these thirteen years… and now I find that once again I am in need of revival… and I trust that my God will deliver… so I wait once again for the fire fall.
This is definitely a good read… and I would even say a must read for anyone who is seeking revival. One of my favorite perspectives within the pages of this book is the truth that revival will not come apart from prayer and repentance…
A revival was reported in East Africa that began in Kenya and spread outward. Times of prayer, fasting, and confession marked the revival. Its effect served to build the “fellowship of brethren in Christ recognizing no barriers but sin.”
Hansen and Woodbridge summarized the effect of the movement that spanned several decades in the middle of the 20th century:
The so-called East African Revival nursed the health of a growing church that would survive severe persecution and genocide during the latter half of the bloody twentieth century. Observers of the awakening insist the world has never seen anything like it. Decades later, nearly all of East Africa’s Protestant church leaders had been shaped by the revival.
A significant feature of this movement was the growth of the church in the face of tremendous persecution at the hands of men like Idi Amin in Uganda. Hansen and Woodbridge quoted Anglican Bishop Festo Kivengere who commented on the cost of revival:
“Revival doesn’t come to respectable Christians,” Kivengere wrote before the persecution chased him from Uganda. “If you think that because you’re a good church member, or because you belong to such and such an organization, you’re going to be revived, you had better forget it. The basis of revival is men and women shattered by their failures –– aware that all is not well, helpless to do anything about it.”
