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And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

John 8:32

And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. Isaiah 58:12

It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God.  John 6:45

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life:  John 14:6

Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein. Jeremiah 6:16

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth:  John 16:13

And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; Isaiah 35:8

See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant    Jeremiah 1:10

Thus says the Lord: “Stand at the crossroads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies; and walk in it,
and find rest for your souls.” But they said, “We will not walk in it.” Jeremiah 6:16

Foundations of Revival

Foundations of Revival

Introduction:

Since we all know that God desires that all men be saved and we are not seeing or experiencing a mighty church or new souls saved we know that we are living in a contradiction.

God gives truth and discernment to those who are committed to them and will handle take on the responsibility to handle them as He has commanded. He will not give discernment if we will not warn. He will not give truth if we will not stand against what is error. We must love truth and hate error. If we are willing to tolerate error, we separate our self from truth. Truth cannot abide with the error. If we are willing to let others follow error, we do not love the truth and will not hear it as we should.

If we want others to respond correctly to the truth we must do so first. If we don’t respond responsibly to the truth, we will unknowingly spread that same seed along with the truth we sow and others will not respond to the truth we proclaim.

Discernment and truth do not come because of study and learning. They come by a commitment and a yearning after them. God certainly uses study and learning to increase and sharpen our understanding and proficiency but we all know there are many who have studied and are ever learning without coming to the knowledge of the truth.

The Foundations

So, in order to resurrect the Gospel, two things are necessary (even if you don’t agree that these things will cause a revival, you can not deny their fundamental necessity to Christianity.) 1. We must commit ourselves to seek only truth and reject/hate all error. 2. We must take the responsibility God requires of those who know the truth. There can be no compromise with the truth or our response to the truth.

1. If the present “gospel” is not working, it must be because it in not the correct one given by God since His gospel is the “power of God unto salvation”. The fault lies with us and our handling and our understanding, His promise has not changed. His words do not fail.

— We must make every effort to return to the pure gospel and proclaiming only His words

— We must strip our teachings of all traditions, understandings, experiences, and doctrines of everything that is not based on His word as He meant it.

— Only His word draws, saves, strengthens and matures mankind. Signs, wonders, miracles, manifestations, spiritual gifts do not. Jesus says that certain signs will follow those that believe. Believing less than the truth or a mixed message will not produce the promised signs.

— We must seek and value His truth more than we do unity, agreement (lack of strife), gifts, manifestations, results, recognition, success in ministry. These are the things that “follow” the proclamation of His word (They do not need to be sought, they will follow a true proclamation.).

2. Shepherds must focus on feeding His sheep with pure food that is not contaminated by man’s traditions, the flesh’s desires, or the devil’s teachings. It is the shepherds duty to lead the sheep into healthy pastures, and by still waters. No true shepherd would knowingly allow a sheep to eat or drink tainted food or water. The shepherd should never assume that a sheep knows the good from the tainted — that is why God provided shepherds.

— Above all, shepherds must know true pastures and true food that produces healthy and mature sheep. They must be intimately acquainted with anything that would present a danger to the sheep and must diligently and decisively lead their flock away from such danger. Their job is always two-fold: To feed the sheep and to protect the sheep. It does no good to bring a sheep to good food if the wolf has critically wounded it. Nor does it do any good to constantly warn without feeding.

— Shepherds must learn to comfort the sheep with the rod and the staff — those tools are meant to comfort the sheep (Ps 23). It seems too many shepherds would rather see the tooth marks of a wolf on a sheep than the marks of a shepherd’s rod. The only reason a shepherd should use the rod is to protect the sheep when warnings and the shepherd’s voice has failed. But the shepherd must have made every effort to warn.

— The church has fallen prey to the spirit of the world where any discipline that causes pain is thought to be abusive. Social workers and law authorities will take children away if a parent uses any painful method to train or correct a child. A true shepherd will break the leg of a lamb in order to keep it from straying into danger. We must stop only saying soothing words when someone is heading for destruction.

— It is just as much of a shepherd’s job to warn the sheep as it is to guide them with a gentle voice. Jesus and the apostles did much warning. Any shepherd who does not see the wolf coming and warn the sheep, is no true shepherd.

— A true sheep finds comfort in knowing the shepherd is committed to its safety. A shepherd that pets and plays with the sheep and has a warm relationship with the sheep, is NO shepherd unless he also protects them at all costs. He lays down his own life for the sheep. Their health and safety are more important than his leisure time, his other responsibilities, his other “loves” and preferences. Their safety and feeding is more important to the shepherd than is how they “feel” about the shepherd. He will do right even if no sheep follows. But true sheep will follow a true shepherd because his voice is the same as that of the Great Shepherd. And His sheep hear His voice and follow Him. If a shepherd speaks with the same words, with the same commitment to the sheep and the same love, the sheep follow.

— Remember, God will give a shepherd all the tools he needs to properly shepherd, but he must be willing to use them and to use them well. Shepherding is an impossible task made possible only for those who totally rely on the Great Shepherd of our souls.

What Is Revival?

What Is Revival?

Revival is nothing more nor less than His will being done on earth as it is in Heaven.  Revival is when God reveals Himself in a Living Way to the hearts of men through His saints by His grace and power.  He changes character, lifestyles, beliefs, behaviors, habits, and most importantly, their response to Him and His kingdom.  

The Way to Revival

To know the way to Revival, we must  know the way of revival.  Revival is not Christianity as we know it but Christianity as it was meant to be and as it was demonstrated at the beginning.  I do not think that the way to revival is hidden, obscure, or complicated.  The problem with the way to revival is that it is contrary to the ways we have been representing Christianity and to depart from that is unthinkable, for most.  

While we would all agree that  in Revival people are walking in the ways and truths of God, we fail to turn that around  and admit it is true that  those people who are walking in His ways and truth are demonstrating Revival. And that is the answer: to walk after the Spirit – forsaking all else.   For we all know that none or few walk that way.  If they did, today’s Christianity would look like it did at the first.  The fault must be laid at the feet of those who proclaim His messages and lead His sheep, since God’s word never returns void and accomplishes its purpose.  So, the big question is: what is being preached that is producing such substandard results? Obviously, it can not be the same uncorrupted word as that which the apostles preached.

Although it is easy to point fingers (even if justly) at the current clergy and preachers, it iswe who have allowed it, endorsed it, and supported it.  Until we turn from ways and preachers and churches that are not speaking life, they will continue to exist.  I think that there are many preachers who would love to preach life, but understand that is not what people want to hear.  We need preachers and clergy who are bold to take the lead and insist on eliminating all things not based on God’s present desires in all messages and meetings.  We need to expose those who seem more interested in entertaining goats than in feeding sheep.

Hopefully, this website will unmask our present misrepresentation of Christianity and reveal its true heart.  We have mixed tradition, culture, and history, and worldly wisdom  with God’s ways and we have ended up with the anemic example of Christianity we see today.  When a person or a group embrace the truths of original Christianity and eschew the counterfeit, then revival will be seen.  How can God endorse that which is not His and does not bring life?

But, it is not enough to unmask.  Finding our way back to the true heart of God is our only hope.  That is our quest, even moreso than unmasking.  I am trusting that through what is presented on this website will be at least a beginning and experiencing and knowing the direction we are to go and what is to be left behind.

What Does Revival Look Like?

“In the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Great Awakenings in the USA God used men such as George Whitfield, Jonathan Edwards, Dwight L. Moody and Jeremiah Lanpier. Under the influence of God’s power, men, women and children were touched by the power of God. At times there was trembling, weeping, sobbing and loud crying for mercy in the presence of the Holiness of God.

Sometimes people would fall to the ground. Quarrels were settled, drunkards reclaimed, adulterers converted, thieves returned stolen property, and families reunited. Sometimes the conviction of sin was so great and caused such fearful wails of anguish that preachers had to stop preaching for a while. Ministers and church members were converted. Sinners were reclaimed by the thousands. Will you be the next instrument of God for Revival?

In a revival in Wales in England, in five weeks 20,000 joined the church. The services were simple with worshiping God, prayer and testimonies being the chief features. There was little preaching, no hymn books for every one sang known hymns, no collections and no advertising. Will you be the next instrument of God for Revival?”   quoted from sermonindex.net                    

The following video is the best that I know of that portrays what revival looks like, what it is based on, and its effects.

Revival Hymn

An excellent example of what brings it, what it looks like, and how it differs from present day Christianity.
A compilation of Ministers who have taken part in true revivals or speak out of the depths of God
Duncan Campbell , Leonard Ravenhill, AW Tozer, Paris Reidhead

 

Watch as Paul Washer speaks about something that few are speaking about, but is crucial to Christianity as it was meant to be.

How Much Do You TRULY Know God?

 


Thoughts on revival, Christianity, and

How to Recognize a True Minister

by Paul Washer

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More depth on this topic  (broken Link)
________________ 

I know of only a few such ministers in all of modern christianity. We have ministers that proclaim the scriptures, but none that regularly and consistently have been shut in with God and come forth with the message and fire of God – at least the fruits of such messages are not evident. The life and reality and power of the gospel has been reduced to mere teaching of precepts.

The gospel has always been and will always be the power of God unto salvation. If our messages do not have such results, it may be that we are not proclaiming the same gospel with the same heart of belief. It is not only true for the Wisconsin/Illinois area, but throughout the Western world. The sad thing is that I know of no minister who has purposed even to be such a person, whose sole desire is to know Him and proclaim nothing but what comes from His mouth for their disciples.

Repentance

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14

Is usually the most quoted scripture when revival and repentance are paired together. Almost always the way it is responded to is that Christians must vicariously confess the sins of the unsaved (abortion, immorality, divorce, pornography and other popular national sins). But this is not what the verse says. “My people”, “themselves, “their wicked ways” are referring to God’s people and their wicked ways.

By our traditions and teachings we have added to His words, corrupted their meanings, substituted our ways for His. We do not think nor act like strangers and pilgrims in this life. We do not live in the reality of being eternal beings. We endorse systems which quench, kill, or ignore body life. Yet, who is confessing those sins? Most are not even aware that those sins rule over Western Christianity. We are not aware that the doctrine of the Nicolaitans (the thing Jesus hates Re 2:15), is the standard of Christian church structure. How, possibly, can Jesus bless the doctrine he hates?

And why is the world the way it is? Is it not because of their wicked hearts? And why do they not have regenerated hearts? Evidently, because christians have not been sufficient witnesses. Yet, we do not take the blame for the condition of this world (probably because we embrace, defend, and use worldly ways instead of forsaking them).

While it is true that sin will pollute until the millenium, the wicked and errant ways of the church and Christians are responsible for the much of the sin in this nation. When the enemy came in like a flood, the Lord found no standard amongst the church to raise against it. Rather God’s people endorsed it and is now using too much of its ways to “win” the lost (O the blasphemy of it!) The church has perverted the power, the message, and the lifestyle meant for Christians. The world has no light because ours is so dim. The church needs to take responsiblity for the current wicked state of America, for it , alone had the power to present and live out transformational truth but did not. Judgement begins always at the house of God and it is coming.

We need to soberly consider what Peter said

For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? 1 Peter 4:17

Until Christians return to Christianity as established by Christ and the Apostles, why would God allow us the confirmations that follow preaching? God is looking for those who are honest representations of His kingdom. He is not looking for those who know how to win friends and influence people for churchianity. He tolerates no competition. He will not honor any false competition. Ear tickling and soul satisfying sermons and witnessing have no place in His kingdom. It is only the gospel and that alone which is the power of God unto salvation. The true gospel does not need any help, or any mediator like “ice breakers”, or stories or any thing else to get the hearer into the mood. What concord does Belial have with Christ? Can things not of God assist the kingdom? Has God become dependent on all our modern evangelical enticements? Are not each and every one of these devices an affront to God and a rebuke to His word, His Christ, and His sovereignty?

We have much to repent of. We have many beams to remove from our eyes before we can help those with splinters.

9/11 was an indictment against the American Church. After that attack many American’s rushed to churches to find a truth and reality needed to provide answers and assurances, they quickly left because they found nothing there that provided answers. People will never find out what God requires and provides as long as pastors are hell-bent on designing sermons based on what they think people want instead of on what God says they need.

We want God to do something to society, our family, friends,. and neighbors, never realizing that it is we who need the reformation first.

John Piper Clearly exposes the false Christianity that is so prevelant.  Most go Sunday after Sunday without a clue that they are at the wrong altar.

The Effect of True Salvation
Examine Yourself

by John Piper

The text from John Piper’s message

There are millions of nominal Christians who are not born again who believe God loves them and yet are on their way to hell. And the difference between them and a born again believer is this: What’s the bottom, the decisive foundation, of their happiness? As you penetrate down deeper and deeper to the core, or the bottom, of what makes you happy, what is it?

Jesus Is Not a New Butler

Millions of nominal Christians have never experienced a fundamental alteration of that foundation of happiness. Instead they have absorbed the notion that becoming Christian means turning to Jesus get what you always wanted before you were born again.
  • So, if you wanted wealth, you stop depending on yourself for it, and by prayer and faith and obedience you depend on Jesus for wealth.
  • If you wanted to be healthy, you turn from mere human cures to Jesus as the source of your health.
  • If wanted to escape the pain of hell, you turn to Jesus for the escape.
  • If you wanted to have a happy marriage, you come to Jesus for help.
  • If you wanted peace of conscience and freedom from guilt feelings, you turn to Jesus for these things.
In other words, to become a Christian, in this way of seeing things, is to have all the same desires you had as an unregenerate person—only you get them from a new source, Jesus. And he feels so loving when you do. But there’s no change at the bottom of your heart and your cravings. No change in what makes you happy. There’s no change in the decisive foundation of your joy. You just shop at a new store. The dinner is still the same; you just have a new butler. The bags in the hotel room are still the same; you just have a new bellhop.

A New Bottom [source] for Our Joy in the New Birth

That’s not what the new birth is. It’s not having all the same desires that you had as an unregenerate person, and just getting them from a new source. The new birth changes the bottom, the root, the foundation of what makes us happy. Self at the bottom is replaced by Jesus. God, himself.

What makes the born-again person glad is not at bottom that they have God’s gifts, but that they have God. This is what I am more concerned about than genuine Christians who are truly on their way to heaven, and don’t feel loved by God. And my shorthand way of trying to awaken people to the dangers of feeling loved by God while being unregenerate is to ask:

Do you feel more loved by God because he makes much of you, or because, as great cost to his Son, he frees you to enjoy knowing him and treasuring him and making much of him?

________________ 

In other words, today’s church is more humanistic and man centered, than God centered.

Today’s “Church” as a Misrepresentation of God,
His kingdom and
His People

Just compare the gifts and deeds and growth and power of the first church and it is obvious

This page has addressed the personal conversion and relationship of people to God up to this point for they are the essential part of what God does and the way He expresses Himself.  People comprise the Church, and if people individually misrepresent God, His kingdom and His People, then collectively they will also misrepresent and redefine all that is godly.

“If I were still trying to please men,
I would not be a bondservant of Christ.”
Galatians 1:10

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