Twice, I have witnessed honest-to-goodness Holy Ghost Revival in my life. I want to see it one last time before I die.
Seriously - I'm not talking about "Revival Meetings", or emotional roller coasters, but significant change in a whole congregation where God's people get right with God's people, and God's people get right with God. In both cases - one in 1971-72, and one in 1999-2001, a small group of people became interested in being the Church God wanted them to be, and a "growth" toward Revival began to swell, then "crest", then continue to last for two years or so. During those times, people came to Christ and were baptized, but the real mark of Revival was that many Christians fell in love with Jesus all over again, and got excited about serving Him.
In the first Revival, I was pretty much an observer, then a participant. In the second one, having experienced and been impacted by the first one, I was sharing this information and experience with the congregation, and a number of them said, "we want that, too". It took another two years, lots of prayer, preparation and even one "church discipline" where we "withdrew fellowship" from a troublesome woman - then the Holy Spirit moved in a might way, and Revival came. And lasted for over two years.
I hear all kinds of gloom and doom about "Post Christian America", but I'm just dumb enough to believe that God is still in the Revival business. The Church where I have been Pastoring the last almost three years seems to have the same yearning to be the Church God wants them to be. They are interested in giving, in Missions, in outreach, in "doing" rather than just hearing. It may take a few years, I don't know, but I am praying, "Lord, do it again, PLEASE".
Seriously - I'm not talking about "Revival Meetings", or emotional roller coasters, but significant change in a whole congregation where God's people get right with God's people, and God's people get right with God. In both cases - one in 1971-72, and one in 1999-2001, a small group of people became interested in being the Church God wanted them to be, and a "growth" toward Revival began to swell, then "crest", then continue to last for two years or so. During those times, people came to Christ and were baptized, but the real mark of Revival was that many Christians fell in love with Jesus all over again, and got excited about serving Him.
In the first Revival, I was pretty much an observer, then a participant. In the second one, having experienced and been impacted by the first one, I was sharing this information and experience with the congregation, and a number of them said, "we want that, too". It took another two years, lots of prayer, preparation and even one "church discipline" where we "withdrew fellowship" from a troublesome woman - then the Holy Spirit moved in a might way, and Revival came. And lasted for over two years.
I hear all kinds of gloom and doom about "Post Christian America", but I'm just dumb enough to believe that God is still in the Revival business. The Church where I have been Pastoring the last almost three years seems to have the same yearning to be the Church God wants them to be. They are interested in giving, in Missions, in outreach, in "doing" rather than just hearing. It may take a few years, I don't know, but I am praying, "Lord, do it again, PLEASE".
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