Category Archives: Revival

The River Is Here

23 Friday Feb 2007

Posted by in Christianity, Church, Church History, Repentance, Revival, Salvation

≈ 4 Comments

Please note the date of the following article and the media that reported it. This did not happen 150 years ago, but only months ago and yet it has the “feel” of some revivals I have read about. At least the leading edge of one. God is giving grace to our land and answering the cries of a faithful remnant of intercessors by sending seasons of refreshing to many who are thirsting for Him and turning from that which is lifeless and of this world. Change us, Lord. May we not settle for being stirred only.

We have preached and settled for a humanistic “gospel” that would make us the recipient; the end-all, be-all, the center, measure and focus. A gospel that makes it all about us (God forbid).  A gospel that makes us long for heaven rather than Him. No, beloved, it is all for the glory of Christ Jesus! He is the eternal Prize! He is Lord above all lords and King over all kings. Before the Lord, all of man’s kingdoms crumble to dust and are blown away. His River is Life and everything it touches will live!*livingwater.jpg

“THOUSANDS TURN OUT for REVIVAL, RIVER BAPTISMS”

by Susan Reinhardt,

-Asheville Citizen-Times, Sept 11, 2006.

CANE RIVER

Diane and John O’Shields of Burnsville were first in line and had more than one reason for getting wet in what some revival officials say was North Carolina’s largest river baptism. The baptism came as the faithful stretched into six weeks what was conceived as a two-week Cane River Tent Revival led by the Rev. Ralph Sexton Jr., of the ministry by the same name. No one in this small idyllic Yancey County town just northeast of Asheville has ever seen such a sight

Crowds swelled on each side of the riverbank. Wearing a black pantsuit and pearl earrings, she wiped tears from her eyes as she waved at watching loved ones. She and her husband held hands, closed their eyes and mouths and briefly disappeared under the water. The couple, married for 21 years, decided let this chance in the water with a reverend, the presence of God and countless witnesses work double-duty. “It’s our Baptism and wedding at the same time,” she said, her dress soaked and her face salted with tears. “We weren’t married in a church, so this is our marriage ceremony, too.” Theirs was just one among of the hundreds of stories and reasons people had for wandering into the waters, wetting their Sunday best or blue jeans. Dee-Dee Carver said the devil had hold of her the past two years. It’s not that she sinned or carried on wildly, she said. She’d just turned her back on God. Continue reading »

The Deeper Life

21 Wednesday Feb 2007

Posted by in Christianity, Church, Commitment, Confession, Intercession, Jesus Christ, Prayer, Reign of Christ, Revival, Surrender

≈ 4 Comments

Today begins our fellowship community’s “40 Days of Prayer and Fasting”. It is our church leadership’s desire to lead our fellowship “out into the deeper waters” of communion with the Lord and fully come under His reign and authority. A template for this season of asking, seeking and knocking[1] would be the forty days and nights Moses spent before the Presence, during which He passionately asked the Lord on the behalf of the “church in the wilderness” to go before them[2]. In fact, Moses did not mince words in expressing his inability to lead His people unless their God led the way.

This is what we are saying, Lord: if You don’t, it won’t. We are not able to go outside the camp[3], out to You, unless You call and equip us. This is our desire, Lord, that You distinguish us with the stain of Your glory. Take us into the deeper waters of loving You[4], the deeper waters of carrying about in our lives the dying of the Lord Jesus[5] and the deeper waters of true community by the laying down our lives for one another[6].

What better way to commence our journey than to hark back to this aged yet timeless cry of the panting heart as expressed by our Puritan brothers…

The Deeps

Lord Jesus, give me a deeper repentance, a horror of sin, a dread of its approach. Help me chastely to flee it and jealously to resolve that my heart shall be Thine alone.

Give me a deeper trust, that I may lose myself to find myself in Thee, the ground of my rest, the spring of my being. Give me a deeper knowledge of Thyself as Savior, Master, Lord, and King. Give me deeper power in private prayer, more sweetness in Thy Word, more steadfast grip on its truth. Give me deeper holiness in speech, thought, action, and let me not seek moral virtue apart from Thee.

Plough deep in me, great Lord, heavenly husbandman, that my being may be a tilled field, the roots of grace spreading far and wide, until Thou alone art seen in me, Thy beauty golden like summer harvest, Thy fruitfulness as autumn plenty.

I have no master but Thee, no law but Thy will, no delight but Thyself, no wealth but that Thou givest, no good but that Thou blessest, no peace but that Thou bestowest. I am nothing but that Thou makest me. I have nothing but that I receive from Thee. I can be nothing but that grace adorns me. Quarry me deep, dear Lord, and then fill me to overflowing with living water.

–From “The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions”
Compiled by Arthur Bennett

You can find the rest of the prayers here

[1] Matthew 7:7

[2] Exodus 33:15,16

[3] Hebrews 13:13

[4] John 17:26

[5] 2 Corinthians 4:10

[6] 1 John 3:16

I Knew I Liked Portland

09 Friday Feb 2007

Posted by in Church, Church History, Intercession, Reign of Christ, Revival, Surrender

≈ 2 Comments

mthood.jpg

For those who know me well, I have been known to mention the name “Portland, Oregon” with a dreamy twinkle in my eye. My wife has gotten to where she simply sighs and rolls her big green ones after years of hearing about it. Enough with Portland, already. But I cannot shake the niggling in my mind, or spirit, as the case may more accurately be, that I am somehow tied to that city (“ooooh, Scott’s getting spooky on us…”) and that I may wind up there someday? Time will tell.

In the meantime, I came across some notes from a conference held in the City of Roses recently whose topic included a phenomenon called “City Reaching.” The plenary speakers were Tom White, of Frontline Ministries, and George Otis, Jr. Some years back, Mr. Otis produced a groundbreaking video called “Transformations” (1999) in which he and his team at the Sentinel Group identified four international cities that had undergone true sustained spiritual transformation. Within a few years, that number had quadrupled affording a second documentary (“Transformations II”) and now the number has multiplied to include 250 cities worldwide* that have been touched by a sustained move of God to transformation. Continue reading »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 448 other followers