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The power of the Church truly to bless rests on intercession—asking and receiving heavenly gifts to carry to men.
When God comes in revival, He accomplishes in a brief time what would normally take many years!
(Byron Paulus, Executive Director of Life Action Ministries, quoted in Revive magazine, Winter 2012, 3).
Research Suggests Accurate Count of Christians Closer to 4% in US
August 30, 2011 By Nathan Creitz
Some troubling research according to Greg Laurie:
- Only 1 in 20 Christians has ever shared the Gospel.
Let’s combine that with some data from ARIS 2008:
- US Population = 307,006,550
- Self-proclaimed Christians in US = 233,324, 978 (or 76%)
- 1 in 20 US Christians who has ever shared the Gospel = 11,666,249 (or 4%)
What does Jesus have to say about this?
Therefore, everyone who will acknowledge Me before men, I will also acknowledge him before My Father in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father in heaven. (Matthew 10:32-33).
“O Lord, revive thy work.”—Habakkuk 3:2. (by Charles Spurgeon)
ll true religion is the work of God: it is pre-eminently so. If he should select out of his works that which he esteems most of all, he would select true religion. He regards the work of grace as being even more glorious than the works of nature; and he is, therefore, especially careful that it shall always be known, so that if any one dare to deny it, they shall do so in the teeth of repeated testimonies to the contrary, that God is indeed the author of salvation in the world and in the hearts of men, and that religion is the effect of grace, and is the work of God. I believe the Eternal might sooner forgive the sin of ascribing the creation of the heavens and of the earth to an idol, than that of ascribing the works of grace to the efforts of the flesh, or to any thing else but God. It is a sin of the greatest magnitude to suppose that there is aught in the heart which can be acceptable unto God, save that which God himself has first created there. When I deny God’s work in creating the sun, I deny one truth; but when I deny that he works grace in the heart, I deny a hundred truths in one; for in the denial of that one great truth, that God is the author of good in the souls of men, I have denied all the doctrines which make up the great articles of faith, and have run in the very teeth of the whole testimony of sacred Scripture. I trust, beloved, that many of us have been taught, that if there be any thing in our souls which can carry us to heaven, it is God’s work, and, moreover, that if there be aught that is good and excellent found in his church, it is entirely God’s work, from first to last. We firmly believe that it is God who quickens the soul which was dead, positively “dead in trespasses and sins;” that it is God who maintains the life of that soul, and God who consummates and perfects that life in the home of the blessed, in the land of the hereafter. We ascribe nothing to man, but all to God. We dare not for a moment think that the conversion of the soul is effected either by its own effort or by the efforts of others; we conceive that there are means and agencies employed, but that the work is, both alpha and omega, wholly the Lord’s. We think, therefore, that we are right in applying the text to the work of divine grace, both in the heart and in the church at large; and we think we can have no subject more appropriate for our consideration than the text. “O Lord, revive thy work!”
First, beloved, trusting that the Spirit of God will help me, I shall endeavor to apply the text to our own souls personally, and then to the state of the Church at large, for it well needs that the Lord should revive his work in its midst.
I. First, then, to OUR OWN SOULS PERSONALLY.
In this matter, we should begin at home. We too often flog the church, when the whip should be laid on our own shoulders. We drag the church, like a colossal culprit, to the altar; we bind her, and try to execute her at once; we bind her hands fast, and tear off thongfull after thongfull of her quivering flesh—finding fault with her where there is none, and magnifying her little errors; while we too often forget ourselves.
Phoney Rabbis, Lost Discernment and the Eddie Long Disaster
J. Lee Grady Newsletters – Fire In My Bones
Why did people applaud Bishop Long’s bizarre “coronation” in Atlanta?
Question of the week: What should you do when a megachurch pastor is accused of serious financial and/or sexual misconduct?
A. Ask the pastor to step down so he or she can receive ministry, and then conduct a thorough investigation.
B. Flatly deny all allegations and wait until the storm blows over.
C. Use church funds to pay off the people who made the sex abuse accusations.
D. Ask a guest preacher to call the pastor to the stage, wrap him in a 312-year-old Torah scroll and ask an “expert” in Old Testament language to declare him a “king” so he can be exonerated of all wrongdoing.
“True restoration requires a lengthy process of repentance, restitution and inner healing. If we practiced biblical restoration on a wide scale, the cancer of immorality that is eating the church alive today would go into remission.”
Until Jan. 29, when Bishop Eddie Long of Atlanta was coronated on the stage of New Birth Baptist Church in front of thousands of his congregants, I would never have dreamed of option D in the list above. I thought I had seen it all. Yet the odd ritual (I hesitate to call it a “Jewish ceremony”) performed by Denver minister Ralph Messer is now officially the most bizarre religious video ever posted on YouTube. (If you are one of the 16 people in the world who have never seen it, click here.)
After the 14-minute video clip went viral, it pretty much angered everyone—the Jewish community, especially, but also many Christians who don’t believe it is kosher to put a pastor in a chair and parade him on a stage like he is The Most Highfallutin III. When Long and Messer realized the video had sparked an embarrassing controversy, Long apologized for it while Messer downplayed the ceremony as a sincere attempt to “honor” the embattled bishop.
Watching recent events at New Birth play out in the media is like viewing a train wreck in slow motion. I hurt for the innocent people trapped in this mangled mess—people who deserve better leadership than this. Here are three lessons I hope we learn from it:
1. We must guard our pulpits. The apostle Paul warned that the church would be preyed upon by imposters, liars, false teachers and greedy opportunists. He also told Timothy to be on the lookout for men who focus their teaching on “speculation” and ear-tickling doctrines. “For some men,” he said in 1 Timothy 1:6-7, “have turned aside to fruitless discussion, wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are talking about or the matters about which they make confident assertions. (NASB)”
For some reason, many charismatics today are wowed if a Bible teacher pulls out a Jewish prayer shawl, wears a yarmulke, recites a Bible verse in Hebrew or claims to know the numerical value of an Old Testament word. He gets extra points if he understands biblical feasts (or can show you how to obtain financial blessings through a “Day of Atonement Offering”). I believe there is certainly value in understanding the Hebrew roots of Christianity. But if we aren’t careful this can also become idolatry—or an opportunity for charlatans who have lots of “Jewish” products to sell. Note: If someone’s teaching does not point his hearers 100 percent to Jesus, don’t buy it.
2. We must raise the standard of holiness. When a church leader falls into serious sin or scandal, those around him should—if they truly love him—cover and rehabilitate him. But covering a leader who has sinned should not involve cover-up. True restoration requires a lengthy process of repentance, restitution and inner healing. If we practiced biblical restoration on a wide scale, the cancer of immorality that is eating the church alive today would go into remission.
3. We must reclaim biblical discernment. What appalled me most when I watched the Eddie Long coronation video was the fact that people in the audience applauded this blasphemous spectacle. It is bad enough that a leader allowed it to take place on his platform; it is even worse that thousands of people watched without flinching, and went home thinking their pastor was now a king in God’s eyes. Lord have mercy.
The people should have immediately fallen to their knees and began praying against deception—or run out the doors in disgust. With so little discernment among “Spirit-filled” believers today, it’s not hard to imagine that an anti-Christ figure could boldly march right into a church, climb in a leather chair and be anointed as a king. Oh wait … I think that has already happened.
J. Lee Grady is the former editor of Charisma and the director of The Mordecai Project. You can follow him on Twitter at leegrady.
By T.M. Moore
Revival
“Wait for the LORD; be strong and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!”
Psalm 27:14
Ministers of Scotland: Lectures on Revival VI
The Rev. Alexander Cumming, Minister of Dunbarney Parish
“When we persist in the exercise of prayer, notwithstanding all discouragement, we do honour that loving kindness which will not frustrate the anticipations that are formed upon the basis of his written declarations; and the longer the perseverance is maintained, the more unpromising the symptoms against which it is upheld, the greater is the lustre reflected upon his character. Hence blessings of great magnitude are associated with ardour and perseverance in prayer; for the more splendidly these qualities shine, the greater is the attestation borne to his fidelity and love.”
If we wish to see revival we must pray earnestly and persist in it. Revival will not come because we sometimes to remember to include it in our petitions, or we have a special prayer meeting to seek it. God will know that we’re serious in tapping into His great love, that He might pour out His Spirit for revival, when we persist, like nagging children, in pleading with Him to grant us what He wants us to have and has promised we may. How long are we willing to persist in prayer for revival? How serious are we in entering upon such a season of prayer? God will know.
What would it look like if your church were characterize by ardor and perseverance in praying for revival?
To learn more about revival, order the book, A God-Sized Vision: Revival Stories that Stretch and Stir, by Collin Hansen and John Woodbridge, from our online store.
Pastor to Pastor brings the insights of great servants of God from the past to pastors in our own day, to link our ministries with theirs in the grand tradition of building the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ
Prayerless pulpits will produce prayerless and powerless congregations.
~Mighty Prevailing Prayer, Wesley Duewel
The condition of the church may be very accurately gauged by its prayer meetings. So is the prayer meeting a grace-ometer, and from it we may judge of the amount of divine working among a people.
If God be near a church, it must pray. And if He be not there, one of die first tokens of His absence will be a slothfulness in prayer!
(Charles Haddon Spurgeon quoted in Everything by Prayer by Fred Hartley, 120)
History confirms the truth that wherever evangelical and vital religion flourish, there lives the earnest gatherings for social prayer.
~The Prayer Meeting and Its History, J. B. Johnston
A congregation without a prayer meeting is essentially defective in its organization, and so must be limited in its efficiency.
bryanaloha
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