Revival Comes as a Tornado-Part 3

This classic was originally published in March 1998

A tornado is a violent whirling windstorm that accompanies a funnel-shaped cloud. Severe thunder, lightning, and torrents of rain are present as well. Just as a tornado advances across the sky, touching down on land here and there, a genuine revival moves through the spiritual world, stirring up life among believers in its path.

Divine truth strikes like lightning. God’s voice thunders, bringing heavy conviction and repentance. And torrents of saving and delivering power from God rain down upon men, women and children.

Let’s explore the remaining ways in which a true revival mimics a tornado:

1.     A Revival, Like a Tornado, is Destructive and Therefore Unwanted by Many People

Just as a tornado uproots trees and tears the roofs off of buildings, revival shakes the foundations of religious traditions and uproots strong leaders who cry out against God’s dealings.

Revival is messy; it disturbs routines and challenges the old ways of doing things. Church services no longer follow a tight agenda and time schedule when the Holy Spirit is given time and opportunity to do His work.

Because revival stirs up the status quo, expect to hear people of all doctrines and denominations protest loudly. They ignore the benefits of such a strong, cleansing storm, claiming that it does more harm than good. Stopping short of renouncing it completely, they look for messy spots to criticize. They remind me of the Pharisees who chastised Jesus for healing on the Sabbath. Both worship the law more than the law-giver. “Don’t go to that place,” I hear them saying. “It’s full of wildfire and too much excitement.” So many stay away, and so stay in their sins.

I understand why. The positive results of revival spoil the pet theories of certain ordained ministers. The revival’s simple focus on the Cross of Jesus exposes the hypocrisy of worldly formalists. The leading of the Holy Spirit frustrates the Jezebels and Ahabs who are determined to rule and control in their churches. And the presence of a righteous Lord cuts through the persistent hypocrisy of modern-day Ananiases and Sapphiras.

A young man once said the evangelist Billy Sunday, “My father don’t like these revivals.” Sunday replied, “That’s where your father and the devil are in agreement, son.” Woe unto the one that stands in open opposition to the salvation and deliverance of those God seeks to set free.

Writes Jeremiah, Behold the whirlwind of the Lord goeth forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind; it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked (Jeremiah 30:23 KJV).

A “continuing whirlwind” is a tornado. If you resist the truth, harden your heart, and curse such a storm, you are, in effect, cursing the God who sent it.

2.     A Revival, Like a Tornado, Pays No Heed to Men’s Ideas of Dignity

The mission of a revival is to seek out and destroy “sin germs” from which men are dying. It brings a holy search warrant to expose the secrets of the darkened heart. It comes to extinguish the fires of rebellion burning deep inside. And a revival tornado does all this without even consulting men’s notions of dignity as to how its work should be done. Many believers pray for revival and talk about revival in times of drought, but when it comes in unexpected, often humbling ways, they prefer the dignity of a dry spiritual life.

Throughout Scripture we find examples of men and women who dared to be out-of-the-ordinary when it came to seeking God.

Eldad and Medad prophesied in the camp, not at the Tent of Meeting, and Joshua wanted Moses to rebuke them for doing things a little differently. But instead Moses said, “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets…” (Numbers 11:29).

Elijah and Elisha did not belong to the regular school of the prophets, yet they exercised a mighty influence for God.

John the Baptist wasn’t ordinary, but his message of repentance made way for Jesus.

Jesus Himself was not recognized for doing things in a dignified manner. Imagine the raised eyebrows when Jesus spat on the ground, made clay of the spittle, and applied the clay to a blind man’s eyes (John 9:6). And yet, when the man washed his eyes in the pool of Siloam, he came back seeing!

3.     Just as More Rain Falls in One Tornado Than in Numerous Showers, More Souls are Saved in One Revival Than in Years of Evangelistic Effort

I admire the skill of a fly fisherman who artfully snags a single fish. But, I can also appreciate the prowess of a huge fishing boat. With its powerful motor and huge net, this single vessel pulls in thousands of fish at one time!

In periods of revival, our Lord employs such a net. Thank God for big boats and true revivals!

4.     Like a Tornado, a Revival Moves On, Despite All Opposition

Your distaste for revival will not keep it out of your community. The question is: What will you do if revival comes to your church? Will you stand back and watch with a critical eye? Or will you welcome God with an open heart?

I urge you to pray, as I pray…

O precious Jesus, save us from our own fears and prejudices. Keep us from clothing the gospel with our paltry notions of human dignity. Deliver us from crowning our feeble efforts with approval while ignoring the jeweled crown of Your cross and the power of the Holy Spirit to sweep multitudes into Your loving, merciful arms. Bring us to our knees for our sins and powerlessness. And cloud our eyes with tears of repentance. Allow us to see the blackness of our own hearts and the blinding power of our comfortable, religious traditions. And, God, fill us with a deep and intense desire to please You. Enlarge our capacity to love You more.

Revival Comes as a Tornado-Part 2

This classic was originally published in March 1998

In my mind, a revival is a veritable tornado! A tornado is a violent whirling windstorm that accompanies a funnel-shaped cloud. Severe thunder, lightning, and torrents of rain are present as well. Just as a tornado advances across the sky, touching down on land here and there, a genuine revival moves through the spiritual world, stirring up life among believers in its path.

Divine truth strikes like lightning. God’s voice thunders, bringing heavy conviction and repentance. And torrents of saving and delivering power from God rain down upon men, women and children. This analogy doesn’t stop there, however. Let me suggest eight additional ways in which a true revival mimics a tornado:

1.     Like a Tornado, a Revival Draws Attention to an Unseen Power

Man’s attention is usually fixed on the material world, but a revival tornado causes people to see and feel the power of the spiritual world.

Whereas the sunshine, dew and gentle showers of ordinary religious climates go unnoticed, a mighty revival tornado captures the attention of even hardened sinners who seem impervious to the Word of God. They begin to weep, tremble, pray, and cry out for God’s mercy, and their lives are transformed into scenes of holy triumph.

Others, who have tried religion before, but have never experienced victory over sin, are miraculously delivered from strongholds—their hope in God restored.

2.     Both a Tornado and Revival come From God; Man Cannot Stir them Up

The mission of God’s wind is to fulfill His will (John 3:8). Men have no power to direct that wind; we can only respond to it. We can hold evangelistic crusades, coax the lost to come to Jesus, and encourage people to express a desire to go to heaven when they die. After that, we can even baptize them and count them as members of the church. But there is no more revival power in all these things than the twitching of a corpse under the currents of an electric battery.

In revival, by contrast, God initiates and fuels all spiritual activity. He raises the spiritual temperature in a church or community. He causes the atmosphere to become heavy with “spiritual moisture” and charges it with the electricity of His presence. Once these atmospheric conditions are just right, He unleashes a cyclone against the human heart. Everything not founded upon the Rock of Jesus Christ is removed and destroyed.

At no point can man either stir up this storm or hold back its fury. A tornado begins and ends as God wills.

3.     Like a Tornado, a Revival Purifies the Atmosphere

Before a tornado hits, the atmosphere is heavy and hot. Disease-carrying mosquitoes hover over swamps and lakes. Smog blankets the valleys. But when a tornado passes through, it cleanses the atmosphere. A similar atmospheric change takes place in a revival, delivering people from the swamps of sin and the foggy skies of unbelief.

I have actually felt this cleansing take place in revival meetings. At first, a thick and heavy spiritual atmosphere envelopes the room. The presence of God weighs on your heart, pressing you into contact with God. Then, in the gaze of God’s holy eyes, you feel naked and exposed. You can’t hide your sin anymore. It’s all around you, like the flying debris of a tornado. As you confess your sins and repent before the flaming eyes of Jesus, the work of the cross is completed in you. Death to sin is applied to your heart. Chains of bondage fall off. Addictions and demonic strongholds crumble by the power of God. And you are cleansed.

4.     Thunder and Lightning Characterize Both a Tornado and a Revival

In an atmosphere of revival, the thunder of God’s voice terrorizes a sinner’s heart. His Word strikes like lightning, penetrating the heart so deeply that it arrests the attention of even those who typically reject the gospel or refuse to obey God.

The Holy Spirit so grips their hearts that they are open to instruction. Hardened hearts literally melt like wax before a flame. Humiliation, confession and the turning from sin follow, crushing sin like a steamroller flattens a grape. Then, in a flash, freedom rushes in like a flooding river, liberating the heart from areas of sin it has battled for years.

A so-called revival, in which the lightning of God’s truth hits no one, is a sham. Such revivals don’t bring rain or cleanse the atmosphere of malaria.

In true revival, the Lord hurls red-hot thunderbolts on religious sin, searing hypocrisy, dead orthodoxy and modern-day Pharisaism.  Powerless to cleanse the heart of sin, they cannot coexist with the genuine power of God.

Many Christians forget that the Lamb of God is also the Lion of the tribe of Judah. “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth;” Jesus told His disciples, “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34). A sword will cut sin out of the heart and break every yoke in our lives (Isaiah 58:6).

Although Jesus meets the weeping, repentant sinner with overflowing mercy, He attacks the unrepentant sinner with the fury of a hungry lion. He devours all prey, be it religious or moral sin.

Come back next week to learn four additional ways in which a true revival mimics a tornado.

Revival Comes as a Tornado-Part 1

This classic  was originally published in March 1998

Revival is in the news today. In Cuba, for example, after four decades of communism, the masses are flocking to churches. According to USA Today, Assemblies of God pastors are now holding up to 20 services a day to accommodate new members. “There’s an incredible spiritual awakening happening in Cuba,” says one pastor. “It’s powerful. You can feel it. Cuba’s people are starting to wake up.”

Just across the Gulf of Mexico, in Pensacola, Florida, more than 500 people stand in line for hours, sometimes in the rain, just to attend an evening service at Brownsville Assembly of God. Services run four nights a week, often long past midnight. Even so, no one wants to go home. And Brownsville isn’t the only city experiencing revival. It’s springing up all over the world; and most significantly, it’s taking place across denominational lines.

This is not to say, however, that every so-called revival or manifestation of God is genuine. Counterfeits exist, but my plea is that the Body of Christ would focus on the “big picture”—not the “scratches on the frame”—and remain open to what God is doing in our world today.

Let’s search for the true meaning and purpose of revival, accepting the possibility that God may manifest His presence is “unconventional” ways. Let’s stop clinging to man-made doctrines and expectations, remembering the words of the prophet Isaiah who declared long ago that God is in the business of crushing human pretensions.

And the pride of man will be humbled, and the loftiness of men will be abased; the Lord alone will be exalted in that day (Isaiah 2:17).

That day is rapidly approaching, and I believe the growing rumble of revival is genuine and truly significant. We’re in the path of a tornado, and if we’re too busy analyzing, judging and condemning this storm, we’re going to miss God.

With that in mind, let’s define revival as the Holy Spirit describes it in the Old Testament.

A Biblical Definition of Revival

In Exodus 33, God told Moses to break camp and lead the children of Israel out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land. But there was one catch. While Moses was up on Mt. Sinai spending time alone with God, the Israelites had foolishly worshipped a golden calf. And because of their infidelity, God declared He would not accompany them on their journey to Canaan (v 5). Instead, God offered to send an angel before them (v 2). But Moses wouldn’t accept that concession. “If thy presence does not go with us,” he told God, “do not lead us up from here” (v 15).

I like that! “If you don’t go, I’m not going,” Moses was saying. “I want you to be there—nothing else will suffice.” That attitude, my friend, is the hallmark of true revival!

When you seek the presence of God, you are seeking revival. When you experience the presence of God, you are experiencing revival. And when you see God saving, delivering and empowering, you have seen revival! It’s that simple.

More Than Just a Storm

In the Old Testament, the prophet Ezekiel looked out over the River Chebar with his spiritual eyes and saw the presence of God and the manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s power as a storm cloud. And as I looked, behold, a storm wind was coming from the north, a great cloud with fire flashing forth continually and a bright light around it (Ezekiel 1:4).

In the New Testament, Jesus Himself likened the Holy Spirit’s activity to that of the wind’s. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going (John 3:8).

And when the Holy Spirit came on the Day of Pentecost, Luke described His arrival as a violent, rushing wind (Acts 2:2).

Certainly, passages such as these associate revival with stormy, windy conditions. But after reading an old book called Revival Tornadoes, I began thinking of revival as something far more tumultuous than an everyday rainstorm. Published in 1889, this out-of-print classic chronicles the life of evangelist Rev. J.H. Weber. As I studied his experiences, my conception of a movement of God as being neat and orderly went by the wayside. I’m no expert, nor do I pretend to know how the Lord must come, but in my mind, a revival is a veritable tornado!

A tornado is a violent whirling windstorm that accompanies a funnel-shaped cloud. Severe thunder, lightning, and torrents of rain are present as well. Just as a tornado advances across the sky, touching down on land here and there, a genuine revival moves through the spiritual world, stirring up life among believers in its path. Divine truth strikes like lightning. God’s voice thunders, bringing heavy conviction and repentance. And torrents of saving and delivering power from God rain down upon men, women and children.

This analogy doesn’t stop there, however. Come back next week for eight additional ways in which a true revival mimics a tornado.

Fanning the Flames of Revival-Testing for Authenticity Part 2

Is genuine revival taking place in my church?

Counterfeits certainly exist, but they’re not always easy to identify. To determine if what you’re seeing and feeling is really of God, start by asking three key questions:

1.      Is the Message Christ-Centered or Issue-Centered?

When God is present, the message from the pulpit and the testimony from the congregation will reflect it. Jesus is not just in the message, He is the message.

2.      Are Lives Changing in Radical Ways?

The presence of Jesus imparts the saving, delivering and empowering life of Christ. Philosophies and causes can change behavior. Jesus doesn’t just change behavior; He changes the heart, which, in turn, controls the behavior.

Galatians 4:19 says that Christ is formed in us. In 2 Corinthians 4:10, Paul declares that the life of Jesus is manifested in us for all to see.

In other words, the presence of Jesus is something tangible and all-encompassing; it alters the very make-up of the heart. With a new heart, sin becomes repugnant, and the decision to turn from it follows naturally, yet forcefully.

Thus, in revival, God’s Spirit literally pours out on men, women and children who have been struggling in feebleness and clothes them with power to put aside sin and put on garments of holy praise and righteous living.

3.      Is Repentance an End in Itself, or the Gateway to Holiness?

In the atmosphere of revival, a community of believers is brought low in humility and repentance. In the presence of God, we begin to feel dirty and sinful.

Those who know Jesus as Savior repent of every thought or action that’s not in line with the character of Jesus.

Those who don’t know Jesus cry out in repentance for salvation. And everyone turns to God with an intense hunger for righteousness and His abiding presence.

But that’s just the threshold of revival. To continue on with God, you must despise and abandon anything of the world, either good or bad, that dampens your burning fervor for the nearness of God.

True revival doesn’t stop at repentance. It goes deeper. It turns your world upside down!

Originally published in the March 1998 issue of Reaching Higher

Fanning the Flames of Revival: Testing for Authenticity

Is true revival taking place in me?

To answer this question, look beyond physical manifestations of the Holy Spirit’s power. Look for tangible changes in the atmosphere of your spiritual life. Interestingly, those changes have counterparts in the physical world. I’ll show you what I mean in just a moment.  But first, consider how the earth’s unique atmosphere supports life on this planet.

• It stores the building blocks of life—things like oxygen, water and carbon dioxide
• It presses on the earth
• It transmits sound
• It reflects light

Just as God designed a physical atmosphere to support physical life, He also designed a spiritual atmosphere to support spiritual life. It, too, sustains life, presses in on us, and transmits sound and light.

Because revival purifies the spiritual atmosphere, it also enhances these life-sustaining properties. So if God is reviving your spirit, expect to see at least three results:

Greater Power to Live in an Anti-God World

Scientists tell us it is impossible for spiders to live in water, and yet the water spider survives by storing air globules in its underwater nest. These portable oxygen tanks enable the water spider to “breathe” underwater as needed.

Revival is like one giant air globule; it creates a healthy spiritual atmosphere—one that nourishes and sustains life. By importing that “air supply” into the worldly atmosphere in which we live, we are empowered to do things beyond our natural abilities. 

How has God enabled you to “breathe under water” recently?

More of Jesus: Less of “Self”

The weight of the atmosphere presses upon the earth with a force of about 15 pounds per square inch. In the spiritual realm, the Spirit of God presses on us to squeeze out “self” and make more room for Jesus. As we yield to His pressure, Christ is able to manifest more of His life through us.

During times of revival, the spiritual atmosphere is especially heavy, which intensifies the “pressing” action of the Holy Spirit.

What is God trying to squeeze out of you right now?

Better Hearing

The atmosphere is the transmitter of all sound. Without it, we could not communicate verbally. How true this is in the spiritual realm as well. When we are “in the Spirit,” the Lord is able to “transmit” His presence, His voice and His blessings to us.

An atmosphere of revival magnifies this transmission. If your spiritual hearing is poor, it will improve greatly. If you’ve always been open to the voice of God, you will receive fresh revelation.

What are you hearing from God lately? Does He seem to be speaking more loudly or clearly than ever before?

Brighter Light and Glory

Just as our earthly atmosphere reflects the light of the sun, our spiritual atmosphere reflects the light of God’s Son. Speaking of the Holy Spirit, Jesus says, “He shall receive of mine and show it unto you” (John 16:14 KJV). The word “show” or “manifest” is “anangello”. It signifies repetition and intensity. It means to punctuate in detail.

During times of revival, the Holy Spirit punctuates Christ’s glory, reflects it, and reveals it in more intense ways, bringing deep repentance over sin and mighty deliverance and freedom in His presence.

In what area(s) have you felt the need to confess sin and repent lately?

From what has God liberated you?

Originally published in the March 1998 issue of Reaching Higher