Revival
This handsome old gentlemen is a great treasure of the Christian Church. J.I. Packer has taught, preached and written marvelously on Christianity for nearly 50 years. Packer has written classics like ‘Knowing God’, ‘Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God’, ‘Keeping in Step with the Spirit’, ‘Growing in Christ’, ‘Knowing and Doing the Will of God’ not to mention dozens of other popular and scholarly works on Christianity.
I had the great pleasure of hearing Dr. Packer many years ago at a conference arranged by Sword of the Spirit. He was spellbinding, full of warmth and a great gentlemen who treated his audience with great respect and affection.
It is possible to soak in the great J.I. Packer thanks to the technology of the internet and the wonderfully free I-Tunes software. If you don’t have it - go and download it on your computer, it won’t bite you! It is quite easy to do, and more than likely most who will read these words already have it and use it. Now listen carefully. Here is how you get the absolutely stirring 17 part series on the Puritans available through Reformed Theological Seminary’s virtual program.
1. Go to I-Tunes (through I-tunes, i.e. Open the program it will take you there)
2. On the left column of I-tunes click on the link “I tunes store” (relax, its free)
3. Under the heading I-tunes store click on the link ‘I-tunes U’
4. At the top of the page you will see a blank box (its a search engine) Type in the following - ‘Reformed Theological Seminary’
5. When you get the results you will see on the left of the screen a link for Reformed Theological Seminary, click it and it will take you to their specific site inside I-tunes. On the RTS Catalog on I-Tunes U heading click on the third link down, which is Church History. This will take you to a series of different lectures - Click on the one which reads - History and Theology of the Puritans. Click on it and it will give you the option of down loading on the lectures. They are totally free!
I am just about through the series and I have throughly enjoyed ever lecture. They are not for the faint hearted, but take your time and listen and I promise you that you will be edified. Some of the theology may not be your cup of tea, but the history lesson, the beautiful example of the puritan’s commitment to Christ, and to the Word will inspire you. Oh, one more thing. Here is the Puritan prayer for worship I promised. (From Sunday’s messsage)
It is the flame of my life to worship You,
the crown and glory of my soul
to adore You,
heavenly pleasure to approach You.
Give me power by thy Spirit to help me worship now,
that I might forget the world,
be brought into fullness of life,
be refreshed, comforted, blessed.
Give me knowledge of Your goodness
that I might not be
over-awed by Your greatness,
Give me Jesus, Son of Man, Son of God,
that I might not be terrified,
but be drawn near
with filial love;
with holy boldness;
He is my mediator, brother, interpreter,
branch, daysman,(arbitrator) Lamb;
Him I glorify, in Him I am set on high.
Crowns to give I have none,
but what You have given I return,
content to feel that everything is mine
when it is Yours,
and the more fully mine
when I have yielded it to You.
Let me live wholly to my Savior,
free from distractions,
from carking (distressing) care,
from hindrances to the pursuit of the narrow way.
I am pardoned through the blood of Jesus -
give me a new sense of it,
continue to pardon me by it,
may I come every day to the fountain,
and every day be washed anew,
that I may worship thee always in spirit and truth.
Posted by Scott on August 26th, 2008 in Church life, Lamb of God, Revival | No Comments »
I grew up in a Christian home. This is something for which I am deeply grateful. My father, Charles, also grew up in a Christian family and at least on my dad’s side this Christian linage goes back several generations. This is a wonderful blessing.
I was also taught to be highly suspicious of Pentecostalism. Most of this ‘caution’ was prejudical and unfair. My Baptist theological orientation was ‘cessassionist’, meaning that I was taught that ’signs and wonders’ belonged exclusively to the age of the apostles and the first century. Over many years of inquiry, study and experience with balanced teachers I came to see that there was no ‘theological’ reason to believe that spiritual gifts and signs and wonders had ceased. Additionally, there was and is good evidence to suggest that spiritual gifts and signs and wonders had continued through the centuries among the body of Christ. (more…)
Posted by Scott on May 15th, 2008 in Revival, lakeland revival, todd bentley | 3 Comments »
You may never hear about it, or it may become the next ‘big’ thing in Charismatic circles. Is it real? Is it fake? Is it revival?
First, let me say that at this time (5.7.08) what is taking place in Lakeland, Florida is not similiar to The First Great Awakening, the Second Great Awakening, The Welsh Revival, or even the Azusa Street Revival. All of these examples were characterized by a deep sense of repentence, great sorrow for sin and a powerful renewal of simple gospel truths. Even, Azusa, the beginning of the modern pentecostal movement in the U.S. had this element of repentence and deep sorrow for sin.
So far, this is not what is being reported concerning the ‘revival’ in Lakeland. Does that mean it is not a genuine move of God? The verdict is out on that one. The presence of ‘alleged’ healing miracles doesn’t by itself prove that what is going on in Lakeland is a revival, or even that it is from the Lord. Jesus said (21) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. (22) On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ (23) And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (more…)
Posted by Scott on May 7th, 2008 in Revival | 7 Comments »
It was just a simple invitation to pray that led a small group of people in 1898 to meet on Saturday evenings from 9 to 10 for prayer. They met at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago to cry out for an awakening. Within a short time, the group grew to 300 passionate intercessors. A few members remained to agonize and intercede into the early hours one Sunday morning.
R. A. Torrey joined this small group to pray for a worldwide revival. During that intense intercession, Torrey asked God to send him around the world. Within a week of the close of the prayer meeting, two strangers approached Torrey and asked him to come to Melbourne, Australia to preach. These two men had left Australia months before in search of a man that they believed God would use to bring revival to their nation. Upon meeting Torrey, they felt they had found God’s man.
The result of that Chicago prayer meeting was an invitation for Torrey to come to Australia. Torrey arrived in Australia in 1902. 15,000 tried to pack themselves into the meeting hall. It is estimated that Torrey and his partner Alexander led over 100,000 souls into the Kingdom of God.
All this had its beginning in Chicago with a small group of people praying, “Revive thy work, Oh Lord!” May God raise up such prayer warriors in our day who will daily cry out, ” REVIVE THEY WORK, OH LORD!”
Posted by Scott on January 14th, 2008 in Revival | No Comments »
The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor.
There is something very compelling about this myth. It is a vivid picture of futility. Again and again Sisyphus tried to get the stone all the way up the hill and have it stay, only to see it roll back down again. Sometimes waiting on God feels like this - futile and hopeless labor. Will He ever come through? How many prayers will we have to pray? How long will He make us wait? When will the things we have ask Him for come to be?
There is a quote that strikes me as helpful: “Satan strikes either at the root of faith or at the root of diligence” (Puritan John Livingstone). I have found this to be a true insight concerning the nature of prayer and persistance in prayer. Satan prosecutes a relentless war against faith and faithfulness. He works to draw the intercessor away, to cause him or her to doubt, to lure one into the place where we utter - “What’s the point, this won’t work to change a thing.” (more…)
Posted by Scott on January 9th, 2008 in Revival, spiritual warfare | No Comments »
THE CALL of a REVIVALIST
-by Tina Dyer.
I will attempt to help you understand the call as a revivalist. When we look at others who have gone before us, it can help us with where we find ourselves currently. Though we see through a glass darkly, it still helps to catch just a glimpse of what we are going through. We could be called “forerunners” or revivalists or “reformers”….
It can be seen as one who runs in front of the crowd. One who will search out the best path for others who will soon follow. One who will be the first to encounter un-plowed territory or land. Your vision or perspective will be vastly different from others as your eyesight will see from a completely different vantage point.You are much like the “Pioneers” of old who headed west in search of new land to settle in. They had to trail blaze through uninhabited land to make a way for others to cross with ease. They were “way makers” and “visionaries”. What kept them pressing forward was a dream, a dream that held great promise of a better land in which to settle and grow strong roots. (more…)
Posted by Scott on December 14th, 2007 in Lamb of God, Revival | 3 Comments »
I believe that the Lord is calling to his people. I believe that He is speaking throughout the world, our nation and to us at Lamb of God. We would be foolish to not see that ministries like International House of Prayer, the Call, The Luke 18 Project, and Paradise are clear indications that God is moving across the nation calling us to prepare ourselves for a visitation of the Holy Spirit.
It wasn’t that long ago that none of these large national ministries devoted to prayer, fasting and sustained intercession did not exist. The Lord has stirred, first behind the scenes, wooing his people to come to Him and to seek his face. David Bryant, and others like him have been at it for decades. However, recently the intensity and breathe of this has increased. God is on the move.
Sunday (Dec. 9th) I spoke about the relationship between the pursuit of spiritual gifts and consecration. I used a very familiar passage, Romans 12 as the basis of this message. I urge you to meditate on this scripture: (1) And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. (2) Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. (3)Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. (more…)
Posted by Scott on December 11th, 2007 in Lamb of God, Revival | No Comments »
In case you were wondering - Tonight I am sitting in a hotel room in Kansas City, KA. I just finished a day of meetings with the Board of Paradise, as well as about 50 or 60 leaders from around the U.S. who are supportive of the vision of Paradise. Let me encourage you to go to their web site and have a look - Paradise. The vision for the Paradise gathering is not the result of some large organization deciding it would be good to have one more “event.” A youth leader had the idea for this gathering sparked in his heart during a series of morning worship times in the fall of 2006. He then placed that vision before 18 others whose lives are marked by concerted prayer. The 18 included many of the major streams of the church and diversity of gender and ethnicity. With one mind that group sensed that this was something the Lord was doing, and so it began. Paradise is not attached to or indebted to any denomination, or group. (more…)
Posted by Scott on November 28th, 2007 in Revival | No Comments »
Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones writes: “We can define it as a period of unusual blessing and activity in the life of the Christian Church. Revival means awakening, stimulating the life, bringing it to the surface again. It happens primarily in the Church of God, and amongst believing people, and it is only secondly something that affects those that are outside also. Now this is a most important point, because this definition helps us to differentiate, once and for all, between a revival and an evangelistic campaign.
An evangelistic campaign is the Church deciding to do something with respect to those who are outside. A revival is not the Church deciding to do something and doing it. It is something that is done to the Church, something that happens to the Church.
So then, what is it that happens? The best way of answering that question is to say that it is in a sense a repetition of the day of Pentecost. It is something happening to the Church, that inevitably and almost instinctively makes one look back and think again of what happened on the day of Pentecost as recorded in Acts 2.
The essence of a revival is that the Holy Spirit comes down upon a number of people together, upon a whole church, upon a number of churches, districts, or perhaps a whole country. That is what is meant by revival. It is, if you like, a visitation of the Holy Spirit, or another term that has often been used is this–an outpouring of the Holy Spirit.” (more…)
Posted by Scott on November 27th, 2007 in Revival | No Comments »
Isaiah 63:15 - Where is the passion and the might you used to show on our behalf? Where are your mercy and compassion now? This was part of the prayer Isaiah penned more than 50 years before the Babylonian Captivity. I believe that it also stands for us as a template for how we should be praying for revival. We are in a time of pressing in to lay hold of the Lord, like Jacob wrestling with the Angel of the Lord, we cannot let go until the Lord blesses as He promises he will (blessing is, after all at the core of 2 Chronicles passage 7:14). (more…)
Posted by Scott on November 25th, 2007 in Revival | 2 Comments »
This handsome old gentlemen is a great treasure of the Christian Church. J.I. Packer has taught, preached and written marvelously on Christianity for nearly 50 years. Packer has written classics like ‘Knowing God’, ‘Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God’, ‘Keeping in Step with the Spirit’, ‘Growing in Christ’, ‘Knowing and Doing the Will of God’ not to mention dozens of other popular and scholarly works on Christianity.