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95.373335 forwarded by STEPHEN C ROSE, May 09, 1995 at 12:52 Eastern
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Sorry for the length...This is the shorter or two I received this AM.
Write Richard if you want the prior one! Best, S
Message 95.373047 by INTERNET on May 9, 1995 at 11:49 Eastern, about [FROM:
RICHARD M RISS <[email protected]>]! CHARACTERISTICS OF REVIVAL (0 notes).
Date: 08-May-1995 08:37pm EST
From: Riss, Richard M
RRISS
Dept: GRAD
Tel No: (201)-408-8207
TO: Press SH to view recipients.
Subject: Characteristics of Revival
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF REVIVAL
Richard M. Riss
St. Louis CATCH THE FIRE Conference, May 3-6, 1995
At various times in history, the Lord has breathed new life
into the Church and brought multitudes of new believers into His
body. Such seasons of blessing are characterized by widespread
repentance, brokenness, and intense enthusiasm about the things
of God. These awakenings are often worldwide in scope and bring
about revolutionary change in the lives of all who are touched by
them. During such periods, there's always emotional excitement
about what God is doing in peoples' lives and there is an
unusually vivid sense of His presence, accompanied by the healing
of shattered lives, the reuniting of broken homes, the binding of
the brokenhearted, and the miraculous healing of physical
ailments.
A revival is a sovereign work of God in which He pours His
Spirit out upon all flesh. There's a presence of God's Spirit
which is so powerful that it brings conviction even upon
stubborn, obstinate unbelievers. People become so preoccupied
with the things of God that they don't want to talk about
anything else. There's a completely different, refreshing
atmosphere. Some people refer to it as "heaven upon earth."
People gather for meetings for worship and they don't want to
leave. Time passes by very quickly. There is a feeling of
release, or freedom in the Spirit. People feel refreshed.
There's a new lilt to everyone's steps.
The exuberance that characterizes times of God's visitation
was described vividly by Jonathan Edwards at the onset of the
Great Awakening in America, when he wrote: 'This work of God, as
it was carried on, and the number of true saints multiplied, soon
made a glorious alteration in the town; so that in the spring and
summer following, A.D. 1735, the town seemed to be full of the
presence of God. It never was so full of life, nor so full of
joy, and yet so full of distress, as it was then." The distress
that Edwards describes is the awesome fear of God and His
judgment that was coming upon those who had not yet repented.
Revival always seems to emerge in the midst of terrible
spiritual decline. The worse things get, the more concerned
God's people become, and the more they pray. The more we pray,
the closer we get to revival. And the more fervent we are, the
more likely we are to get results. So if things become really
desperate, we'll pray so urgently and so frequently, and in such
large numbers, that God will give us an outpouring of the Holy
Spirit in answer to our prayers.
It's evident, then, that prior to an awakening, God always
raises up people to pray. Such prayer is very intense, and
various individuals are often up half the night every night for
long periods of time praying that God will bring about revival.
At the outset of the Great Awakening, immediately prior to a
revival that came among the North American Indians in the
Susquehanna valley, David Brainerd was spending entire nights in
prayer. According to John Shearer, "Whole nights were spent in
agonizing prayer in the dark woods, his clothes drenched with the
sweat of his travail. . . . Suddenly, the Spirit was outpoured
upon the whole region of the Susquehanna."
Prayers of this kind will sometimes take place in response
to revelation that God has given that revival is coming and that
prayer is needed to bring it to birth. The great revival of 1830
in Rochester, New York, under the ministry of Charles Finney was
preceded by much prayer in response to revelation from God that
revival was imminent. In his autobiography, Finney wrote that on
his way to Rochester he met a minister who spent a few days with
him after his arrival in the city. Finney wrote, "As he and I
prayed much together, I was struck with his faith in regard to
what the Lord was going to do there. I recollect he would say,
'Lord, I do not know how it is, but I seem to know that thou art
going to do a great work in this city.'" Just as this minister
had anticipated, the Rochester revival became known as one of the
most dramatic events during the course of Finney's ministry.
When people are driven to pray for revival, God answers.
And then, very often, the power of God falls very suddenly and
spontaneously, in many different places, all at once.
When this happens, suddenly people become freshly aware of
the presence of God. He brings new life into the Church, and a
natural byproduct of this is the conversion of many people to
Christ for the first time. Another result, even for mature
Christians, is that their faith and commitment are deepened. And
people who have fallen away from the faith return to the Lord.
During an awakening, there will always be repentance
resulting from conviction of sin and the awareness of God's
judgment. Charles Finney wrote in his autobiography about a
revival in Utica, New York, which took place at a factory. A
number of employees had been in one of Finney's meetings the
previous day at a nearby school, and many of them had been deeply
affected. When Finney was visiting the factory, two of the
workers became visibly upset as they saw him approaching them.
One of them burst into tears by the time he was within eight or
ten feet of them. In a few minutes, nearly everyone in the
entire room was in tears, and the spirit of repentance spread
rapidly throughout the entire factory. The owner found it
necessary to shut down the factory, and the people remained there
for a powerful series of meetings that lasted several days. In
the course of these meetings, several thousand people repented
and believed the gospel.
In another dramatic incident which occurred about ninety
years earlier at a meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the
chimney of the house next door caught fire. The flames of the
fire began to flash on the windows of the meetinghouse, and
people fell down in fear, crying "The Lord is coming to judge
us!" After the cause of the fire had been explained, they
continued to be alarmed, knowing that if they were so unprepared
for judgment, then they were in great need of repentance.
Afterward, when the minister visited these people at their homes,
he found almost every one of them distressed. He was called into
one house after another and in each case he was begged not to
leave until he had prayed for the person with whom he was
visiting.
The things that happen during a revival bring about real
surprise and amazement, even to seasoned preachers and
evangelists. Even confirmed skeptics become believers in a
revival. In Kentucky, at the beginning of the Second Great
Awakening in America, some of the boldest, most daring infidels
broke down and wept their way to salvation. This was true of
many of the people who were most violently opposed to the
revival.
Here's another example. During the revival of 1858 and
1859, there were prayer meetings on Fulton Street in New York
City, and at one of the meetings, somebody walked in who was on
his way to murder someone and commit suicide. The very
atmosphere at the meeting caused him to break down in repentance
before God.
Things of this kind are common during a revival, and
sometimes even well-meaning people who have been in the ministry
for years realize that they have never known Christ, and they are
converted for the first time.
At the beginning of a revival, nothing is organized.
Everything just seems to fall together. There is usually very
little advertizing except by word of mouth, but people flock from
miles away from many places, and leave to spark revival wherever
they go. There are huge crowds, and it usually spreads very
rapidly and easily. Revival is usually contagious, and is often
described as a fire, partly for this reason. Here's what John
Shearer wrote about the Ulster revival of 1859: "A great revival
is like a forest fire. You may trace its early course, following
the first thin line of flame. But soon its progress is so swift
and widely diffused that the eye can no longer keep pace with it.
The flame bursts forth at once in many places, and now we see but
one great conflagration. So it was with this marvelous work of
grace. You might observe its course in Connor and a little
beyond in 1858. But in 1859 the heavenly fire was leaping up and
spreading in all directions through Antrim, Down, 'Derry, Tyrone,
and other counties of Ulster."
Very soon, the secular newspapers begin reporting on what is
happening during a revival. This happened during the Welsh
revival, and it also happened during the Wheaton College Revival
in 1950. On February 20 of that year, LIFE carried an article on
this entitled, "College Revival Becomes Confession Marathon" (pp.
40-41), and TIME published a similar article, "42 Hours of
Repentance" (pp. 56-58).
During the course of a revival, when people come to
salvation in Christ, there is usually tremendous conviction of
sin, and they often cry out, "What must I do to be saved?" They
begin to seek forgiveness from God through Christ's shed blood,
and then, at different times, God gives them assurance of
forgiveness of sin and salvation. Tremendous peace and joy soon
come over them, and they are then freed from bondage to bad
habits and attitudes. There is widespread reconciliation,
resulting in a real depth of love for one's brothers and sisters
in Christ.
In a revival, there is always a great deal of meditation
upon God's character, resulting in healings of relationships, the
making up of differences, and the redressing of grievances.
People are delivered from long-standing spiritual and physical
illnesses. Bramwell Booth described many specific instances of
such things in ECHOES AND MEMORIES, his book about the work of
his parents, William and Catherine Booth, the founders of the
Salvation Army. According to his account, the power of the Holy
Spirit became operative after people spent whole nights in
prayer. Over the course of time, others who had been hostile to
the work of God and toward members of the Salvation Army would
come under deep conviction and fall prostrate to the ground,
afterward to rise penitent, forgiven and changed. In many of
these cases, there would be physical healings and manifestations
of the gifts of the Spirit among these people.
The power of God is always manifest during times of revival.
During the Cane Ridge revival of 1800, there was a Presbyterian
pastor at Cross Roads Church in Orange County, Kentucky, who was
disappointed that there had been no evidence of revival at his
church. He attempted to speak, but, because he was overcome with
emotion, he had to sit down again without saying a word. This
happened more than once. As this was happening, a visitor from
Tennessee, where the revival was already in progress, raised his
hand and shouted, "Stand still and see the salvation of God."
The power of God surged through the meeting and many of the
people fell to the ground. This is how revival is usually
transmitted. Someone who has already been on the scene of
revival sometimes merely has go elsewhere for revival to break
out in a new location.
One of the most remarkable stories of revival concerns
Johann Christoph Blumhardt (1805-1880), who began pastoring a
Lutheran church in Moetlingen, Germany in 1838. Within a few
years, a young girl in his church named Gottlieben Dittus was
diagnosed by physicians as "demon-possessed." She had what
people said was a strange nervous disorder, and many psychic
phenomena were taking place in her home. Everyone in her family
and in the village seemed to knew about these things, and
finally, one of the doctors came to Blumhardt and asked him, "Is
there no pastor in this village who can pray? I can do nothing
here."
Blumhardt wanted to have absolutely nothing to do with this,
but because of pressure from his congregation, he felt compelled
to pray after this doctor confronted him. The resulting
spiritual battle lasted two years, and during this time,
Blumhardt was neglecting his pastoral work. He was becoming
tense and exhausted, and people began to think that he was about
ready to collapse, mentally and physically.
But then, something happened unexpectedly. Gottlieben's
sister, who was in the room, gave a loud, long cry in a strange
voice, "Jesus is Victor," and suddenly, this girl was delivered.
On the very same day, many people in the village reported hearing
the whirring of wings and cries of despair, "Into the abyss, into
the abyss, woe oh woe, we must go into the abyss!"
These events transformed the whole village. There was a
tremendous revival in which lives were transformed, broken
marriages were restored, enemies were reconciled, and people
began to experience physical healings.
Blumhardt was more surprised by this than anyone. Prior to
this time, as a matter of course, he had been laying his hands
upon various members of his church for absolution. But suddenly,
people were experiencing healings when he was doing this. His
preaching began to take on a new depth, and people started to
come from all over Germany to hear him preach. He had to conduct
five services every Sunday, and his little church was filled to
capacity each time, with people standing outside up to a radius
of up to an entire kilometer. At one point, the German emperor
himself came to find out what was going on in this little town.
The newspapers spread news of these things everywhere, and
people began streaming in from throughout all parts of Europe.
Soon, there were complaints from physicians who did not accept
the possibility that God was still able to heal the sick
supernaturally. As a result of this, the Lutheran ecclesiastical
authorities ordered Blumhardt to stop praying for the sick. In
1852, Blumhardt finally found it necessary to resign from his
church, but he then purchased the Bad Boll health spa in
Wurttemberg in order to continue his ministry.
One emphasis of Blumhardt, and his son, Christoph Frederick
(1842-1919), who carried on this ministry, was that brokenness is
essential to the Christian life. In keeping with this principle,
Christoph quit at the very height of his fame in Berlin in 1888,
stating that he believed that revival must come, not through fame
and success, but through brokenness and humility.
Here's another example of the manifestation of the power of
God during times of revival. During one of Maria B. Woodworth-
Etter's meetings in Pendleton, Indiana during May of 1885, people
within a twenty mile radius were struck down to the ground in
their homes, in business places, and on the roads and streets.
Some of them lay for hours and had visions, and many of them
later became pastors or evangelists. Many infidels were
converted to Christ.
To cite yet another example, at one point during the Welsh
Revival, somebody interrupted Evan Roberts as he was speaking,
and said loudly, "I want to ask a question." Roberts remained
calm and did not recognize the speaker, but he said it again: "I
want to ask a question." Roberts' eyes were closed in prayer,
and someone just started singing a song of praise, and everybody
joined in. But this critic's challenge was repeated more loudly
during the singing, and everybody could hear it: "if you do not
answer me, I will come to the pulpit to ask my question." No one
heeded the interruption, so he proceeded to carry out his threat.
He moved toward the stairs in the midst of the crowd. As he
approached, the Holy Spirit overpowered him. He would have
collapsed on the stairs if the crowd were not so thick that it
held him upright. Then he suddenly started crying for mercy and
pardon. The crowd began shouting, "He has been saved! He has
been saved!" The entire crowd broke out in tremendous excitement
with praises to God, laughing and crying, and singing songs.
Those who were there described the event as similar to the
conversion of Saul on the road to Damascus. The Spirit of God
moved sovereignly to bring about this man's conversion.
Physical healings often accompany revival. Maria B.
Woodworth-Etter wrote in her autobiography that while she was
preaching at a series of meetings in Columbia City, Indiana, in
April of 1885, the Lord began dealing with her to begin preaching
on physical healing. At this time, a revival broke out at which
many people were healed of various diseases. A few days later in
Pendleton, Indiana, a noted infidel was converted and healed of
diabetes at one of Woodworth-Etter's meetings. He was a 57-year
old physician, Dr. Troy, who later became a member of the state
legislature of Indiana. After this series of events, healings
became frequent throughout Woodworth-Etter's forty year ministry.
In an outpouring of God's Spirit, the word of God goes forth
in power, and the preaching, teaching, counselling, and music
have an unusual ability to penetrate the hearts of the people.
The Scriptures take on a new freshness, and there is a great
emphasis upon the Bible and its teachings. There is always a
deep thirst for the Word of God, and people drink deeply from the
fountains of life in the Scriptures. During the Welsh revival at
the turn of the twentieth century, there were phenomenal
increases in the sale of New Testaments and Bibles. At the town
of Neath, one bookseller reported that before the revival, he
regarded Bibles as dead stock, but that in the weeks of the
revival, he had cleared out all his old stock and found it
necessary to obtain further supplies. Some of the customers knew
nothing about the Bible, yet they "carried it off as a hoarded
treasure."
In such times of blessing, there is always considerable
revelation upon the Word of God. It becomes alive and new, and
it seems that the seals concealing truth drop away and mysteries
are revealed. In his description of the beginnings of the Great
Awakening, Jonathan Edwards wrote, "The Bible was such a new
book. Texts that had been read a thousand times appeared with
such fresh and novel interest that even old saints were tempted
to think they had never seen them before, and regarded them with
a strange wonder." This freshness of God's Word is one of the
hallmarks of revival.
The people whom God raises up as instruments for bringing
about revival often don't have very many natural talents and
abilities. They are everyday people who are sold out for God.
He raises up many lay people, and they find a greater place for
leadership during a revival. The same is also true for women.
A spirit of sacrifice prevails during a revival. People
often spend whole nights in prayer. They acquire a tremendous
zeal for the saving of the lost and for missions. There is also
a zeal for prayer. Under John Welch in Ayr, Scotland, there was
continuous revival about sixteen years, from 1590 until 1606.
What was his secret? Well, he considered his time poorly spent
if he had not been in continual prayer seven or eight hours every
day. I think that this has tremendous implications for people
who want to know how to prevent a revival from losing steam.
Most revivals only last a few years, but this one lasted 16 or 17
years, probably as a result of the continuous prayers of John
Welch and others.
During most worldwide revivals, people receive a fresh sense
of the unity of believers in all times and places. Traditional
barriers to fellowship tend to become dissolved, and people
recognize that all believers are part of the same family of God,
whether or not they belong to the same church or denomination.
Partly as a result of this, old institutional forms often
begin to seem inadequate, and superficial profession of faith and
church membership pale in significance. Instead, there is an
emphasis upon spiritual life, of which those things are tokens.
As a consequence, new denominations are often birthed.
Lutheranism arose from Roman Catholicism during the Protestant
Reformation, which was an awakening of the early sixteenth
century. The Great Awakening in America, which was known as the
Evangelical Awakening in England, eventually brought about the
rise of Methodism. The Second Evangelical Awakening at the
beginning of the nineteenth century brought to birth the
Disciples of Christ. The awakening of 1857-59 brought about the
various Holiness denominations, while the revival of the early
twentieth century resulted in the rise of the Pentecostal
denominations. The disenchantment with denominationalism that
characterized the later major revivals of the twentieth century
curtailed the development of further denominations, but the
problem of new wine in old wineskins remained: old institutional
forms seemed inadequate to many of those who were touched by
revival.
Prior to the advent of Protestantism, revival tended to
bring about the establishment of new monastic orders within the
Roman Catholic Church. The revival of the early thirteenth
century brought about the rise of the Dominican and Franciscan
orders. The beginning of the previous century had brought the
development of the Cistercian order which blossomed under the
leadership of Bernard of Clairvaux, while the tenth century
brought the establishment of the Cluny order. It seems that
whenever there is a fresh move of God's Spirit, existing
structures are unable to contain those who are touched by it.
There are always serious problems during a revival. People
often fall prey to spiritual pride. Many people begin to think
that their own imaginations are impressions from God. This is
largely a result of the fact that there are many new converts who
have not been seasoned by the trials and tribulations of the life
of faith over a period of many years. There are so many
impurities and extravagances in a revival, that many people begin
to oppose it. This leads to tremendous controversy and
persecution. Reproach falls upon all revivals for this reason.
All revivals are accompanied by intense opposition. George
Whitefield was severely opposed when he was raised up of God to
spread revival during the Great Awakening. On his second visit
to New England in 1744, Harvard and Yale both published
"testimonies" against him, accusing him of approving of various
disorders, causing divisions, and deluding people about an
orphanage for which he was collecting money, although this last
charge was later proven to be unfounded. In June of 1745, the
General Association of Connecticut voted that he not be admitted
to the pulpits of any of the Congregational churches, and that
the people not be permitted to attend his meetings.
Prior to this time, Jonathan Edwards had risen up in defense
of the revival with two works, THE DISTINGUISHING MARKS OF A WORK
OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD (1741) and SOME THOUGHTS CONCERNING THE
PRESENT REVIVAL OF RELIGION IN NEW ENGLAND (1742), in which he
had stated that if those who are critical "wait to see a work of
God without difficulties and stumbling blocks, it will be like
the fools waiting at the river side to have the water all run
by."
In 1750, Jonathan Edwards was ejected from his Northampton
church because he insisted on evidence of a personal Christian
experience before he would allow people to become members of his
church. He came to live among the Indians and died a premature
death.
That every revival inevitably brings severe criticism should
not be surprising, since the enemy will attempt to hinder the
work of God at all costs. Revival always involves an advance of
God's kingdom in spiritual warfare against the strongholds of
Satan, who will do all that he can to discredit the work of God.
This opposition will come both from within the revival and from
without. If our response to such opposition is not blameless,
the enemy will only have additional evidence to use to discourage
others from becoming involved.
Because of the extravagances and the inevitable opposition,
revivals will always crest to a high point and then decline.
Some people who were formerly convinced will be afraid or ashamed
to acknowledge their conviction of faith. Others will fasten
upon bad reports, both true and false, in order to justify their
changes in attitude.
But there are always many positive, long term effects from
revivals. They always bring about a new flood of hymns and
Scriptures set to music which gain widespread circulation and
use. Many people are never the same again after a revival, and
they live lives of faith for the rest of their lives. Revival
always spawns great ministries which thrive well past the time of
the revival. John Wesley, George Whitefield, and Billy Graham
are just a few examples of people who have the initial impetus
for their ministries during great periods of revival.
Revival also has a tremendous impact upon society. Many
towns touched by the Welsh revival were completely transformed.
Suddenly, there was a cessation of cursing, blasphemy,
drunkenness, and uncleanness. There was no more fighting,
clamor, or bitterness. Writing about the miners in the Welsh
towns, G. Campbell Morgan said, "The horses are terribly puzzled.
A manager said to me, 'The haulers are some of the very lowest.
They have driven their horses by obscenity and kicks. Now they
can hardly persuade the horses to start working, because there is
no obscenity and no kicks.'"
Many social reforms result from revival. Antislavery,
prison reform, women's rights, temperance, concern for the poor
and downtrodden, and countless forms of philanthropy have all
resulted from revivals. In America, revivals have promoted
democracy and democratic ideals. In the area of education, of
the nine colleges that existed in colonial America, six were the
products of revivals.
Now, what can we do to continue in revival? A number of
years ago, I came up with a list of practical suggestions for
coming into revival, and I believe that most of them will also be
of value for continuing in revival now that we're in it. This
isn't an exhaustive list, and I'm sure you can come up with your
own suggestions as well, but here are the ones that came to my
mind when I first considered these things:
1. Be real. Be open and honest. Don't be a phony.
Churches can't really continue in revival if their leaders try to
hide their weaknesses. Revival can only survive in an atmosphere
of total honesty. Pastors tend to assume a professional manner,
and hide their hurts, their struggles, their temptations, and
their spiritual battles. We must resist this tendency totally if
we want to sustain revival.
Honesty begets honesty. Honesty in confession of sin also
fosters revival. In fact, this principle was particularly
evident in the Wheaton College revival of 1950, and in the early
stages of the Welsh revival of 1904. David Matthews wrote that
at Bryn Seion Church in Trecynon, "one of the proudest members
.. . . fell on her knees in agonizing prayer and unrestrainedly
confessed her sins, creating consternation among other proud,
self-satisfied, respectable members. Others followed rapidly and
with such spontaneity as to cause bewilderment. . . . That
service, commenced so inauspiciously, continued without a break
all day," and by evening, the place had become jammed with people
from other churches in the neighborhood.
We've seen some of the same sorts of things happening at the
college revivals beginning in January of 1995.
2. Be ready for the opposition that will inevitably come.
Be clothed with the attitude of forgiveness toward all people at
all times. Be willing to bear the reproach that always comes
upon those who truly walk in God's purposes. Recognize that
there will inevitably be many extravagances and violations of
Biblical truth, and that spiritual pride will be very common.
3. Be sure to remain reconciled with one another and with
opponents of the revival. Revival cannot continue if there is
any bitterness, enmity, jealousy, or strife between Christians.
It simply cannot coexist with these things.
4. D. M. McIntyre has written that before the great
revival in Gallneukirchen broke out, Martin Boos spent hours and
days and often nights in lonely agonies of intercession.
Afterwards, when he preached, his words were as a flame, and the
hearts of the people as grass. The key to revival is prayer.
Revival is the result of much intense heartfelt prayer by many
people over a protracted period of time. Pray specifically for
the continuation of revival. Pray for each of the elements of
revival to continue, and pray that it be widespread. Pray for
wisdom and revelation. Wisdom is especially necessary within the
context of revival.
5. Expect that God will continue to pour out His Spirit.
6. Don't try to control it. If you do, it will elude you.
Revival is not under the control of man. It is controlled by
God. Don't try to make things happen. We cannot force revival
to continue. Direct your efforts toward prayer. Trust in God
that He will cause it to continue. If you try to use gimmicks,
you will not have true revival. Don't rely upon advertizing.
Don't depend upon celebrities to draw crowds. Don't count on
outstanding musical performers or eloquent speakers. Depend upon
God.
Don't try to force people to confess their sins to one
another if they're not ready or able to do so. God must place
conviction upon them and grant them a desire to do this.
7. Preach the pure, unadulterated word of God. Emphasize
the Bible and its teachings. Don't neglect Biblical teachings
that are unpopular in our culture, such as the wrath of God.
8. Allow God to deal with you about your own sins, and
make the appropriate adjustments in your attitudes and behavior.
9. Avoid the temptation to pride. Avoid it like the
plague. If you believe that you are God's man or woman for the
hour, or if you even suspect that you might be, you've already
lost out on the possibility for revival. God will have to deal
with you first, and it may be a lengthy process unless you really
get down on your knees and with all that is within you ask God
for His help.
10. Continue to cultivate a real enthusiasm for the things
of God and for the Bible. Ask God to preserve your zeal for
revival and for the accomplishment of His purposes. This zeal
will become contagious.
11. Be constantly on guard against yielding to temptation.
Meditate upon God's character and emulate Him.
12. Avoid anything that has to do with the occult.
13. When it comes to Christian goals and objectives, the
means are never justified by the end. Scrupulously follow
conscience. If you have doubts about doing something, don't do
it. If you are scrupulous about following conscience, it will
encourage other people to be the same way. This causes revival.
14. Fear God rather than man. Do whatever is right
regardless of the consequences.
15. Give all the glory to God.
16. Take the Bible at face value.
17. We must seek to do all that we do with the highest
degree of integrity, or we undo the very things that we hope to
accomplish as pastors and evangelists and as those who hope for a
continued outpouring of God's blessing.
18. Always recognize that God is constantly searching our
hearts, and is completely aware of all of our actions and
thoughts. Seek to please Him in all that you think and do, and
recognize that sin is always subject to the judgment of God.
19. Don't try to defend yourself. When attempts are made
to discredit the work of God, it is always valuable to remember
that God is far better able to defend Himself than we are. If
criticism comes against the work of God, and the truth is
distorted, God by His Spirit will vindicate His work and bring
the truth to light. It is very important that those people whom
God raises up as instruments of revival remember not to allow
themselves to become offended when the inevitable opposition
comes, even from trusted friends. It is important to be clothed
with the attitude of forgiveness at all times. We must never
focus upon the problems that inevitably develop, but rather upon
God, who is able to resolve those problems.
There is always considerable reproach upon anything that is
of God. Without question, we must be willing to bear that
reproach. When Mary was told that she would conceive a child by
the Holy Spirit, she knew that she would have to face reproach
from her friends and relatives for being pregnant before her
marriage. Yet she said, "Be it unto me according to thy Word."
In the same way, we must be willing to bear the reproach of
walking in His purposes. Those who do so will be God's most
effective instruments during His next great visitation, which is
now already upon the earth.
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