6 Reasons Your Church Will Never Have Revival- An Important Message to Every Evangelist & Pastor: Don’t Miss The Final Move of God
I’m teaching on this because there will undoubtedly be people who miss the move of God, not because of the devil, but because of the six reasons I’m about to review with you. These reasons deal with church structures steeped in ritual and religion. But Jesus didn’t spend time rebuking prostitutes, drug dealers, and gang members. He rebuked the Pharisees and Sadducees who enforced structures that forbade the moving of the Holy Spirit.
The growth of Revival Today Church is not luck or of my own volition. However, because I was an evangelist long before I became a pastor, I’ve seen things on the road that I’ve committed to never doing as a pastor. I’ve made sure that there are no blockades damming up the flow of God’s Spirit at Revival Today Church. When there’s nothing impeding the Holy Spirit from moving, He flows unhindered so that you don’t need to pray for revival. The Holy Spirit will show up and have His will. Although this is important for everyone to understand, my aim is for pastors and evangelists to pay special attention to the points I’m going to make. Search your heart to determine whether you’re guilty of perpetuating these barriers to revival.
You’ll Never Have Revival Because You Won’t Have One
You simply aren’t interested in having revival. You’ve fallen in love with your weekly systems and you cringe at the thought of violating them to usher in revival. Have you ever thought or said, ‘I’ve been feeling to have revival, but we can’t fit it into our schedule this year’?
Break your routine. Your small group meetings don’t matter more than having a revival. Clear a week off your schedule. Allow your staff to come in late so they’re not dragging come service time.
You don’t need to pray for revival. Invite someone to your church who has revivals. Someone who is full of the fire of God. Take the reins off them and revival will follow.
You don’t pray for a financial harvest, you sow seed. In the same vein, you don’t have to pray for God to send revival. If you want to see revival blow through your church, schedule someone who carries revival. Don’t pawn off your own inaction on prayer. John G. Lake said it this way,
“Prayer is often used as a refuge by men to dodge the action of faith.”
You don’t wait for God to do things. You take the power God’s given you and get to work.
Pastor Rodney Howard Browne was told not to have morning services during his South Africa revival because people thought no one would come. He proceeded with them despite the warning and drew crowds of 2500. People think they know everything there is to know about human behavior, but God doesn’t care about psychology or sociology.
Revival is acceleration.
One of the first revivals I’ve ever had was in Fitchburg, MA. When I first preached at Crossroads Community Church, it was the smallest Assemblies of God church in the region. We had about 120 people on Sunday morning. The meetings kept growing, we kept extending. We went five weeks and when all was said and done, there were over 300 salvations. They had to build a new building. Now they have one of the largest church sanctuaries in their Assemblies of God district.
I’ve heard pastors say things like, ‘revival is personal’ in order to justify not stepping out of their routine to have one. Let me clear this up for you, a revival is not a personal experience. Read Acts 19. Paul shook Ephesus. He preached to and taught multitudes and performed unusual miracles. God likes big crowds. Heaven is a big crowd. Peter also addressed big crowds.
Why is it that everything in the world is supposed to be big?
Home Depot. BIG.
Baseball stadiums. BIG.
Walmart. BIG.
Casinos. BIG.
But when it comes to the church, small is good enough. It’s a religious spirit.
A final thought on this topic: Although it makes zero mathematical sense, it would be better to have one church of 1000 than ten churches of 200. Ten small churches can easily go unnoticed. A group of 1000 Christians is a sign to the community, politicians, and anyone who drives by, that God is present. It’s a giant middle finger to the devil when 1000 people gather together to worship God despite the tens of trillions of dollars spent on university and media programming aimed at stopping the gathering of the saints.
You’ll Never Have Revival Because You Don’t Know What Revival Is
Beware of adages about revival that aren’t based in the Word of God. ‘Revival is a sovereign move of God.’ No, it’s not. God doesn’t move sovereignly. The Holy Ghost moves in response to the hunger and desperation of people. He doesn’t just pick cities to pour out revival. Before I define what revival is, let me list all the things that revival isn’t.
Revival isn’t a cloud coming into the sanctuary.
Revival isn’t feathers being shed by angels as their wings decay.
Revival isn’t gems appearing in the carpeting of the church.
Revival is men and women being drawn to God in mass, both in the church and outside the church.
Revival is people returning to God.
Revival is people being saved.
Revival is people being healed.
Revival is people being baptized in the Holy Spirit.
Revival is people speaking in tongues.
Revival is Book of Acts manifestations.
Yes, there can be signs and wonders beyond those cardinal doctrines previously mentioned, but revival doesn’t depend on them. If you’re looking for a cloud or some spooky experience to confirm that you’re in revival you’ll miss the move of God that’s happening around you.
Revival has two extremes. There are those who make it spooky and mystifying and in no way practical. Nothing of consequence comes out of it. I’ve realized there is a large portion of the Body of Christ who would be more excited to see the glory cloud come into the sanctuary than to see a broken family set free and filled with the Holy Ghost.
Then there’s the camp who believe revival is about souls being saved and ONLY souls being saved. Souls coming into the kingdom of God is a hallmark of revival, but that’s not the only aspect of revival. According to the Book of Acts, revival includes devils being cast out. Visibly. People set free from drug addiction. Revival is when backslidden, lukewarm christians are set on fire for God again. Revival causes indifference to be driven out of a church. That’s why it’s called REvival. You can’t revive something that wasn’t once alive.
Revival is God’s presence invading the atmosphere in response to the desperation, hunger, and thirst of people.
Why do people not have revival? Because they’re not hungry and thirsty. The devil doesn’t hinder revival. Lukewarm leadership prevents it.
You’ll Never Have Revival Because You’re Not Open to Have Revival
You’re so tied in with your church systems that you’ve disqualified yourself from a move of God. You can’t have an 80-minute revival. It doesn’t exist.
Don’t ask an evangelist to preach, give a strong call for souls, lay hands on the sick, baptize the youth in the Holy Ghost, and be finished by 8:30. Revival is a lengthy process. There’s praise, worship, preaching, time spent at the altar, laying on of hands etc. Don’t place your Sunday morning service expectations on an evangelist you invited to spark a revival.
I’m not some rogue, chaotic evangelist turned pastor. It’s good to have systems. I have systems. We have Wednesday night services and miracles service on the first Friday of every month. What I’m suggesting is that you pause your regularly scheduled programming to bring in someone who’s gifted by God to blow the roof off and take your church growth to another level.
If you refrain from muzzling the ox while it’s treading the grain (1 Tim 5:18), God can use an evangelist to bring you 20 years of church growth in a matter of weeks.
You’ll Never Have Revival Because Your Staff Hates Church
If you have a church staff that hates being in church, you won’t have revival. Beware of staff that constantly complain about how tired they are. I’ve been in churches where the easiest way to identify the staff was to find the four most disinterested people in the sanctuary. Disinterested associate pastors, snide youth pastors, and angry worship teams who vocalize their fatigue will curb a revival.
Years ago I had a 2 week revival in a church that shall remain nameless. The 30 year old youth pastor would come to the green room after service every night and complain about how tired he felt. Finally, after the third night of relentless grumbling, my spirit had enough and I addressed him. I asked him how many hours he would work if he was employed at a daycare. He told me 9 hours a day. So after a few days of 4 hours of work as a full time youth pastor, why are you so tired?
It was discovered not long after that he was frequenting a porngraphy site and later dismissed from his position. It became clear why he was so tired. Maybe get some sleep instead of visiting XXX websites after church.
In general, if the response to seeing people come into the kingdom of God in droves is to complain about how tired you are, something is wrong.
You may be reading this as a pastor and you’ve known in your spirit it was time to clean house a long time ago. Do it! I don’t care if it’s your worship leader. Get rid of him and play a CD in the interim. If it’s your youth pastor, it would be better to not have a youth group, than to keep the wrong person in leadership. Be a leader. Don’t allow your staff to stifle a move of God.
You’ll Never Have Revival Because You’re A Control Freak
Are you a pastor who’s afraid that having an evangelist at your church will take the money out of your church? Few pastors would admit it, but they view God’s resources as finite. Do you liken money as a pie that evangelists cut into, resulting in less funds for you? It’s fear of financial deficiency that keeps you from having evangelists at your church.
Do you want your people blessed? You may consider yourself a conservative, but handle money like a socialist. Do you set honorariums for speakers and only give your staff raises when they have children? Holding on so tightly to money will not foster a financial breakthrough. You’ll never have abundance if this is your attitude.
The Word says, Let each man give as he is directed by the Spirit. Not the board. The offering is an opportunity for the church people to be blessed. Likewise, your opportunity to receive a financial blessing comes in your giving to the work of other ministries. There should be money that leaves your church in bulk to other ministries. If you do that, you’ll change levels. If you don’t, you’ll stay the same.
Let me retell a story that demonstrates what can happen when you stop worrying about the offering. Lester Sumrall shared about a time when Oral Roberts visited South Bend, IN to hold a partners meeting. He had over 3000 partners in attendance, most of whom were from Lester Sumrall’s church. When Oral Roberts gave a call for people who would pledge a minimum of $1000, his entire congregation came forward. Then, Oral Roberts asked that they come to the altar and hold up one finger for every thousand dollars they were prepared to give. Again, Lester Sumrall’s entire congregation came forward with all ten fingers raised. Keep in mind, this was in the 1970s, $10,000 was worth upwards of $75,000 today.
After the partners meeting, Lester Sumrall was convinced he would have to resign because Oral Roberts had effectively taken all the money out of South Bend. He wasn’t angry or bitter about it. He had no issue with the money going to Oral Roberts ministry, but practically speaking he didn’t see how he could continue to do what God called him to do.
He wrote his resignation letter and then had an idea. He planned to take a final offering as a fleece before the Lord and then he would turn in his letter. He instructed his ushers to take the offering and present him with the final count. The ushers presented him with the final numbers with tears in their eyes. They had just received the largest offering in the history of the church.
When an evangelist teaches on giving, the giving doesn’t stop when he leaves town. God uses evangelists to create breakthroughs in the area of giving. If you’re a pastor, get out of the habit of thinking short term. Intelligent people don’t make short term decisions, they make decisions that have a lasting impact.
Quit striving for your piece of the pie. That’s a worldly perspective. People should give as directed by the Holy Spirit in the direction that the Holy Spirit leads. God will bring an evangelist to your church to provide your congregation an opportunity to sow into something outside the church that will cause the blessing of God to overtake them. Honorariums destroy that. When you limit the offering, you limit your people’s ability to be blessed.
The Bible says,
“There is one who scatters, yet increases more; and there is one who withholds more than is right, but it leads to poverty.” (Proverbs 11:24)
A statement written by the richest man who ever lived, David.
When we started making $100,000 the standard seed of our ministry, we began acquiring land and buildings like sweaters from Walmart.
You’ll Never Have Revival Because You Hate The Holy Ghost
Again, no one would outwardly admit this, but there are pastors who harbor hatred towards the Holy Ghost. Do you dislike speaking in tongues, people falling under the power? Do you get nervous when the sick receive prayer? Do all manifestations of the Spirit bother you? You hate the Holy Spirit. You want a nice clean service, a religious 85-minute TedTalk.
When revival broke out in Asbury, Kentucky we had a birds eye view of this attitude towards the Holy Spirit. People weren’t even falling out under the power or speaking in tongues, but there were those who were bothered by and judgemental towards students worshiping for an extended period of time.
There are christians who mock believers who fall out under the power. Many churches that used to be word of faith, charismatic, or pentecostal are nothing more than mainstream churches. Their belief in healing and the Holy Spirit are on paper only. There’s zero evidence of the Holy Spirit at their church.
The Word says,
“Having a form of godliness but rejecting the power. Have nothing to do with people like that.” (2 Tim 3:5)
There’s a difference between an evangelist and a guest speaker. An evangelist isn't a traveling speaker. An evangelist is gifted, like Philip, to not only win the lost, but preach and electrify entire cities with the power of God.
“And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed; and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. And there was great joy in that city.” (Acts 8:6-8)
An evangelist preaches Christ unto men, but he also works the works of Christ and brings joy to a city.
I’m not a guest speaker or a conference speaker. I carry revival. That’s why our ministry has its name. If you study church history, evangelists teach during the day and preach at night. That’s revival.
I’ll leave you with this final illustration. A pastor who fears bringing in evangelists because he fears too much money will leave his church is like a poor woman living in section eight housing with her boyfriend. After learning about Jesus, she’s excited and believes, but she’s not willing to take the risk and act according to her faith. Even though she’s miserable in her current condition, she’s comfortable. She knows how to live in a trailer. She doesn’t know what will happen if she leaves her boyfriend and gets a job, gets off government assistance, and out of section eight housing. The thought is unfamiliar to her. So she prefers to remain in her squalor rather than take a step of faith in God’s Word and discover where it leads.
If you’re a pastor reading this, I challenge you to take a step of faith in God’s Word.
You can be the pastor who at 75 years old is wondering what could have happened if you gave it your all or you can sit back at 75 years old and know you gave God your best. Take the risk and watch what happens. God likes people who take risks. When you do, God will help you.
I know some of these points may sound critical, but I spent the time reviewing these things because I don’t want you to miss revival. I want to see you become a part of this final move of God that’s clearly underway right now. I’m not going to miss it. How about you?
Father, I thank you for every man and woman reading this. I pray that you would keep them right in the center of the flow of the Holy Ghost. They won’t miss it an inch to the left nor to the right, in Jesus name, Amen.
