What No Eye Has Seen, Day 3: Dr. Rodney Howard Browne - Revival, Anointing, and the American Church
God calls certain people for specific assignments.
“Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”
God called me as a missionary to America.
“Then said I, Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am only a youth. But the Lord said to me, Say not, I am only a youth; for you shall go to all to whom I shall send you, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Be not afraid of them [their faces], for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord. Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me, Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have this day appointed you to the oversight of the nations and of the kingdoms to root out and pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”
The power of the gospel is what empowers an individual to root out, pull down, destroy, overthrow, build and plant. The ministry isn’t about being nice. They wanted to kill Jesus, and they did kill Him. They put every apostle to death with the exception of John. It’s a necessity to first root out, pull down, destroy and overthrow.
Most of what you hear today in ministry refers to building and planting, but if you don’t first root out, pull down, destroy and overthrow, whatever you build and plant will be corrupted. You must first remove any foundation that isn’t built on the Word of God.
The Lord spoke to me about America. I believe God will anoint people for this nation. People will receive special assignments. In the same way Revival Today Church was raised up to great magnitude in 18 months, God will raise up individuals and accelerate them in specific areas.
It was our cry that God would raise up 100 fiery evangelists. God answered my cry, but for many, the fire has gone out. They were told God doesn’t operate with fire anymore. They’ve been told the miraculous isn’t for today, but God’s not done. He doesn’t change.
I’ve given up on America quite a few times in the past. Whenever you notice that I went on long stretches of meetings overseas, it’s because I grew fed up with America. I haven’t given up on America anymore. The Lord has given us a way to bypass religious structures to win souls.
America doesn’t need an entry level church where people can come and taste. The church is not an ice cream parlor where you taste and see if your flesh likes a church. That’s what causes weak-minded pastors to go out of their way to make church more palpable for people. Revival doesn’t make accommodation for anyone. The gospel is very plain.
“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.”
One translation says, “narrow is the way, constricted by pressure.” There’s no broad way of the gospel. There are not many ways to God. There’s only one way, His name is Jesus. There’s only one way to be saved and one way to become clean. The gospel is the same today as it was in the days of the apostles. We don’t have to change it to suit the 21st century. Just preach it, exactly as it’s written.
I thank God for all the ministries that are blazing the trail. In the next 3 year period of time, you will see more ministries launch out beyond their church, into their state and across their region. You don’t need a passport or to get on a plane to travel to other countries anymore. People from every nation of the world live in America. You can affect entire nations by serving people from every nation, right here in America.
America is in the current condition because of churches with lukewarm pulpits and pews. We have to preach the fire into people until they’re set ablaze. Until they go out and wreak total havoc in the camp of the wicked.
Revival isn’t just about attending meetings, receiving a touch, and then going about your normal way of life. Revival is an upheaval. It’s a herd of pigs being led into the sea. It’s a man being lowered through a roof. It’s taking a whip to the bankers of the day. It’s climbing a tree to get a better view of Jesus. Everywhere Jesus went, revival followed.
God takes ordinary people and touches them with His fire and sends them out. The people God chooses won’t fit in. They’ll cause trouble for the devil and they’ll be cast down by the world.
“But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.”
God calls individuals and puts them in assignments. Every born again believer has an assignment as a child of God. To become a part of the family of God you have to be saved, repent of your sins, confess Jesus as Lord and make Him Lord of your life. Then you must be baptized in water. Then you renew your mind to the Word of God and walk according to what the Word says about you. Then receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking other tongues. Receive the power that’s available to every believer.
The Bible says signs will follow every believer. You will lay hands on the sick and they will be healed. You don’t have to have a healing ministry to accomplish this. You can cast out devils without a deliverance ministry. You can prophesy without being a prophet. Everyone can operate in the gifts of the Spirit.
Gifts were given unto men by the head of the church, Jesus Christ. No man can appoint apostles or prophets, only God can. Men can simply recognize who God’s appointed. The title comes because of the power that is demonstrated.
“But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore He says: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.” (Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.) And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
When God calls people He chooses the most unlikely people. God puts His hand upon individuals and sends people who are obedient to do only what He’s called them to do. God’s hand and blessing will be upon those who do only what He calls them to do. Don’t seek to imitate or walk in the path of another. Avoid competition with others within the body of Christ.
When God calls an individual, He anoints by a burning fire. He drops a desire into people that’s like a consuming fire. When it comes upon you, it can’t be shaken.
Many of the men God appointed to change America were failures in their previous endeavors. Oral Roberts, TL Osborn, A.A. Allen. But when they stepped from one realm into another, God put his hand upon them and began to use them in a profound way. God put that fire in my heart for America.
New churches have to be built and they have to be Holy Ghost churches. People with the fire are overtaken by a burning passion and desire. It gets stronger and stronger until you can’t not do what God’s called you to do. You feel compelled by the Lord. You have to go and do what He’s called you to do.
You don’t need an invitation, you’ve been given a commission to go to the world and preach the gospel. When I first began, no one invited me. When we started out, we didn’t have any credentials or money. All I had was a vision. Passion is what drives you and propels you to the point where you’d rather die than not fulfill God’s purpose and plan for your life.
The Lord may have put a call upon you years ago, but you took a wrong turn. It’s not too late, there’s just enough time. God can make the next 3 years be as 30 in terms of what you will accomplish. You can attend RBTI or The River Bible School. We can take anyone who’s humble.
I’ve noticed people are more willing to get in the flow of what God wants to do than they were before. Sometimes you have to come to the end of yourself and become desperate.
The only hope for America is men and women full of the fire of God. Change won’t come from Washington DC. Men and women who will proclaim the gospel everyday and shout it from the mountaintops will change the nation. God is not limited by a denominational doctrine.
Men and women will wreck what the enemy’s doing. The devil will not have this land. God will give people direct assignments. There are different ways of catching fish and different places to catch them. Change will stem from a Holy Ghost church that takes territory. Be inspired and anointed with power from God to bring about magnificent change, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
