REVIVAL
It’s clear to anyone that the word means, revive, to bring back what was there before, to return to the former state. I see daily on the news that there is a ‘massive revival’ going on among the youth across America, in the universities and even high schools. Many adults are very excited about this, declaring it to be a ‘spiritual work of God,’ that will bring about much change. When I was a youth pastor in a church about fifty years ago my youth group spent a weekend at a centre set up for such events. During a time of worship something quite amazing happened. The group of several hundred teenagers suddenly started repeating a certain chorus, and some began to kneel, others began to cry, and eventually there was a long line of them waiting to take their turn at the podium to confess various sins. Nobody wanted to leave and this continued for several hours until one of the overseers of the event brought it to an end. I do confess, to me, it was a move of the Holy Spirit which would bring about transformation in these kid’s lives.
But at that time, I was simply the typical [in many ways] Christian of the day, believing that I was born again by saying some words after a counselor, or even by my bed at night. I was brought up in a fundamental evangelical home and I must have told Jesus that I was a sinner and asked His forgiveness hundreds of times over the years, and asked Him to come and live in my heart to be my Savior. I assuredly ‘believed in Him,’ and I was sure I ‘trusted Him’ and ‘had faith in Him.’ I was different, I believe, in one very important way. I was incredibly ashamed and disgusted with myself for being a sexual pervert and failing to deal with that addiction. It began when I was twelve years of age in a classroom when I felt a surge of something travel through my body as a pretty girl walked closely past me as I was bending down to pick up my back pack from the floor, She was wearing a skirt above the knees and I got an eyeful of thighs, That was it. I had three brothers and no sisters, and had never watched TV or read magazines, or been to a movie or anything that would have given me an inkling that girls were different from boys. Of course, I was aware they had breasts bigger than guys, [I did have a mother, after all] but that was about my total knowledge as far as biology went. It was not until my father sent me to a boarding school ‘to teach me to behave myself’ in his words, that I had any education in that domain.
I left home soon after my schooling finished by me being expelled from the school, and moved to a large city where I worked in a building where there were hundreds of young ladies working. I was apparently good looking and many of these girls were attracted to me, so you can guess the rest, I did not attend church in this big city but partied and drank lots of alcohol, learning most of what there was to know about sex. After a few years I joined a motorcycle gang and did much of what that type of person did for another few years. Then I had my driver’s license cancelled for three years and left New Zealand for Australia and sat a test there, and regained a license. I met a young lady at a party a friend and I crashed one night and we married several months after that. I was determined that my children were not going to repeat what I had done so we began attending a church. Maureen had two boys from a previous marriage that had gone sour with a boozy husband who beat her up often. I fought my addiction even harder because I hated perving at other women when I was married to a beautiful woman myself. I sought counsel from pastors and elders and was told I was being too hard on myself. I was put into leadership positions in churches wherever we lived. We moved a lot due to my business. I was always vividly aware of my hypocrisy and literally hated myself as a result. I never raped any girl or had an affair, but I fantasized and had a terrible masturbation problem. In that, I was being unfaithful to my wife and that was always at the forefront of my mind, and deeply disturbing to my heart. I was so determined to beat this ugly thing that mastered me that I spent a couple of years seriously studying several versions of the bible, with a trusted concordance at my elbow. After hundreds of hours of this study, along with a couple of incredible experiences in which God ‘spoke to me’ very clearly, I learned to know God and learned to fear Him, because He is a just God, who makes it abundantly clear how He feels about sinners. When I realized that my sin hurt Him as much as, and maybe even more than it hurt me, I was able to repent. Of course, I had assured Him many times that I had ‘repented’ [turned from my addiction] over the years, but it never even slowed down my addiction. I had learned to stop doing whatever else grieved God but I despised myself for the gross hypocrisy of sexual addiction.
My life was literally and miraculously transformed beyond my wildest dreams. To lay my head on the pillow each night with a clear conscience and a total lack of guilt was something that I had feared was not possible, many times. As much as it changed our marriage so incredibly, and allowed me to live with joy, peace, and freedom, it was not all rosy. When I attempted to share my testimony with my church peers, I met with incredible aggression and rebuke. They all felt like I was condemning them, or judging them, and being accusative or something. That has been the measure of my life ever since I repented and became a true child of God.
It took me a long while to understand this, but eventually I realized that today’s ‘Christians’ have been taught they cannot stop sinning, and that the blood of Jesus cleansed them from all sin forever, so they have no shame for sin. In fact, I read a book one of my sons sent to me some time ago to try to convert me to Calvinism, in which the author assured me that I must not let my conscience upset me because as a child of God I must be at peace, and free from guilt. The theme of his message was to strive to be holy at all times because that was what God demands of us. But he kept telling me that I could never be holy. It was my desperate desire for holiness that was what pleased God! WOW!! That gave me some indication as to why ‘Christians’ simply cannot accept my testimony. It removes all their sincere belief that the blood of Jesus washed them perfectly clean. Today’s ‘gospel’ message is so ‘Jesus focused’ that they make Him into some crutch and idol, that they focus on, much more than God. That’s very strange because He told them Himself not to focus on Him, but to do the will of His Father.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’
Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ Mat. 7:21-23
I am sure everything Jesus said there is clear, and not hard to understand. God’s message of salvation is far from what is taught today in churches or by evangelists. God tells us clearly that we must work out our salvation with fear and trembling! Phil. 2:12. There is a total lack of any working out, or fear and trembling in saying some words after a counselor or pastor. The apostle Paul assured us that to have eternal life we must be free from sin, and holy.
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom. 6:22-23
Now I am aware that your pastor will assure you that salvation is a free gift from God and use this verse to prove that. Sure, eternal life comes from God but it is for those who are IN CHRIST JESUS! To be in Christ, one must have repented and received the Holy Spirit for forgiveness of sins. The Spirit cannot dwell in a sinner’s body.
You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil. With You the wicked cannot dwell.
.The arrogant cannot stand in your presence. You hate all who do wrong;
you destroy those who tell lies. The bloodthirsty and deceitful you, LORD, detest. Ps. 5:4-6
Sin always separates anyone from a holy God. The two simply cannot cohabit. Ask Lucifer or a third of the ex-heavenly angels. John makes this very clear in his first letter, chapter three. Here it is from the NIV minus the words men added when they compiled the modern versions. The KJV still has it correct I believe.
Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.
But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.
No one who lives in him sins. No one who sins has either seen him or known him.
Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.
The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.
No one who is born of God will sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot sin because they have been born of God.
This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.1 Jn. 3:4-10
This passage assures us that sin cannot be a part of a Christian’s life. It tells us that we cannot live IN CHRIST if we sin, because in Him there is no sin. So, the only way to be free from sin is to repent. We will look at this word a little later.
No person can argue against this teaching. With the added words, I have heard others argue with me against this truth. Please do not allow anyone to lead you to believe anything other than what this passage tells you as I have given it to you.
This one passage completely negates the whole of today’s false gospel and they love to use the added words in an attempt to ignore this truth. I often hear well-known, and respected by many church leaders of today, confess to being sinners on world-wide TV. I have heard far too many times from pulpits that ‘we are all sinners.’ Jesus taught us about who will go to heaven and who will go to hell very clearly in His parables. Please get a bible and read them yourself. It will help you remember the truth if you go to the trouble of looking them up yourself. He also assured us that if we sin, we are slaves to sin and cannot remain in His family. Jn 8:34-36 The apostle Paul assures us in Romans chapter six that children of God cannot be slaves to sin. Read that chapter please. Here is some more teaching from Jesus.
“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to sin, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea.
If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell.
And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where the worms that eat them do not die, and the fire is not quenched.” Mk. 9:42-48
I have substituted the word ‘stumble’ to sin, because it is clear to anyone with a brain that stumbling is something anyone can and does do from time to time, but it is not sin. So, stumbling cannot send one to hell.
We must understand what the word ‘repent’ means.
If we read the Old Testament, we find those who were God’s children would strip and put on sackcloth, sit on dung heaps for days, without eating or drinking, throwing dung dust and ashes over their bodies until they were convinced God got the message that they were really sorry that they had grieved Him. In the New Testament James offers us something similar in the fourth chapter of his letter.
Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. Js. 4:7-10
Repentance is a very personal and emotional event. It involves every fiber of your being. It is not something one does at the podium in front of many young kids making lots of noise, while the musicians are playing their instruments. We are told that many teenagers are repenting at these so-called revivals. I’m sorry, but they are not! They may well be doing what my youth group members did fifty odd years ago, but they are not repenting. They will continue to sin, just as the kids in my youth group did. Just as I did many times after I told God I had repented. There is a wonderful passage in God’s word that shows us very clearly what repentance means. Here it is.
Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel?’
“Therefore, son of man, say to your people, ‘If someone who is righteous disobeys, that person’s former righteousness will count for nothing. And if someone who is wicked repents, that person’s former wickedness will not bring condemnation. The righteous person who sins will not be allowed to live even though they were formerly righteous.’
If I tell a righteous person that they will surely live, but then they trust in their righteousness and do evil, none of the righteous things that person has done will be remembered; they will die for the evil they have done.
And if I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ but they then turn away from their sin and do what is just and right—
if they give back what they took in pledge for a loan, return what they have stolen, follow the decrees that give life, and do no evil—that person will surely live; they will not die.
None of the sins that person has committed will be remembered against them. They have done what is just and right; they will surely live.
“Yet your people say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ But it is their way that is not just.
If a righteous person turns from their righteousness and does evil, they will die for it.
And if a wicked person turns away from their wickedness and does what is just and right, they will live by doing so.
Yet you Israelites say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ But I will judge each of you according to your own ways.” Ezek. 33:11-20
There is a very profound passage in John’s letters that is about as ignored as 1 Jn. 3:4-10, and that is 1 Jn. 2:3-6.
We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands.
Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person.
But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in Him must live as Jesus lived. 1 Jn. 2:3-6
Probably the most repeated command through the bible is that we must repent. And if we are to live the life Jesus lived, then God must be able to look at us at any moment of the day or night, smile with appreciation, and say, “This is My beloved son/daughter in whom I am well pleased.” I hated that God could not do that with me for decades, but now I am satisfied that He can. It is so amazing that it is just as He told us. Far more than we could ever think or even imagine. And the freedom I experience is just like He said as well. Like I am soaring on eagle’s wings far above the earth’s surface on air currents. Is. 40:31
The revival that is MUCH needed today is for people to reject the current ‘gospel’ and once again believe, accept, and embrace God’s true message of salvation. That is:
How to work out one’s salvation with fear & trembling:
Know God, Jer. 29:11-14, Jn . 17:3, 2 Thes. 1:8-9
Fear God. Acts 10:34-35, Prov, 28:14, Matt. 10:28
Repent. Ex. 20:20, Ezek. 33:11-20
Receive the Holy Spirit for forgiveness of sins. Acts 2:38
Live in Christ where there’s NO SIN. 1 Jn. 3:4-10
The Holy Spirit will control every aspect of your life, Ezek. 36:26-27
After researching ‘Christianity’ across America from 1992 to 2011, I wrote a book explaining why America is where she is today and how God can turn that around and make her a shining city on a hill. Amazon or B & N have ‘A Nation Broken’ and it comes very highly recommended.
The primary reason you see what you see in America today is the total lack of fear of God or true righteousness in the community.
Blessed is the man who always fears the Lord. Prov. 28:14
Through the fear of the LORD evil is avoided. Prov. 16:6
Humility and the fear of the LORD; its wages are riches and honor and life. Prov. 22:4
The fear of the LORD leads to life; then one rests content, untouched by trouble. Prov. 19:23
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Ezek. 36:26-27
That is precisely why and how we can live free from sin.
Let’s all do our part in bringing true revival to America in the near future