Only four months later…the Florida “outpouring” has dwindled to a few hundred people at the original starting church, and the leader of the revival, Todd Bentley, is now in the midst of a marital crisis and fierce doctrinal controversy that has left the broader charismatic movement reeling. Charisma Magazine wrote up in good detail the latest news as we know it.

I want to be very clear: I have been personally blessed by Todd Bentley’s ministry in the past, and some of his closest friends in ministry are people I know and trust (not personally, but in terms of spiritual fruit and teaching). So I don’t want to make light of this tragedy in any way, and I am praying for him and his family’s recovery and healing.

But something is going on in the Body of Christ right now, and we need to discern what is happening and not give way to doubt and hardness of heart. The first question we need to ask is: is the Lakeland revival over? I believe it is. But that’s the wrong question. The real question is: is revival over? And the answer to that is an emphatic NO!

I spent the last several days very distressed about this sequence of events, and as I’ve been seeking the Lord for answers, I’ve begun to sense some things that I think are important to remember and understand. I’ll just walk through some of my thoughts in bullet-point form:

• True revival is not about a person, a place, or a thing. It is about the sovereign move of Almighty God in response to Jesus followers crying out to Him from the depths of their souls.
• True revival is not about angles, visions, prophecies, miracles, visitations, glory clouds, gemstones, gold dust, oil, and other signs and wonders. It is about Jesus Christ. It is about His power to restore all the that enemy has stolen. It is about transformation. “I once was lost, but now I’m found. I once was blind, but now I see.” That’s revival.
• True revival cannot be beamed across a TV screen or performed on the platform. It cannot be told, it cannot be explained, and it cannot be contained. Because, you see, revival is the violent move of God in glory and power, and God — last time I looked — is not a video feed or a worship band or a talking head with a microphone up on stage.
• True revival is not a church, or a conference, or a tent, or a style, or a method, or a format, or a culture, or a tradition. True revival is timeless and transcendent, because God is outside of time and beyond this universe.
• When true revival comes, it will convict people to go out. All eyes will not be on any person, place, or thing. It will be on Jesus Christ. People will not wait for the “fire” to come to their city in pomp and circumstance before they go out and minister to people in the name of Jesus. They will go out and minister to people in the name of Jesus in order to bring the fire of God down to their city.
• When true revival comes, it will be messy, but it will not be flabby. It will not be frayed around the edges. It will not focus on the biggest and brightest and best and ignore the details. The devil is NOT in the details. God is in the details. The first shall be last, and the last first. When true revival comes, it will not be about flash, it will be about substance. It will be about meeting people’s needs where they are. It will be about speaking to people in a language they can understand. It will be about being all things to all men in order to preach the good news of Jesus Christ.
• Oh how arrogant to think that only the superficial gloss of “charismania” heralds the arrival of revival. Lord, forgive us of our pride, our presumption. Forgive us of our need for hype and attention instead of conviction and consecration. Forgive us for looking to men to bring us into your Holy Presence when all we need is a spirit willing to yield itself to you.

There is a shift going on…a shift in the Body of Christ right now where people are beginning to realize that the hallmark of every true revival is a gripping fear of the Lord and a powerful, irresistible yearning for holiness and purification. I felt this already when I was up at the JesusCulture conference a couple of weeks ago. More on that another time. Suffice it to say, it was an incredible, life-changing time, but not because of signs and wonders but because of God’s holy presence and the palpable feeling of intense spiritual hunger in the room that demanded a transformational response from heaven. We got down on our knees and we gave our all to Jesus, everything, without reservation, without hesitation. The conviction of the Holy Spirit was so strong that I was ready to repent of sins I haven’t even committed yet. That was a joke, in case you missed it.

So is the revival over? No! It’s just now truly beginning! Some people are saying the Lakeland “revival” was false and of the devil. I believe it was of God when it initially started. Other people are saying that the revival was real all along and the devil is now trying his best to shut it down. No, I believe that too is of God, although the devil is certainly on the offensive.

I believe God used Lakeland as a catalyst for radical spiritual hunger and has now shut down what was quickly turning into a quagmire in order for real revival to break out spontaneously, earnestly, sincerely, and sustainably across this dry land we call America. This time revival won’t be about Todd Bentley, or Lakeland, or God TV, or apostles, or miracles, or media, or glory clouds, or angelic hosts, or worship music, or prophecies, or anything else. It will be about one thing and one thing only: Jesus Christ. We will encounter Jesus, be saved by Jesus, be delivered by Jesus, be changed by Jesus, be loved by Jesus, be equipped by Jesus, and be sent out by Jesus to go do the compassionate works of Jesus in order for the world to hear about Jesus and see Jesus and be set free by Jesus.

If revival isn’t about Jesus, and Him alone, then somehow, somewhere, we’ve lost the plot.

“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? And then will I declare to them, I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” — Matthew 7:22-23

Read the first part
Read the second part

Where was I? Oh yes, JesusCulture, which is the brainchild of…nope, I already did that part. OK, so we went up to Redding, CA to attend the conference, and in past years, we’ve come away with body, soul, and spirit all reeling from the intenseness of it all. This year was no different. That Bethel Church crowd up there really puts you to work. Don’t ever go check them out if you don’t intend to jump, scream, shout, laugh, cry, stand up, kneel down, and — most importantly — worship Jesus Christ with your entire being and then some.

Now due to a, ahem, misunderstanding with who was supposed to get which tickets when, I wasn’t able to get into the main convention center auditorium. Last time when that happened (yes, I seem to be prone to other people forgetting my tickets), I had to go sit in the overflow room elsewhere in the convention center and watch a video screen. Thankfully, Holy Spirit is bigger than distance, and He did some awesome things in that room, but I wasn’t too keen on missing out on the grand experience.

However, apparently I and about 1,500 other people were in the same predicament, so those zany dudes up in Redding (is it something in the water?!?!) decided to put on an overflow CONFERENCE at the church itself. Get this: JesusCulture started out at Bethel Church. Then it outgrew the church, so they moved it to the local convention center. Now, it’s outgrown the convention center, and they had to move part of it back into the church. How long do you think it’ll take before both the convention center AND the church (which is not small by any means) are BOTH too small to fit all the people who want to come? Not long.

Alright, now on to the highlights of the event. It turns out that our overflow conference had some perks that the other people didn’t get to enjoy. Yes, we had video screens with satellite feeds of the main sessions, but we also had a bunch of live presentations and some live worship music for our own group as well, so it was fine. But the cool thing is that we got to have a healing revival right in our midst that they never had at the center!

What happened is that one of the live presentations was about receiving words of knowledge for people with physical or emotional ailments and asking them if they need prayer for those conditions. After talking about it for a while, Scott Johnson (the presenter) decided it was time to give it a whirl. So he asked everyone in the audience to ask the Lord to give them a word. Then he asked people to come forward up to the podium if they had received a word. Scores of people came up, and he started going on down the line asking them what the word was. They would call it out (pain in the left knee, tumor in the abdomen, fibromyalgia, what have you), and then when people would raise their hands in response, the person with the word of knowledge would go out in the audience to pray. This process went on uninterrupted for quite some time, and those of us without words or ailments called out were asked to find someone who needed prayer and join in on that.

Sitting next to me was a young lady who told me she had hurt her ankle while playing soccer, so I prayed for her healing. After a few moments, I asked her how it was doing, and she said it was a little better — but little isn’t good enough, so I prayed some more. She said it was better still, but at that point I felt that it probably needed a bit of time for God to work on it. That, or she was just being polite….but I always try to point my faith towards God when in doubt. Back to this story in a moment…

A whole bunch of people in the audience got healed, and some testimonies were just amazing. Serious injuries were healed, chronic diseases, muscular or skeletal immobility, you name it. Remember, these were audience members getting words for audience members praying for audience members. There was no “big man in a fancy suit” up in the front making it all happen. It was a God thing, not a diamond-studded preacher thing.

The incredible thing that happened, which I’ll never forget, is later when I was sitting on a bench outside waiting for a ride, a girl of, oh, 12 perhaps, came out in an obvious state of emotional turmoil and phoned her mom. I don’t think she realized I was sitting only a few feet away. “Mom, mom, you’ll never believe what’s happened! I’ve been HEALED!!!” Apparently, one of her legs had been longer than the other, and it made it awkward to kneel down or perform certain maneuvers, and she said it had felt “funny”. But now, in this service, her legs had supernaturally evened out (I don’t if one grew longer or the other grew shorter), and by God’s power, they were no longer askew! She could barely talk on the phone out of shock and amazement and excitement, and one can hardly blame her. It’s pretty cool when you get to see how an ordinary person outside of any manufactured hoopla is truly touched by the Holy Spirit.

But wait, there’s more! Previous to this, I had been walking by on my way out of the church when I overheard a women getting prayer from some church ministry folks for a sinus condition. For some reason, I felt in my spirit I needed to wait. So I waited nearby, and when they were done praying, she asked for prayer for her ankle. Now when you’ve prayed for someone in a certain way and they’ve gotten better, it gives you the faith to pray for that condition again for someone else. So I told her I’d just prayed for someone with an ankle problem and I’d be honored to pray for her. So I did, and very quickly she reported a big improvement and started dancing around (she was a dancer). Praise the Lord! This was before I ended up bumping to the young lady I’d prayed for originally who told me her ankle was a LOT better. Just like I’ve said on my blog, faith works.

Speaking of which, when she and her friend came outside (after I’d overheard the even-legs-girl’s phone call), they offered to give me a ride back to the convention center…which just goes to show you that the old saying is true: one good turn deserves another.

So I had a fantastic time up at JesusCulture, and it gave me a spiritual reboot in order to be more effective in my work and daily life. It’s easy to lose sight of God’s magnificence when you get mired down in the doldrums of performing various mundane activities every day. May it never be so, Lord, may it never be so! I pray we will always be aware of how close you are and how much over-the-top love you have for every one of us!

Catch ya later….

I thought his post concerning the interaction between our will and God’s will was one of the best I’ve read on the unbelievable heady subject. I’ll probably have to read it and re-read it a few times before what he’s saying sinks in, but it’s definitely something I’ve been meaning to explore more fully at some point. Check it out, whydontcha.

Speaking of which, I just returned from our yearly prophetic powwow at Grace Fellowship, and we has such a wonderful time soaking in God’s presence and hearing what He would have to say to us in this new season. One such image that I got was of a layer of earth, a crust, that was covering a huge abyss. It was then pried open as if it were a lid, and new foundations of earth and rock came in underneath to fill up the void and seal up the abyss. If you know about how constructive zones work in plate tectonics, it was a similar idea.

The interpretation I got from that is that there are places in our lives and in our homes, businesses, churches, and schools that have been sealed over for a long time and have not been dealt with, but the darkness and the sin are still there underneath a thin layer of seemingly solid ground. But in this new season, God is standing ready to uncover these painful areas and fill them up anew with the foundations of His strength and provision. Get ready for new growth in the Spirit and new beginnings this year as we step into the fulfillment of everything God has for us in this place and time!

When I launched this blog in January 2007, I had only a vague idea of what I would talk about. I had only a vague idea of what I was supposed to do with my life. I had only a vague idea of the kind of journey I would be undertaking. Over the course of the year, however, God proved Himself faithful to me and showed me answers to many of the questions that I had, and understanding and clarity came forth out of the deeper awareness of the Person of Jesus whose very life force burns within me

I am so grateful for everything God has already done in my life, and I look forward to another stellar year with the hopeful expectation that many good things are coming my way!

And of course the letter points out, in so many words, that our concept of God and the Muslim concept of God is totally incompatible, and therefore we do not share any theological common ground. Finally, somebody gets it! I hope more Christian groups who understand the real nature of the threat that Islam poses for the Christian world come forth to write such excellent rebuttals to a woeful letter.

So I spent all day Saturday afternoon praying fervently, reading the Word, spending time in worship, and all that good jazz. I kept declaring I was NOT getting sick and that I would be well for the Sunday service at Grace. Mind you this was all happening while I was in bed with a fever and aching all over my body, so it wasn’t at all clear I’d be in any shape to be there the next morning.

But sure enough, come morning, my fever had broken, I felt way better, and I trundled off to church with instruments in tow. Everything went swimmingly at the worship service. Praise God! And come afternoon, I was feeling pretty fine! Monday I telecommuted from home just to get a bit of rest, but yesterday I went down to the office in San Francisco and really thought I was doing OK.

But late in the evening, I started feeling crummy again, this time in regards to congestion (as well as fatigue). Today I’m again working from home and not feeling so hot. It’s not a huge deal, but I certainly don’t feel healthy.

The reason I’m sharing this with you is…I don’t know. Why would God miraculously stave of my illness for a time and then let me get it later? Mysterious. But nevertheless, I serve a good and awesome Father, and I refuse to blame Him for any of my misfortune. And nothing I can go through here, especially a little sinus difficulty, is even remotely comparable to what my Savior went through 2,000 years ago. Nothing matters when I contemplate the glorious riches we have in Christ our Lord!

Now I will shake the hand of any Muslim in a spirit of peace if he or she will do likewise. I do not support holy war, division, or hatred of any kind. If the sovereign rights of America and her allies are threatened militarily, of course, that is a separate issue — as is fighting for the protection of human rights in oppressive Islamic regimes.

No, what concerns me about this is that, while we can respect each other as human beings created in the image of God, and while we as Christians must show Christ’s love for our neighbors, the fact of the matter is that there is no common ground between Christianity and Islam. We believe that Jesus is Lord. Muslims do not. We do not believe that Muhammad is God’s prophet and that the revelation he presented to the world is of God. We believe that Jesus Christ is the only path to salvation, and that only by the grace of the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph Who has been revealed to be three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in one divine and completely whole Person — only by His grace and the shed blood of Jesus on the cross can we enter into the Holy of Holies in Heaven and present ourselves worthy and blameless before Him. If a Muslim chooses to follow Jesus, receive the Holy Spirit, and reject the teachings of the Koran in favor of the commandments of the New Testament (and such Old Testament commandments as are applicable and appropriate), then we will worship the same God together in unity and fellowship. Barring that, there can be no religious unity, no spiritual fellowship. We do NOT worship the same god.

Any concession made by Christian leaders along these lines will not produce peace on earth, but will grieve the heart of God and will make a mockery of the millions of Christian martyrs who have died not as terrorists in pursuit of jihad but have died at the hands of terrorists in pursuit of jihad. If Muslim leaders really wanted to pursue peace, they would condemn the barbarous acts of their own religious fanatics and would repudiate the religious and political statements, teachings, and entreaties of said fanatics.

Again, I have no inherent prejudice against any Muslim. I simply recognize that there is truth, and there is untruth. I cannot deny truth in an effort to achieve some kind of interfaith “peace” that will never produce any lasting peace.