REVIVE US AGAIN

Psa. 85:6  Will you not revive us again,

that your people may rejoice in you?

It was early in the year of 1994 when I received a phone call from Dick Mills. That was not that unusual, Dick often called me during those years; when he called I would listen closely to what he had to say. You see, I considered Dick to be a modern day New Testament prophet. He had been part of my life since Bible School days and I had learned a lot about the Word of God and the moving of the Spirit by listening to what he had to say. That’s why I had my ears on that day when he asked me a very unusual question, “What do you think the next move of God will look like?”, Dick asked. I didn’t have any answers. I remember just holding on to the phone not knowing how to answer. I had never really thought about that, I supposed they were always the same. Within a matter of a few months our church was swept into a powerful move of the Holy Spirit. There were unmistakeable waves of His glory pouring into our services, characterized by unprecedented explosions of laughter, joy, and celebration. That’s when I remembered the conversation with Dick, “So this is what he meant”, I thought to myself. I never dreamed we could ever have this kind of joy in church. Revival has always been unpredictable and often contrary to what people expected. Here are some thoughts on revival from Arthur Wallis.

“Then the manner of the Spirit’s working or the manifestations through which God chose to exhibit His power may have been contrary to their expectations or foreign to their experience. They brought the glorious work of the Spirit to the bar of their own judgment, and there condemned and denied it. As the Jews rejected their Messiah because He did not fit in with their plans or fulfill their preconceived ideas, so these also reject the manifestation of God in revival. Thus, it becomes, as in the case of the Lord, “a sign spoken against”; and those who thus speak inevitably reveal, by their opposition to the work of the Spirit, the thoughts of their hearts. Let all beware of an attitude which presumes to dictate to the Almighty how He shall conduct His work. This must be considered further when discussing supernatural manifestations in revival.”

I am thankful for that phone call some twenty years later. God sat in the heavens and laughed as He prepared me for His supernatural joy.