Leadership Blog

15 Jan Eliminating the Roadblocks of Revival

Let me set the scene of how many children’s workers abandon their pursuit of revival. You’ve heard the word of the Lord and are convinced that God wants to pour out His Spirit upon your children’s ministry. You’ve prayed and even fasted for this move of the Spirit. Time goes by and you are seeing little change. To make matters worse, some of the parents or even your staff are misinterpreting your pursuit. After a while, a new attitude sets in. Why fight the indifference. You begin to take the easy road of just picking a curriculum and providing a spiritual nugget each week and then send the children back home to their parents. Sound familiar?

Let me share a principle from Paul’s life that will help us to get past these roadblocks in our pursuit for an outpouring of God’s Spirit. In Acts 23:11, Paul hears Jesus tell him, “Be brave! You have told people in Jerusalem about me. You must do the same in Rome.” In the next few chapters, roadblock after roadblock presents itself to keep Paul from fulfilling his assignment. First, forty men plot to kill Paul. Next, church leaders bring false accusations against him. Paul endures a long imprisonment in Jerusalem. Upon leaving Jerusalem on his route to Rome, Paul is shipwrecked off the island of Malta. After making it safely to land, Paul is bitten by a poisonous snake. As you can see, Paul experienced setback after setback that could have easily pushed him off his God-assigned mission.

Here’s what enabled Paul to keep on keeping on. It is found in his encounter with the poisonous snake in Acts 28:5. “But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and was not hurt.” Did you see the answer? Paul shook off his adversity. He didn’t allow his adversity (the snake) to cling onto him. He was able to keep on keeping on because he knew what he had heard from God and knew that adversity couldn’t prevent him from fulfilling his assignment unless he allowed it to.

Why do many children’s workers give up on their pursuit of a Holy Ghost revival? They allow the adversity to cling on them. If allowed to stay, adversity will drain any dream that you have. When adversity comes (and it will), we must shake it off. We must follow Paul’s example and continue because we heard the word of the Lord.

What is our word from the Lord? God gave us a promise in Joel 2:28 that our sons and daughters would prophesy. We know that this promise is to us and to our children. We know that TODAY is the day of the Holy Ghost.

Shake off the adversity of discouragement, loneliness, and weariness. Stand strong. Guard your heart and your mouth. Continue to use your voice to proclaim that TODAY is the day of the Holy Ghost. (See last week’s blog Revival is Waiting for the Sound of Your Voice.) Like Paul, you will fulfill your God-given assignment!

01 Jan Spurgeon’s Prayer for Revival

I recently came across this prayer which concluded the sermon The Pentecostal Wind and Fire preached by the preacher’s preacher, Charles Spurgeon, on September 18, 1881. This prayer summarizes my passion and desire.

“May God send us a season of glorious disorder! Oh for a sweep of wind that will set the seas in motion and make our ironclad brethren now lying so quietly at anchor to roll from stem to stern! As for us, who are as the little ships, we will fly before the gale if it will but speed us to our desired haven! Oh for fire to fall again—fire which shall affect the most stolid! This is a sure remedy for indifference. When a flake of fire falls into a man’s bosom, he knows it. And when the Word of God comes home to a man’s soul, he knows it, too. Oh that such fire might first sit upon the disciples and then fall on all around!

And, to close, there was then a daily increase of the Church — “The Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved.” Conversion was going on perpetually! Additions to the Church were not events which happened once a year, but they were everyday matters, “so mightily grew the Word of God and prevailed.” O Spirit of God, You are ready to work with us, today, even as You did then! Delay not, we beseech You, but work at once! Break down every barrier that hinders the incomings of Your might! Overturn, overturn, O sacred wind! Consume all obstacles, O heavenly fire, and give us now both hearts of flame and tongues of fire to preach Your reconciling Word for Jesus’ sake. Amen.”

I can’t add to this cry of desperation. Lord, grant our prayer.