The most relevant era for us today is to be at the bosom of Jesus. This is the era of worshipers, contemplators, mystics. But this doesn’t mean passive lying at the bosom, we draw strength there. We live in this world driven by His love. What do we receive there? We receive strength to work, we receive strength to love our neighbor whom we don’t love, we receive strength and revelation to see heaven. That’s where strength comes from – from the heart of the Lord. It’s open because He was pierced, pierced in the ribs, blood and water poured out. We receive blood and water, we receive the Spirit of Christ. When He gave His Spirit, it was the Spirit, who then descended. This is incredible power.
Do not think that when Jesus said on the cross, “It is finished!” that a “little spirit” went to heaven. This same Spirit multiple – because the Word and the Spirit are one – He fell on the day of Pentecost. Imagine, the Spirit of Christ, Christ Himself descended upon the people! It’s incredible! Because God Himself – the Father and the Son live in us by His Spirit. Because God is a Spirit, and he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with the Lord.
That’s why we have to attain to be spiritual people, and not natural, sensual, where everything is built on relationships – you will get wounded all the time. If you move in “natural Christianity” you will have conflicts all the time. You will always have some kind of enemy. A spiritual one has no enemies. In relation to him, they may be, but not from his side. He lives by heavenly vision. And there is also a carnal one. But this is still easier than a natural one. A natural one is the hardest, because he claims to be spiritual. He makes you guilty, beats your conscience, puts pressure on you – that’s why the Apostle says: “natural – demonic.” This is the kind of love that torments neighbor.
Today we are in the fifth era, and we embrace all the previous ones. We do not renounce the history of the church, we embrace it, because in renouncing it we renounce the blessing, we lose it.
Imagine how Abraham imparts the blessing to Isaac, Isaac to Jacob, and everything that his father and grandfather had accumulated, Jacob imparts to his sons.
We also embrace all the eras, all the trumpets, the Apocalypse – we are also the carriers of this Word. Jesus was that Word; He was the carrier of the Kingdom. And we are also to be carriers of the ark. When you move like an ark too, and you don’t even have to strain, because your miracles are happening.
An interesting topic that I would also like to give voice to is what not to pray for. One of the things is not to pray for the inevitable, things that are not the will of God. Sometimes we see miracles on a planetary scale in our spheres, but it happens when the Lord doesn’t answer even “small” prayers. He does something great through you, but He doesn’t listen to small things. This is because we have no knowledge of God. We don’t know the will of God.
I think that Jesus didn’t say prayers that weren’t heard. Why? Because God heard Him in everything? No. Because Jesus heard the Father in everything. This is how prayer begins. Everything is the opposite way. We ask not what we want, but what He wants, He gives us to ask. It is of this that He says that “if My Words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” He will put it in your heart. This is the way people made perfect move, who have nothing of their own. There is a right of an intercessor – to plead the Lord. Sometimes God puts a price purposely for us to pray through in order to receive. It’s a secret, we don’t know everything. Moses, Samuel, Paul, Christ did it.
Be careful when you talk about heroes of faith. We impart faith. We take over the faith from Abraham. Don’t do anything as to judge any of the anointed. These are dangerous things. These are our brothers and sisters, our fathers. Abraham imparted amazing faith, and we have yet to achieve that kind of walking. Respect the saints of God – not just be afraid, but as a respect. If you are “your own” to the saints, they become brothers for you.
A man of God walks in the knowledge of God, he lives at the peak of the spirit, constantly on the verge of trance. And there is an open portal. These are the sons of the resurrection, they cannot die. Because they are like angels in heaven. A person turns into a being, he is neither carnal, nor spiritual, nor tearful, nor pitiful – he is a king, a priest and a prophet. And whatever he speaks will be prophetic. And not because he is prophetic, but because he knows the truth.
This is our dimension – the home of truth, when the church becomes the home of truth. Not in terms of telling the truth, but seeing the reality. The home of truth is the dimension of the Apocalypse. When you see all things as they are. And you are by default a prophet, an evangelist, a preacher of the truth.
Revelation.
“The Eastern Gates seemed to have become a scroll with seven seals. Two seals have already been opened. Another one was half open. All the seals were opened by the Angels of God, opening and proclaiming into heaven. There were signs in heaven. Those who were connected with the mantle of the Eastern Gates understood these signs and what the Angels of God proclaimed as they proclaimed with them.
One could feel the awe and some fear because of what was happening. ”
I thought about it. I feel this dimension, that today these seals are being opened. These are not just local things – these are planetary signs. This is what we do when we worship – it is impossible to proclaim these things without trance, without overflowing with the spirit of prophecy. The highest flight of our spirit, the highest bar is in our prophetic worship. You can’t call it worship, music – it’s more like a trance – when Jesus was transfigured, it wasn’t His clothes that were shining, it was His Body that was whiter than snow, and the clothes let this light through.
“And he said to me, You must again prophesy about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings” (Revelation 10:11).
We have much more to prophesy about peoples and tribes, about tongues and many kings. This is what the Apostolic Church does. She continues to prophesy. And not just to give prophecies – she tells how everything works in the Apocalypse, how everything stands, what is the nature of reality. This is not God’s Kingdom, this is the reality.
And today, in the time period, we must go through purification so that the Bride is prepared, worthy of Christ. We must receive royal dignity in order to be worthy of the Bridegroom. So that not some weird girl walks next to the King of kings and the discrepancy would be evident. She shouldn’t be one to be ashamed of. Jesus also says that “He will be ashamed of such one before the Father and the angels.” Today we are fulfilling this purpose on earth – so that the Lord will not be ashamed of us.
Faithfulness, love, the power of truth must be our strong components, which in total will be called “beauty”. Because “His work is glory and beauty.” These things are beautiful for Him.
Many star people – rich, famous – choose beauties for themselves. They don’t always look at their mind, more often at their beauty. But the Lord is not so. Beauty manifests with the Bride who went through trials and became beautiful. This is what separates us from Eve. She was beautiful, but not faithful.
But the way of the Bride – from her blood, taken from her sins, but she became beautiful – this is the way of beauty for the purpose of the Bride.
I believe that God wants such a Bride – worthy of her Bridegroom, the wedding feast. There will be special praise – of the Bride as well.
The bride is made up of individuals. It won’t be a crowd to hide behind. Each of us either enhances glory or weakens it. Enhance glory in your ministries. Don’t weaken it.
Revelation
“The earth was shaking and groaning as if in pain. People walking all over it did not pay any attention. The man of God taught to hear the earth, because by hearing, one could understand a lot from its depths – why it was shaking and groaning. But few were able to hear, being constantly distracted by external noise from outside.
Now we’re hearing news of a revival, There’s a revival going on in America, in one of the universities. They say that simple youth gathered there and there are no “stars”, and they come there from everywhere desiring to get into the meeting.
America is said to have experienced the most frequent outbreaks of revivals, but such revivals have also flared up in other countries – for example, in Wales and so on. I’m no revival analyst, but I think there has been no equal in power since Azusa – Toronto was more of a blessing than a revival. None of them had such a global impact on the planet as Azusa Street or the Welsh Awakening, probably, this is still a different level.
Now it is the very beginning of this awakening that is being claimed to be an awakening. But this is only the beginning. The wise remain silent. Time will show. I am a revivalist, I love revivals, I want revivals, and I am on the side of the revivalists.
I would like to talk about five ways to approach awakening.
The first approach is to passively wait for an awakening.
“If the clouds are full, they empty themselves upon the earth; and if a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls there it shall lie. He who observes the wind will not sow; and he who regards at the clouds will not reap” (Ecclesiastes 11:3-4).
There are people who say that they have already “seen enough”. So what? Where there is fog, there is no sun? Of course there is. The approach of passively waiting for a revival is not biblical. I know that many people die like this without seeing a revival. I am against this idea that a man can never see a revival. I beg you, don’t go that way.
The second is to be critical of revival. You, too “have seen enough”, you “know life.”
“Then the chief priests, the scribes and the elders of the people assembled at the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and plotted to take Jesus by trickery and kill Him. But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people” (Matthew 26:3-5).
Christ is the Apostle of the revivalists. Watch out for that attitude of being critical of everything God is doing. You can then reject God.
“And it came to pass, on the next day, that their rulers, elders and scribes, as well as Anna the high priest, Caiaphas, John and Alexander, and as many as were of the family of the high priest, were gathered at Jerusalem. And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, “By what power or by what name have you done this?” (Acts 4:5-7)
“But when they had commanded them to go outside of the council, they conferred among themselves, saying: “What shall we do to these men? For, indeed, that a notable miracle has been done through them is evident to all who dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. But so that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them, that from now on they speak to no man in this name. So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus” (Acts 4:15-18).
That is, they decided to forbid it.
The third approach is to join the revival where it is happening. You don’t have it, you go and join.
“And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord. Then news of these things came to the ears of the church of Jerusalem, and they sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord. For he was a good man full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord” (Acts 11:21-24).
Barnabas was glad. He was a good man. He joined the awakening and stayed there for years. A great any of people were added to the Lord – this was the result of the awakening: not only the excitement of the religious world, the local church, but the people were added. And then he called Saul, and there Apostles rose up. The Antiochian church became an Apostolic base, a center. They not only raised up missionaries, but discovered and motivated Apostles and prophets.
The fourth approach is to be a living, awakened community and church, and achieve walking awakened in daily life. An awakening is happening somewhere, praise the Lord! But what about you? Watching content all day long and reproaching brothers and sisters that everything is wrong with them here?!
“So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:46-47).
The living church is where the people of the sanctuary are. People of the sanctuary who walk in revival and keep the church in revival. It is very important. Awakening from within the local church by the internal resources is the most enduring walk. Regardless of what is happening in the world, if the church walks in this, it is alive and awakened. If the people of the sanctuary blaze with fire from their own will – the Lord adds the saved to the church. Because it is a living community. Here’s what you need today.
Not all of us have an opportunity to join an ongoing revival where they will lay hands on you and pray for you. I experienced this – and it changed things significantly, but it did not guarantee that I would become a revivalist. You have to decide some things for yourself – on a deeper level – it’s like the Lord saying to Jeremiah, that “if you return, you will be like My mouth.”
What we have today is not because someone prayed for us. This is an awakened community. And a vessel serving in this community must become a man or a woman of revival. He himself must become an revivalist, and not wait for weather and wind from the sea. That’s what doesn’t give us forgiveness – why we can have dead communities. You may not attend a single conference, but, pastor, you are called to kindle the fire of revival and blaze it yourself! If you don’t, no amount of awakening from other places will help.
One of God’s anointed ones, Bert Clendennen, one of the powerful analysts of revival, has identified the restoration of the essence of Pentecost through the way of the cross as the main theme of the teaching on revival. Not through emotion, not through going to revival places, but through the way of the cross. The essence of Pentecost is deeper than revival. This I remember for the rest of my life.
He had a fiery cross. If you were with him, you would be a revivalist. He carried a blazing fiery cross.
Which is greater – you sitting and experiencing emotions or you being on fire of awakening in the darkest places?
I don’t these things to opposition, but today we define the essence and root of things.
And the fifth is what I aspire to: produce a revival in my place. When your personal walking in fire goes out to people, and when you make the same kind of people. You make flashes of fire and kindle the faithful with this fire of awakening.
“Then the Word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith. And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people” (Acts 6:7-8).
Isn’t this an awakening?! It is an wakening! I have my own responsibility to produce the fire of awakening in my place. I must be a fire man.
A false idea of awakening is a danger. Don’t wait, but walk in the fire. Your mandate is to walk – to walk in the fire of awakening and first love!
Don’t criticize what you don’t know. Do not exaggerate the importance when we ourselves advertise ourselves ahead of time, and then are disappointed. False advertising. Jesus made people silent, but people were not silent. And when we ourselves begin to promote, inflate, this is a great danger, the Lord is not behind this. Premature advertising is bad for awakening.
Monetization of awakening – when we want to extract self-interest.
There are unforeseen consequences when “the whole city is in motion.”
“The all the city was disturbed; and the people ran together, seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple; and immediately the doors were shut. Now as they were seeking to kill him, news came to the commander of the garrison that all Jerusalem was in an uproar” (Acts 21: 30-31).
This means that there may be persecution. But if we maturely follow God, we can minimize persecution. The wise shepherds and apostles minimized it by staying in Jerusalem. Therefore, mature people are needed.
There is a genuine awakening and a false one – when the emphasis is on emotions. Because emotions pass. But the ones involving conscience last long. Where there is conviction of sin, where there is a call to repentance, where there is a call to live righteously, they keep the fire. These are different materials for fire – straw or oak – straw burns quickly, but oak holds for a long time.
And there is still a revival of the glory of God. When people go into glory, and there it is already holiness, freedom and love. We want a genuine awakening. Genuine awakening is a sign of the imminent coming of Christ. Genuine awakening will cover the regions. It brings us closer to the dimension of Maranatha, the coming of Christ.
Awakening is always on the planet. These flashes are everywhere. It’s all about the advertising campaign. But you will not be justified by them. You have to start with yourself. And we will do this.