Just wanted to share an exciting video testimony from, what I believe, is an authentic, powerful outpouring of God's Holy Spirit upon the students and leaders at the International House of Prayer Missions Base.
Why is this happening?
God is sovereign over the visitation, absolutely.
However, I believe these people are hungry for Jesus... THE Jesus of Scripture, not the Jesus of church culture and comfort Christianity.
I encourage you to visit the International House of Prayer's website and check out some of the amazing services. This is what revival and "outpouring" are all about... filling us up and sending us out.
Jesus Christ desires to be released into our everyday lives and turn lives upside down, that the lost would be brought into His Kingdom.
For example, check out this powerful testimony of the Great Commission being lived out in a Walgreens. I implore you to listen to this POWERFUL 10 minute testimony, as this so exhibits the heart of God for this hour—to manifest Himself in power, in love, in mercy to a generation destined to encounter the All Consuming Fire that is Jehovah God.
Lord, stir this hunger in us... in me... I pray in Jesus' Saving Name. Amen.
“1 These are the nations that the Lord left in the land to test those Israelites who had not experienced the wars of Canaan. 2 He did this to teach warfare to generations of Israelites who had no experience in battle.” (Judges 3:1-2, NLT)
We war against two things.
I know a while back Rev. Billy Graham classically stated we fight against three hostile forces: The flesh, the world, and the devil. Absolutely. However, in the context of Judges 3, I see one thing we war against (which could be the sum total of Graham’s observation) and One Thing we war for.
First, we war to adore. We fight for the presence of the Lord. I wholeheartedly believe we spend too much time talking about who or what we’re fighting against, but really, have no perspective concerning what we are warring for. What’s on the other side of victory… in this life? Many would say blessing, breakthrough, healing, miracle, successfully resisting temptation, prayer answer, etc. Those are victory byproducts, sure, but what or Who are we really fighting for?
Before I even examine this point further, NO, we don’t war to be saved. If anything, God wages war on us to bring us to salvation. He supernaturally intervenes and interferes with our sin-loving, self-exalting existences and wrestles us to the ground to where we have no choice but to say a spiritual “Uncle!” to the Holy Ghost. No wonder Jimmy Buffet sings, “Vampires, Mummies and the Holy Ghost, these the things that terrify me the most.” Rightly so, for that Holy Ghost comes in and wrecks havoc on everything dead in our lives. He’s the God who wars and wrestles with the sinners heart, and believe you me, when you are His agenda, He’s going to get you and render you sweetly broken before the cross of Christ. So, no, we don’t fight for our salvation.
We war, however, to behold and experience our Sanctifier. Let me specify. God supernaturally places His Warrior in us at salvation. He is the Holy Spirit and He is what makes us long, yearn, and pine for the presence of God in our lives. We don’t want it. Our flesh doesn’t want it. Our flesh loves quick fixes. Our flesh loves simply being “okay” with what God deems intolerable, and that is living amidst “ites”—addictions, sin, religious deceptions—we are being groomed to simply be okay with these things, and listen, the institutional church ain’t doing a whole lot about it. Why? They’ve ceased fighting for His presence and instead, decided to finance their programs. When we’re in the Spirit, however, the lesser things disappear into the background and our heart’s longing is to feast upon Christ alone.
Jason Upon has a beautiful, spontaneous, prophetic anthem entitled “The Cost of Intimacy.” One of the lines is “We’re fighting for the presence of the Lord—a generation of warriors!” The Spirit of Jesus sanctifies us, don’t misunderstand me. However, we war to be with Him. We war for Him by Him. We war with His weapons, His arsenal, His grace, His enabling.
I’m not a proponent of “God saved you; now it’s all up to you” theology. Not true. However, now that we are saved, we’ve been enlisted in the army of God and we’d be stupid to believe that as an army, we’re called to sit around and scrub spiritual toilets all day.
Secondly, we war against the “ites” we examined previously. We war against the flesh, the devil, the distractions, the temptations, the sin we struggled with prior to our salvation that wants to stay in the land.
When we reject Jesus as Lord over every sphere of our lives and refuse to place Him at the center of our world, we are basically agreeing with the Israelites of Judges. “God, we want your blessing. We want you to have a part of our lives. But we want our own thing. We’ll do what (we think) You expect of us. We’ll do the Christian stuff; however, there are things we want to do and you keep your hands off those parts of our lives.”
I say that to God. I hate that I say that, but I do. We live with an old man called the flesh and let me tell you, this is dude selfish, cranky and boisterous!
Ultimately, our enemy conspires to thwart us from engaging Almighty God. He’s done this so strategically, most of all, through silencing the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. Why? When we grasp the Gospel, we understand a myriad of Truths that all stand side-by-side, and upon believing those Truths, we are privileged to access the very presence of the Most Holy God Who delights in undoing us in His majesty.
We are called and equipped to wage this war. Unfortunately, we’re being told two lies. One is that we do absolutely nothing now that we’re saved and whatever happens…happens. Then you have “those” people on the other side of the fence fighting and rebuking the devil from sunup to sundown. Oh, he must love the attention and delight in his duel-success—keeping the army of God asleep, or making them maintain their defensive (as they fight, unaware of Who and what they’re actually fighting for.)
We are inexperienced in true, Scriptural, spiritual warfare. Ah, but I believe the Spirit of God is awakening us. The sleeping giant is rising and the reality of His glory covering the earth is becoming an ever near reality.
I feel like Charlie Brown. Humorously enough, when he cries out, “Can someone tell me the true meaning of Christmas?!” he is standing a platform (where he and the rest of the Peanuts gang have been vigorously rehearsing for a Christmas production)… this platform so accurately represents the Church of the twenty first century, especially during the Christmas season. Pageants. Productions. Programs. Ah, but where is the preaching of the true Incarnation? Am I simply referring to that which occurred once two thousand years ago through the womb of the Virgin? No.
The true Spirit of Christmas is the Holy Spirit of God Who has been deposited in the hearts of those who have called upon the Name of Jesus Christ as Savior, and let me tell you, while we place a lot of emphasis on how much Jesus we “put in”, I believe a prophetic cry is emerging from the very heartbeat of God—“Release my Son into the Earth!”
‘Tis a weighty mandate indeed. And yet, isn’t it an appropriate call to action for an organism defined as the very body of Jesus Christ?
What was the common denominator amidst those who encountered Christ that first Christmas season? Divine Encounters Initiated by the Holy Spirit. In other words, those who longed for the Christ did not just one day decide or will to experience Jesus, especially the Jesus who was released into the Earth. He wasn’t a political powerhouse or a government over-hauler. He was the Lamb. His primary purpose was not to bring natural liberation from Rome; it was supernatural deliverance from the sin-tyranny of Satan. The Sinner’s Saviour is in fact the only Jesus who can incite us to leave everything behind and follow Him with our lives, for when we live in full view of that revelation—we were lost wretches, incapable of saving ourselves—and He came to the rescue.
Contrary to the lyrics of many Christian worship songs of this age, NO, we didn’t “call” and He answered our yearning beckon. Friends, we rejected Him. We crucified Him. We spat at Him and mocked Him and hurled insults at Him. And yet, He still came to the rescue. Oh the praise and thanksgiving that such Truth should up well in our hearts!
And again, only the Holy Spirit could open our eyes to long for and in turn, receive such a seemingly “lowly” Savior as our Great Redeemer and Liberator. This Spirit not only awakens us to the Truth of Who Jesus is, and what He came to do. We live, move, and breath in response to that, yes. However, we were never called to do it alone. Jesus is awakening his army in the Earth and Christian, He has sovereignly intended to do that through you.
The Holy Spirit is awakening this groan to release Jesus in the hearts of a generation. A John (the Baptist) generation. The Bible describes him as one filled with the Spirit and power of Elijah. What does this Spirit do? It prepares a prophetic atmosphere, fitting the environment of an era, time, hour, or generation for a Holy Visitation from God Almighty. Elijah was appointed to do that on Mount Caramel. John was called to do it prior to the Savior’s first advent.
So what releases these Johns? Encounter with Jesus.
“A few days later Mary hurried to the hill country of Judea, to the town where Zechariah lived. She entered the house and greeted Elizabeth. At the sound of Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth’s child leaped within her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.” (Luke 1:39-41, NLT)
Here, we witness a powerful exchange between Mary—literally filled with Jesus—and Elizabeth, who was hosting the developing, fetal John. That encounter with one filled-with-Jesus (Mary) stirred the forerunner-in-gestation (John), causing him to leap in the womb. This goes to show that the Christ-in-us when placed in close proximity to a chosen forerunner, should spiritually awaken that fetus. The question begs: Are we living as true hosts of Christ, ready in season and out of season to manifest Him into an atmosphere or environment?
You never know what chosen vessels may be around when Christ-in-you shines forth. May the bride assume the position of Mary—serving as a literal vessel and host for Jesus Christ.
Just as in the days preceding Christ’s first advent, I believe the Holy Spirit is sovereignly stirring a prophetic yearning and longing in the hearts of a generation for the Christ. Not the happy-go-lucky Jesus. Not “Jesus as my homeboy.” Not religion. Not feel-good, felt-needs focused, program-driven, timed down to the minute church. Not even the Jesus presented by most of evangelical Christianity in this day and age, Who essentially saves us from mediocrity and brings us into happiness, peace, joy, health, wealth and warm fuzzies. Not the emergent Jesus. Not the seeker-friendly Jesus. Not the indecisive, stoic, distant, hip, cool Christ. Friends, the Spirit of God is stirring a generation, calling them into the “wilderness,” just as He did John the Baptis. John didn’t learn from the Pharisees of his day, nor will this generation be theologically schooled from the “Christian celebs” of ours. The Holy Spirit has a people in training who will be grounded in True Christology and equipped to manifest the power of Jesus into the Earth.
I sense the Lord saying, “A generation is emerging out of a barren womb. A dead, impossible place where God-life seems nonexistent: The world, culture, religion…even the modern church. This generation needs to be around Jesus-conduits. Men and women overshadowed by the Holy Spirit—the Spirit of Elijah that awakens generations to repentance for these vessels have seen the King and are supernaturally made away of their hopelessness and desperation for Christ, the Emmanuel.”
The Spirit of Christmas is setting up a supernatural collision, where the yearn of a generation will collide with a historic outpouring of the Spirit. Result? Historic revival that will prepare the bride for the bridegroom’s coming and awaken sinners out of darkness and translate them into Jesus’ saving light.
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