Spring Revival Day 9

The crowds have thinned. The remnant continue to show up each night faithfully to worship and get into the scriptures. While I am preaching the size of the crowd does not bother me but in these moments I begin wondering if God is done. Revival is His sovereign choice.

The past couple of services have felt different. They are not bad. The worship is wonderful and people desire more words from God. Where as before the presence of God was thick last week and His working clearly evident, it all seems pretty ordinary this week.

God continues to give me fresh words. I preached from [Phil 3:12-14]. We must press on with God revival or no revival. The phrase “press on” means to follow, run swiftly after, and to pursue. Those things should be the goal of every believer to be lived out day in and day out.

Nobody moved during the invitation but then again I am not sure it was a message that really called for a response at the altar. I think it was the type of message that will require a response all the days of our lives.

I told the congregation I would commit to meeting tomorrow night and Wednesday night. After that we will have to see. I have not seen anything in the last couple of days that convinces me we are still in revival. I know our people are tired. We had well over 300 total people involved in D’Now and they kept a grueling schedule over the weekend. This revival is not about the size of the attendance. It is about the work of God in our hearts. Maybe people are either satisfied or unwilling to follow God where He is leading in repentance and full surrender.

It is not so much the attendance that is gnawing at my soul. There is something different in these past couple of days. The services have not been bad. They have been ordinarily good and that is what concerns me. In past revival services they have been anything but ordinary.

How do you know when it is over? Lots of prayer and sitting before Lord. I have peace in my heart either way. I have sought the Lord and preached what I felt Him leading me to preach. This whole revival was a step of faith God honored.

The older I get the more I have come to the place I do not have to have the crowds, the worship songs, or to even be standing in the pulpit to encounter God. I most prefer to encounter Him in my private times. Those times sustain me. That is where every believer must ultimately come to the realization we must encounter God in private times of worship as well as public worship. That is the only way to continue to live in a revived state.

I know many of you reading this would like to have a different report. I will call it like I see it and not try to make it look better than it really is. We will meet for the next two nights and then reevaluate what needs to happen after that. So for at least the next two nights revival services will continue. It is up to God and the hunger of people if true revival continues.

Spring Revival Day 8

I have a mixed report on the eighth day of the revival. Mike preached powerfully again in both morning services. All involved in D’Now were exhausted from the night before. After the lengthy Saturday night service those students then went home for small group times that lasted for some until around 3:00 a.m.

The sanctuary was packed for the second morning service. The balcony was full as well as the bottom floor. I sat in the very back in a folded chair. I am not sure if fatigue played a factor but it did not seem God moved has powerfully Sunday morning as we have seen in some of the other services. Maybe some have had their fill of revival and are pulling back as the heat keeps getting turned up.

Mike had to leave Sunday afternoon to fly to Dallas where he preached last night. I had not preached in two days and the rest was refreshing. I spent Sunday afternoon in my office studying for a message from [Is 38:1-8]. In this passage, Hezekiah the King was told by the prophet Isaiah that he is about to die. He is to set his house in order. That means Hezekiah needed to make preparations.

Hezekiah immediately begins to pray and weep bitterly. God instructs Isaiah to come back and tell Hezekiah, “I have heard your prayers and I have seen your tears. I will add fifteen years to your life.” I think praying with tears is taking prayer to a higher level. There is desperation with tears in prayer.

The attendance was poor. In everyway it felt just like a normal Sunday night service. Many people stayed home to recover from the grueling weekend. There is a remnant that keeps hungering for more of God. There are also others who have dug their heels in and do not intend to be moved.

I asked the people who want rain if we were really desperate for God to send it. I asked when we had last wet the carpet with our tears in prayer for rain, the lost to be saved, and revival to spread?

After calling us to a prayer time I left to go home after my prayer time ended. Increasingly I want to be shut up with God alone. Sunday did not feel like revival but we continue to press on. In fact those were the very words that greeted me this morning from some of our prayer warriors who had just finished standing in the gap for Seminole. So we press on into day nine not knowing what the Lord will do.

Spring Revival Day 7

The service on Saturday night lasted over two and a half hours. Much of that time involved over 200 students from D’Now repenting of sin, getting saved, seeking more of God in worship, and many turning their hearts back to Him again.

I witnessed God move powerfully. When Mike Satterfield extended the invitation so many people came forward we had to move them to the hallways and another wave came forward to take their place at the altar. The students coming forward seemed like a wave of humanity moving in mass toward the front of the church. There were many tears.

I personally wet the stairs with tears crying out for more of God. All up and down the steps you could see tear drops. I saw a stain the next day from Saturday night on those steps. I am sure some of it was emotionalism. I am also confident much of it was God convicting people and drawing them to Himself.

I know of two who were saved. One was a young man who moved from New York back around Christmas. God drew him to salvation. He testified, “ I have found God.” A waitress who came on Saturday trusted Jesus to save her.

Another student stood up and testified that he had turned his heart back to the Lord. He repented of his lifestyle that had not honored the Lord. He will most assuredly be in the enemy’s cross hairs this week.

We did not leave the sanctuary until after 11:00 p.m. Time will tell if what happened was real. If students got caught up in the emotions of it all those feelings will fade fast. If they are truly hungry for more of God – God has more to reveal and more work to do in each of us.

Mike Satterfield has preached with power in the Holy Spirit. He is a man of the scriptures and God used him powerfully on Saturday night. He got a call on Saturday morning from a friend back in Alabama who went through the devastating tornados. The friend told Mike, “I lost everything.” Mike sought to encourage him saying that material things can be replaced. At this point the friend interjected, “You do not understand. I lost everything. I lost my wife and my children!” Mike spent a great portion of the day ministering to this man and others.

I had the chance to pray over several students Saturday night. At one point we were singing “I Will Follow” and I saw a student who will be moving after this school year because his father got a new job. He is a popular Jr. High student with many friends. The Lord prompted me to go pray with Him about the move and challenge him to be a missionary at his new school. Another student I prayed for knelt at the altar. He is a sharp young man but his interests are not in athletics. He does not fit in with that crowd. I prayed with him to encourage him. We hugged at the end and I saw his dad in tears off to the side.

The highlight of the evening for me personally was when my oldest son came weeping telling me he needed to talk. We left the sanctuary and went to my office where he poured out his soul. The short of it is he wanted me to know that he is willing to follow God even when it hurts and stretches him. I am so proud of him. We prayed, embraced, and talked about the challenges of following God. He cried the whole time. I know God is moving deeply in his heart.

Revival continues.

Spring Revival Day 6

The crowd was very light tonight. We had over 200 people gone for the start of Disciple Now. Those 200 will return for a worship celebration around 10:00 p.m. Mike preach an anointed message from [Matt 5:14-16] about being light. Shine. Radiate. Influence. Those were the three points he passionately poured out to us.

Though we were few in number we were mighty in spirit. We sang. We listened attentively. We obeyed during the invitation and we prayed. God moved again. I know He will move during the 10:00 p.m. worship celebration.

There were distractions throughout the day. Mike had a hard time getting here with flight delays. Sean was distracted with busy work all day long not allowing him the opportunity to be still and know God today. I felt the same way. We both felt more like Martha than Mary today. The enemy has begun to oppose in subtle ways. Greater is He who is in us than he who in the world. God blessed in allowing me to receive the word rather than preaching it tonight for a change. I know all too well I am not the only one God can speak through. I yearned for God to speak to me and He did.

We only had a fraction of the attendance we have had the past five nights. I know that will change. Tomorrow and Sunday you will be hard pressed to be able to find a seat. It was discouraging to see empty seats but once we began to sing and get into the word we lost sight of how many were in attendance. The river of God is still flowing strongly.

I do not know what will happen in the late service with the students tonight. We ended our meeting by praying for them. There was strong praying. I expect the weighty presence of God to settle among those students. In a way I felt all of us tonight were like John the Baptist preparing the way of the Lord for our students. They have no idea what they are about to experience.

O Jesus we need you. Holy Spirit we ask you to fill the room tonight and to touch every heart. I ask you to soften, to convict, to cleanse, and to renew. I ask you to move powerfully all over town in the different homes but most especially as we gather again tonight to seek more of You. I ask You to unleash Your fullness on us and never let us be the same again.

To be continued….

Spring Revival Day 5

The crowd was a little slimmer tonight but the hearts of the people were eager to meet with the Lord. God called us to follow Him from [Acts 20:22-24]. The message simply dealt with Paul being bound to go in the Spirit to Jerusalem, which meant following Jesus into harm and danger.

Paul’s response? I do not count my life as dear. The word “dear” means valuable or precious. Paul was saying I don’t care if following Jesus means chains and afflictions. God has a course laid out for me and I must finish.

How few finishers we have in the church today. We have many who start well but fall away and the zeal fades. God is looking for disciples who will stay the course all the way to the end. At times that may mean finishing alone. Family and friends may forsake you along the way.

We are all called to be ministers. We are all called to follow Jesus to our own Jerusalem to do something for Him. That may look different for all of us. To be a minister for Jesus does not necessarily entail being on staff at a church. It means being a servant to the King. Where is He calling you to serve?

When the invitation was extended people were lined up two deep all across the front of the church surrendering their lives to follow Jesus. There were men, women, and students. Tomorrow the students will begin D’Now. I have never seen a group of students more primed to meet with God than these students going into this weekend. Our services will continue through Sunday at least but I will pass the baton to Mike Satterfield to preach through Sunday morning. We will meet Friday and Saturday night with close to 150 students. Revival continues.

David Wilkerson the founder of Times Square Church and Teen Challenge died yesterday in a car accident in East Texas near Athens. In 1958 Wilkerson sensed God wanted him to forego watching late night television and spend that time in prayer. Wilkerson learned of some gang members going on trial in New York City a couple of weeks later. The Spirit nudged him to go to the trial even though it was 350 miles away and he had never been to New York.

Bound in the Spirit he obeyed. That led to him relocating his ministry and family to New York where he began a ministry to gang members. He wrote a book about it titled: The Cross and the Switchblade.

Nearly twenty years later the Lord bound him in Spirit again to start a church in a dark part of the city. When he asked God to raise a witness in that area God surprised Him by telling Wilkerson to do it. Once again he followed obediently not knowing how it would turn out. Today the church has 8,000 members. He went on to write 30 books. God used this man to touch millions. He died unexpectedly at 79 years of age but He followed God. He went to New York bound in the Spirit not knowing what awaited him. Who is the next David Wilkerson to hear God nudge and bind in the Spirit to go for Him?

It all started with the Spirit calling and binding Him to go minister to troubled gang members. The challenge for us is to be willing to follow wherever the Spirit binds us to go. It might mean going to a hard place and taking a huge step of faith. If our life is really His it does not matter. Our heart should simply be, “May the will of the Lord be done.” Where He leads I will follow. Where He goes we go. Where He stays we will stay. We must follow.

On to day six and the start of D’Now. More Lord.

Spring Revival Day 4

I just walked out of the sanctuary. We met for one hour and fifty-five minutes. Most of that time was worship. We sang a little at the beginning but longer after the message. The congregation would not leave. They sang song after song. The hunger for more of God proved intense. We continued to linger and the Holy Spirit lingered with us.

I do not know how to put it into words. At times I feel chills shooting down my spine as we sing and every nerve tingling in the presence of an awesome and holy God. He is meeting with us there is no doubt. It is more than a feeling. What we are experiencing is running much deeper than emotions.

I can tell you the text I preached from. [Hosea 6:1-3] I can give you the main points. At times God wounds and hurts us like a skilled surgeon to pluck out the cancer of sin in our lives and then binds our wounds and brings healing. He also revives us and we should press on to know Him. Not press on to merely know about Him. We are follow hard to know more of Him. Writing al of that does not do what the Lord is doing justice. You cannot feel the weight of His presence reading this. You cannot see the conviction from the Lord coming over the people.

I can tell you what songs we sung but you will not feel the passion of the worshippers nor sense the longing for more of Him. I can tell you some sat, some lifted their hands, some clapped and some did not sing at all but God was magnified and exalted tonight.

I can tell you the crowd increased to the largest number so far. I can tell you there were eight rows of teenagers and I could not find a seat where I normally sit. I had to go stand in the back. Still you would not get the picture of people longing for more of God and giving up television, TAKS preparation among both teachers and students, and people taking their evening lunch breaks to attend the services.

I could tell you about the student I talked to tonight and even tell you about the tears in his eyes from repentance. I could tell you about the number of students who stayed behind to worship after most of the others had left because they cannot get enough of God in this season. Still you would not get the full picture.

Even with all of that I am helplessly left to say what we are experiencing is the kind of thing you would just have had to be here to understand. Still I hope through these blogs to take the fire of revival and to spread it to others across the city, region, and state.

Lord, would you take this revival fire you are kindling here and let is spread. I ask you to move in the heart of every reader the way you are moving in our hearts. I ask you to bring the weight of your conviction on people to repent and return to You Lord. I ask you to use these blogs and those who read these blogs to lead people to salvation.

When I left tonight I uttered two words out loud. They are the cry of my heart. “MORE LORD!” “MORE LORD!” God waits to be wanted and this church wants more of Him. “MORE LORD!”

Spring Revival Day Three

Where do I even begin? Each service has been building in intensity since Sunday morning. Tonight was the most intense service thus far. I preached from II Chronicles 29 about King Hezekiah reopening and consecrating the temple after his pagan father had shut the doors and defiled it.

We need more courageous men like Hezekiah. He was only 25 years old and took this stand in the first year of his reign. The scripture says he made a covenant with God and sent the priest to take out every defiled thing from the Temple.

Think of the implications of having the Temple shut for sixteen years while King Ahaz reigned. No atonement for sin was available to the people. How many died in their sins guilty before a just God? Hezekiah changed all that. The priest offered sin offerings and then they did something else.

They worshipped. They sang praises to God with joy and gladness. The challenge at the end of the service tonight was to give God the ultimate worship based on [Rom 12:1] “Therefore I urge you brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God which is your spiritual service of worship.” Laying our lives down before Lord in full surrender and consecration is the ultimate form of worship.

The invitation was simple. Remove every unclean thing from your life. Offer your life as a sacrificial offering to the Lord. Lastly I challenged the church to sing and worship the Lord from glad hearts.

Sean first led us in a song about consecrating our lives to God. The altar filled up all the way across. The first person to respond was a seventy-year old senior adult lady. I cannot tell you how much this blessed my heart. In fact her response inspires me to keep laying my life down as an offering to Him until my last breath. Grown men, women, students, and dads with their children came up to the front to lay their lives down. Sean then moved into the song “I Will Never Be the Same”. People began to applaud and shout as they sang. This song was the theme song of the revival back in August. We concluded the night by singing “It Is Well With My Soul”. At the end as we sang the last verse about Jesus coming back people again shouted and clapped. This is not typical in this First Baptist Church.

I am struck by the scene of a single young lady kneeling at the altar singing with her hands extended in worship. It was a very intense night. As I have done many times before I went to the altar and laid my life and family before the Lord. Whether that means staying in Seminole for decades or following God elsewhere once again I fully surrendered. That is what brought me to Seminole in the first place. I knelt at the same exact spot tonight I knelt in April of 2009 telling God if He willed for my family to come to Seminole we would follow. Life on the altar is something I want to live out all my days.

When the service eventually ended I felt uplifted and closer to God. People did not leave right away. Some continued to commune with the Lord. Others embraced with giddy smiles.

The crowds have been great every service. Many people had baseball games to attend with their children tonight but I could not tell much drop off in the attendance. Students have the TAKS test this week but their hunger for God supersedes the TAKS test. One man has two exit tests from school but could not stay away from what the Lord is doing.

We just finished day three and revival fire is burning hotter and God is moving stronger. I cannot wait to see what He does on day four.