Branson Regional Prayer and Revival Changes

We are changing our Friday and Monday strategies in Branson.

SNAGHTML11d8e0a1A key reason my family and I moved to Branson was to help advance the prayer movement here and to serve the strategic pursuit of revival. That is my burning passion!

In addition to a couple prayer events last year, I’ve enjoyed the Friday late night prayer meetings in various churches in the region and our recent Monday revival events. It’s been absolutely amazing connecting with pastors and leaders in this area.

However, due to a lack of traction I’m going to press pause on both the Friday and Monday events and see how God might redirect our local focus. Tonight was our final Friday prayer event and our last Monday event will be this coming Monday at 7pm. I want to make sure resource and energy is given to the area that is most effective. Our Monday and Friday events didn’t hit the bulls eye as participation and excitement surrounding them wasn’t strong. 

The vision is intense and I’m excited about running with a burning remnant here in Branson. We’ll see how that will develop over time.

I’d like to see regular revival events that draw all of the pastors, intercessors and revival minded Christians in the area. I believe such events will go far in preparing a regional outpouring in Branson. It will take quite a commitment, but if we can all agree to gather in the fire, we would be forever transformed!

My radar is on and I’ll be connecting with others in the pursuit of revival, wherever that may be in Branson!

In the mean time, I’m going to continue in prayer, keep writing and ministering in churches. You can see my ministry schedule at www.burton.tv/events.

If you’d like to book a ministry event in your church, anywhere in the world, I’d love to come! Go to www.burton.tv/booking and fill out the form. I’ll be in touch!

THIS MONDAY will be our final prayer and revival event at The Victorian Village Shops. Come out and enjoy God’s presence with us! It’s going to be great!

Stay tuned…a lot more is coming. Stay in prayer…let’s see what God has planned for Branson!

Thanks to everybody who has been running this race with me lately! You are amazing!

John

Are solemn assemblies working? When will God pour out in our nation?

Are solemn assemblies the answer to revival?

First, I MUST encourage you again to listen to one of the most important messages you may hear this year. It’s spreading around the internet… listen and share it with everybody you can. Listen here: https://burton.tv/2012/10/01/listen-now-a-sudden-outbreak-of-the-spirit-of-revival-in-detroit-last-night/


Charisma Magazine just posted a great article on the effectiveness of large corporate prayer gatherings and solemn assemblies. You can read that article here.

As I shared in my previous post, there have been many prophecies about stadiums in Detroit being filled with intercessors and revivalists. I agree with that prophecy.

I agree with Jennifer Leclaire, the author of the article on prayer rallies in Charisma Magazine, that large corporate prayer gatherings and solemn assemblies absolutely do work and are wildly necessary.

She said, “I believe every prayer lifted to heaven in the name of Jesus makes a difference. I believe every intercessor’s Spirit-inspired utterance is making up a hedge of protection around this nation. I believe if the prayer stopped, the skeptics would start asking us to pray again.”

I couldn’t agree more.

We need the stadiums full, but, there is a much more challenging and costly strategy that revival is tightly hinged on.

The church must become a house of prayer again, and the corporate body must live a life of such extreme sacrifice that the prayer house is filled most every day of the week.

Yes, the price is our time and the costly surrender of our American lifestyle and the eradication of the cares of life.

Again, let me make it clear:

The average American Christian who works a 9 to 5 job, who has kids in sports and school programs, will need to shift most everything in their daily schedule and gather together under key apostolic and prophetic leadership to pray and respond to instruction most every night of the week.

The stadium level prayer events must happen, but, they won’t have lasting impact if we don’t also live a disciplined life of white hot, deep corporate prayer most every day.

We often talk about Easter Christians who only attend church on Easter and Christmas.

I want to offer a comparison. Today we have event Christians who trust in the conferences and stadium events to carry them and to advance the Kingdom on the Earth. That strategy alone won’t work.

We must pray together continually.

And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. (Acts 2:46-47 ESV)

I’ve said this countless times, and I’ve written about it in my book 20 Elements of Revival: The 24/7 church will arise again and Christians will gather together every day to pray and contend for Kingdom advance.

I don’t know if it will take a national calamity or if it will come as the church suddenly awakens, but the 24/7 church is coming—and it will require a passionate, disciplined, undistracted people.

Ephesians 6:16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance…

As we are driven by faith, pray ALWAYS in the Spirit…persevere and stay alert, we will establish a biblically normal church: A house of prayer that’s filled continually with zealous, surrendered Christians who feel the weight of the hour and intercede with passion for the nations.

We can’t meet in a stadium once a year and hope for revival. It’s time to gather together with the fear of the Lord provoking us into intimacy with God and bold Kingdom action.

THE CITY CHURCH

When this biblical model has matured, we’ll see it function on a city level very powerfully.

The apostolic/prophetic leadership of the city will call regular corporate prayer events and the entire city church will show up. Stadiums will be filled regularly.

Then, between events, the local expressions of the city church will be together day after day in prayer and response to local apostolic instruction.

I want to encourage you to order 20 Elements of Revival as I go into detail on the structure of a revival ready city church.

You can order it for print or Kindle at www.johnburton.net/resources.

Two extremely special announcements regarding the Detroit revival movement

theLab Events have launched! Monthly meetings begin in partnership with The Crossing and Revival Church next month!

imageConsider this quote by Evan Roberts, the hero of the Welsh Revival, as he shares the simple formula for revival:

"Congregate the people who are willing to make a total surrender. Pray and wait. Believe God’s promises. Hold daily meetings.”

We are taking serious steps to fulfill this simple yet costly mandate.

CORRY ROBINSON AT REVIVAL CHURCH THIS SUNDAYimage

FIRST: This Sunday night at Revival Church, Corry Robinson will be releasing prophetic decrees and sharing dreams he has had regarding Detroit. Prayer begins at 5pm and the service is at 6pm.

Corry has a deep burden to see God raise up Nazarites out of the inner-cities to become burning and shining lamps, who will stand and hear the voice of the Lord, and herald the message of the Coming Bridegroom God.

Watch a video HERE.

REVIVAL CHURCH MEETS AT CENTRAL CHURCH, 1529 E. 12 MILE RD, MADISON HEIGHTS, MI 48071.

REVIVAL FIRES: MONTHLY REVIVAL EVENTS BEGINNING MARCH 2ND

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I have had a clear vision for a monthly regional revival strategy in Detroit since I arrived. theLab Prayer Events and theLab School of Fire were the first two pieces of this mandate, and now theLab Events are sponsoring BRAND NEW monthly revival events! The monthly event is called simply REVIVAL FIRES. That’s the purpose of our sounding the alarm and gathering the people.

Brian Simmons felt extremely impressed that monthly meetings hosted by The Crossing and Revival Church were critical, and that we should be prepared for extended meetings. The spirit of revival is here!

With our great friends Pastors Randy and Deb O’Dell at The Crossing Church in Farmington, theLab and Revival Church will be serving this great vision the first Friday of every month.

March 2nd we will be at The Crossing in Farmington for a powerful revival service, led by the Revival Church worship team, and then we will remain and launch into theLab Prayer Event there from 10pm-midnight.

We will be releasing and activating the 10 Principles of Finney's Revival that Brian Simmons wrote about on The Elijah List. You can see that article here: http://www.elijahlist.com/words/display_word.html?ID=9184

You can go to www.atthecrossing.com for a map and directions to The Crossing.

What I see : A massive ministry center of revival in Detroit

Are you ready to be a part of what many believe will be a world impacting center of ministry in Detroit?

I had no idea what I was getting into when God moved us from Kansas City to Detroit. Sure, I knew it was about revival. I also understood that the coming outpouring would impact this region and even well beyond. But, I was nowhere near being able to comprehend what would actually come to pass.

1 Corinthians 2:9-10 (ESV) 9 But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— 10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

The Spirit searches the deep things of God, and then reveals and imparts those things to those he loves. Man, that absolutely wrecks me!

I am convinced that the coming revival in Detroit will bring the shock and awe of the mysteries of God that mankind has never imagined.

IF YOU BUILD IT THEY WILL COME

I do my best to avoid cheesy movie quotes in prophecy. However, I just couldn’t deny that God was talking to me.

God had been highlighting a vision of a massive movement and center of prophetic and revival focused ministry. I saw a regional center of reformation, revival and equipping very much like The Ramp in Hamilton, Alabama being established in Detroit. Keep in mind that I didn’t know much about The Ramp, which is led by Karen Wheaton, as God was speaking that name into my spirit. I wasn’t out to copy another ministry that was enjoying success. There was something else to this. God was calling me to plant a large center of revival that would draw thousands of people into God’s holy fire.

During prayer before a service at Revival Church approximately a year ago the Lord spoke that famous movie quote to me, “John, if you build it, they will come.”

It was a very heavy and exciting word. Well, things got very interesting as the service got started that night. Someone wandered in late and stood up in the service to get my attention. He looked at me and said, “John, God wants you to know that if you build it, they will come.”

The trembling commenced. He had no idea what happened in the prayer room, and he had no clue that I had a mandate to launch a new ministry. God had my attention.

THE RAMP

I started connecting more with The Ramp online just to catch a glimpse of their flavor and focuses, as well as checking out the practical nuts and bolts of launching and running a ministry like that.

The vision we have here in Detroit is certainly unique as we focus on the groans of intercession, preparing for revival on a city and then international level and raising up carriers of fire who will take the burnings of God to the nations.

However, there are many overlapping circles of vision that are undeniable, and the driving force (the Holy Spirit) is the same. God is looking for reformers who will rock the nations.

At one of the events at The Ramp, Dutch Sheets said:

“You crave His presence, but you loathe the average church service. You are part of the reforming generation.”

capture-00002023That’s it! God is gathering similar people here in Detroit—loathers of mediocrity.

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE

  • The Culture: If you read my book 20 Elements of Revival, you will have a good idea of what we’re going after. The culture in this emerging ministry is one of extreme fire, burnings and groanings of intercession, going after manifestations of healing and deliverance and the development of leaders who will impart this to the nations of the Earth.
  • The School: Of course, theLab is blowing everybody’s mind right now! This school of burning was dramatically prophesied over us by Jeff Jansen just before launch. He said I’d be writing books and we’d be launching schools (plural!) of the Spirit. We’d be taking people into the place of encounter and into heavenly experiences. It’s been prophesied that we’d take caravans of revival into the cities of the Earth. This is a huge part of this mission, and I envision a large campus with hundreds of students being equipped and released.
  • The Events: An attention grabbing series of prophetic words has us focused on praying in a huge property. People that we meet keep prophesying that they see theLab and huge events in stadiums. One person said it will take a stadium to hold the events and the school at theLab. You’d be stunned if you knew how many times I’ve heard this. We desire to bring in people like Dutch Sheets, Bill Johnson, Rick Pino, Catherine Mullins, Brian Simmons, Cindy Jacobs, Heidi Baker and others who share our heart for revival. I’m praying for a 2000+ seat auditorium plus a campus with classrooms for schools of worship, prayer, etc. that will house our daily activities—and then favor with stadiums when we hold regular (monthly?) events.
  • The Nations: theLab will be sending teams to cities to establish schools and hold revival focused events.

HOW YOU CAN JUMP IN

  • Gather your family, friends and everybody you can on Sunday nights at Revival Church. As a regional center, we are thrilled when other pastors and people join with us when their church isn’t holding a service. At Revival Church you will gain the traction necessary to see the vision and see how you can lock in with this revival movement.
  • Pray with us every Friday night from 10pm-midnight as we travel the Detroit region. This is the anchor of the ministry and you will immediately catch a powerful glimpse of our passion.
  • Give financially. We are literally looking for extreme miracles of millions of dollars to get this ministry center developed. Additionally, there’s big plans to develop the school further, to launch into other cities and to continue writing materials. You can give online at www.detroitrevivalchurch.com/donate, or if you want to discuss a broader financial partnership, just contact me at [email protected].

So, get ready! The harvest is coming. That means hundreds of thousands or more people are coming to Detroit! Are we ready to receive them?

We at Revival Church and theLab are doing our part!

Love you all!

theLab Internship : Monthly revival events in Detroit

Check out the developing plan for facilitating the move toward revival in the Detroit region.

The last prophetic word I received before leaving IHOP and Kansas City for the new mission in Detroit came from a pastor and friend from World Revival Church—the ministry that hosted the Smithton Outpouring. The word was something like:

“John, you are a fire starter. You ignite the fires of revival when you minister, and now God is calling you to build a fireplace. He needs a place to host and facilitate that fire so it continues to burn hot, so it doesn’t die out.”

I often wondered how I was to do that. Then, Brian Simmons rocked me this past Saturday morning when he said, several times, that the Detroit region was to be a fireplace of God’s presence.

You see, my calling and focus in Detroit is very much regional as opposed to local. Revival Church is a regional prophetic center of revival. My heart is to see the fire of the Holy Spirit burn all over the greater Detroit Metro area.

Additionally, I have been feeling strongly the need for a monthly event, much like The Ramp in Alabama, in Detroit for quite some time. Now, that plan is starting to come to pass.

So, we are investing significantly into the regional revival strategy. Here’s some of what is coming:

  • theLab prayer—We’re calling 1000 intercessors to gather with us each week as we pray in a different church somewhere in Detroit.
  • theLab internship—We are raising up a team of revival minded, prayer fueled people who are interested in serving the coming outpouring. We are in pre-launch right now and are inviting those who want to join with us to show up at our next meeting (We meet at IHOPE every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday from noon-1pm, ever Friday somewhere in Detroit from 10pm-midnight and at Revival Church Sundays at 6pm). We’ll have an info meeting in March, then we plan on launching in June. Contact me for more info at [email protected]. Also, visit www.revivallab.com.
  • theLab sponsored/endorsed eventsPastor Joe Sazyc is giving leadership, along with several other pastors, to a new monthly gathering. The fire is simmering, and we will be stoking those flames once a month in a worship and teaching mini-conference once a month somewhere in Detroit. The Fire in February Conference started something that words cannot describe. I’m still trembling! Stay tuned… we’ll announce the schedule as we develop it.

I’d love to hear from you! What do you think? How would you like to participate?

I believe theLab internship will go a long way in covering the monthly events in intercession AND in serving the events practically. A well oiled machine, a unified team of revivalists will be working together each month to serve the mission of revival in Detroit!

Of course, there are other key movements under way as well including EACH, 24FLOOD, IHOPE and several others. We’re behind all of them and can’t wait to see how it all will come together!

This is very exciting! Contact me at [email protected] and share your thoughts!

theLab Staff : Cool confirmation : You are invited to apply

We are developing our launch team, and YOU are invited!

In this message:

  • Amazing confirmation
  • The Vision
  • The Requirements
  • The Plan

At noon prayer yesterday we prayed for two specific things:

  1. That there would be a rapid response to the call
  2. That people would respond from other nations

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When I got home from prayer, Amy handed me a letter (snail mail!) from The Netherlands. He wrote, in broken English,

“I have heard about the teachings of Rev. John Burton… I desire to receive more information… I desire to come in contact with them who walks in the way that Rev. John Burton have teach. I don’t have email possibility. Thank you very much in advance.”

Amazing! No internet, no email yet God use him to send a confirmation from the other side of the world!

Then, later that day, I received a message from someone in Australia asking how they can participate.

That’s rapid, and that’s international!

The Revival Church staff is leading the charge in the development of theLab staff, and others have already come on board with us. It’s still very much in development, but here’s some of what’s being prayed and thought through:

THE VISION

The vision is really what it has been since we’ve arrived in Detroit. To gather together burning revivalists, intercessors and prophetic messengers who will carry the fire of the Holy Spirit to Detroit and the cities of the Earth.

We are very aggressively calling together 1000 intercessors to gather every Friday night in prayer, and theLab staff will be leading them.

Additionally, theLab will be developing a monthly large scale event where we’ll bring in anointed men and women of God to infuse life into this region.

THE REQUIREMENTS

In order to join theLab staff, there is a mandatory level of participation (you basically have to be extremely available and ensure theLab is your primary ministry focus several times a week).

  • Arrive by 9:45pm every Friday night for theLab prayer event and be ready to impart into the church leaders and others through prayer and the transfer of our key values of intercession, prophecy, intimacy and deliverance.
  • Attend every noon prayer meeting. The only excusable absence is for those who have to work during the noon hour. Those that have a job MUST still attend at least one noon prayer event. The noon prayer meetings are critical as we debrief, listen to God for further strategy and pray together.
  • Attend Revival Church’s evening service (when we move to Sunday mornings, people who are on theLab staff who attend other churches will attend their own morning church service, but they will be required to attend the Revival Church evening service(s)). This service is the primary briefing for the week and it’s a time of deep prayer, corporate worship and impartation.
  • Attend weekly training sessions. This has yet to be developed, but we plan on developing a ‘school of the Holy Spirit’ where we will train people in the core values of theLab so they can, in turn, impart them into others.
  • Travel locally together when I’m ministering in another church or when theLab is serving in a particular function. The team will join with me as instruments of fire as we infuse churches and conferences. An example is the upcoming Fire in February conference where theLab has been asked to provide the intercession coverage for each of the event’s services. (be sure to register at www.awakeningnet.us)
  • Traveling with me outside of the region (more than 2 hours away) will be optional, but is still encouraged.
  • Participating in other ministries is allowed, but theLab must be your primary commitment. If there is a conflict between ministry schedules, it’s required that you fulfill your commitment to theLab.
  • You will have the opportunity to serve in a variety of ministry functions at theLab. Administrators, teachers, singers, worshipers and others will be needed to run the ministry.

Keep in mind as you evaluate whether you can participate or not—these are minimum requirements, and are not optional.

THE PLAN

  • We’re in the development stage right now, and we need as many people to jump on board during the pre-launch as possible. You will help pioneer and form this new ministry of revival!
  • We are considering 4 or 6 month semesters/trimesters.
  • The pre-launch starts immediately. Simply show up at the next prayer meeting and/or send me an email at [email protected].
  • We’ll be training in the prophetic, intimacy, intercession, reformation in the church and other key focuses.
  • theLab staff will be giving leadership to the 1000 intercessors who will be giving leadership to the entire region.
  • This is open to anybody who is a deeply committed Christian, and who will be honorable in their commitment to the team and the mission at theLab.
  • For those moving from other states or nations, you will be fully responsible to secure housing, transportation and the necessary finances to live in Detroit.
  • **SPECIAL: those who join us in pre-launch any time in February will be exempt from any tuition that we may implement at launch time—for life! (this does not include costs for conferences, materials, etc.)

Contact me at [email protected] for more info or to apply!