Posts by John Burton
No more division or offense…ever. A powerful teaching now ready for you.
Offense leads to imprisoned people and hatred…and it must end!
Offense immediately divides you from the ones you are supposed to be serving.
Listen to my number one most requested message, Becoming Unoffendable here: http://media.johnburton.net/3194395
Offense has very serious eternal implications attached to it. In 1000 years everyone of us will be somewhere…based on what we do right now…and if we are offended, we are at great risk of falling away.
Also, another key message, The Tone of the Groan is a MUST hear! Listen to it here: http://media.johnburton.net/2232968
Check out this testimony I received today:
Hi John,
I listened to your cd “The tone of the Groan” and all I can say is OMG!!!! I have NEVER heard a sermon preached so powerfully especially about the groan! Nobody talks about that!!! You so have to come here and preach that!!!! The CD rocked me! Blessed me!!! It was soooooooooooo good!!!!!
After hearing your CD – well first I was mad because I stopped the groan, I stopped the Holy Spirit. Then I repented for being embarrassed, for grieving the Holy Spirit and for denying the preciousness and power of the groan. And now I am thrilled!!!! I was born to groan!!!!!!!! I’m so happy I heard your CD – you have no idea!!!!! Oh I wish you were my Pastor!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you thank you thank you!!!!! What a blessing you are!!!! I’m so glad God crossed our paths!!! You have no idea!!!!!
Here’s my personal, raw notes from Becoming Unoffendable if you’d like to follow along!
Becoming Unoffendable
I. The greater the mission, the greater the opportunity for offense.
a. PS 119:165- Great peace have they which love your law: and nothing shall offend them.
b. The call to the Christian life is a call to challenge and great cost.
i. As the end draws nearer, we will have to become more broken and surrendered.
c. Jesus warns that, as we near the end of the age, a majority of people will be offended to such a degree that they fall away from the faith.
i. “Then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another . . . and because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold” (Matthew 24:10-12 KJV)
ii. Francis Frangipane- Paul told Timothy to “reprove, rebuke, exhort” (see 2 Tim 4:2). He didn't say, “exhort, exhort, exhort,” but exhortation is what we receive in most churches. Certainly, we need to be encouraged, but there are also times, beloved, when we need to be reproved and rebuked. Today, there are preachers who are afraid to preach truth for fear people will react and leave the church. The end result is a church of easily offended people who cannot grow beyond their inability to accept correction.
People don't change by exhortation alone. There are areas in all of us that need to be confronted and disciplined. The pastor who refuses to discipline and correct those in sin is in disobedience to God. He is unable to lead people into any truly transforming changes in their lives; they will not “endure to the end” if they cannot be corrected (see Matt 24).
iii. If your emotional health is dependant on you being right and others acknowledging that, you will not last. You will not endure. You are at great risk of falling away!!! Please understand this!!
1. It’s so important that we endure! We cannot be offended! We cannot abdicate our responsibilities and leave our missions due to offense!
2. As the mission intensifies, you will have every opportunity to be offended.
a. You may not be acknowledged the way you think you should be.
b. You may feel rejected as you are challenged to grow beyond where you currently are.
c. The call to participate at a high level may offend.
d. You may have expectations go unmet.
e. And on and on.
d. Ezekiel 36:26-28 (NKJV) 36:26 “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. 28 “Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.
i. Offense leads to division. We see that everywhere—between people, in the church, small groups, etc.
ii. However, this scripture reveals to us that there aren’t to be multiple, divided groups—there are only two distinctions: God and his people. We shall be God’s people and he will be our God.
1. This means we are all called to unify, to be agreed and to be the body
2. For this to happen, we must go low, serve others and not ourselves
iii. God desires to put a new heart and a new spirit in us.
1. He desires no division among his people.
2. To make God's dream come true, many things must happen in us.
a. One of those things is that we must allow God to remove our hard heart and make it impossible for us to ever be offended.
i. Why is this important?
b. Proverbs 18:19-21 (NKJV) 19 A brother offended is harder to win than a strong city, And contentions are like the bars of a castle. 20 A man's stomach shall be satisfied from the fruit of his mouth, From the produce of his lips he shall be filled. 21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.
3. Wow… offense is a death sentence! It imprisons us! It consumes us, we speak it out, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy.
- Jesus understood the power of offence, and he went out of his way to ensure others weren’t ensnared by the prison of offense.
- Matthew 17:24-27 (NKJV) 24 When they had come to Capernaum, those who received the temple tax came to Peter and said, “Does your Teacher not pay the temple tax?” 25 He said, “Yes.” And when he had come into the house, Jesus anticipated him, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes, from their sons or from strangers?” 26 Peter said to Him, “From strangers.” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free. 27 Nevertheless, lest we offend them, go to the sea, cast in a hook, and take the fish that comes up first. And when you have opened its mouth, you will find a piece of money; take that and give it to them for Me and you.”
- It's not a matter of right vs. wrong, but rather on serving.
- 1 Corinthians 10:32-33 (NKJV) 32 Give no offense, either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God, 33 just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.
- Look at the extent that we are called to go to ensure we do not offend others!
- 2 Corinthians 6:2-10 (NKJV) 2 For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 3 We give no offense in anything, that our ministry may not be blamed. 4 But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses, 5 in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in fastings; 6 by purity, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love, 7 by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, 8 by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; 9 as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and yet not killed; 10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.
- This tracks back all the way to the Garden of Eden.
- Offended: to feel vexation or resentment usually by violation of what is proper
- There are two trees by which we can live.
- The tree of knowledge of good and evil.
- The tree of life.
- The tree of knowledge of good and evil just pumps out the fruit of offense.
- I'm right, you're wrong
- You hurt me
- You made a bad decision
- You don't care about me
- The reason ‘Christians’ so often look defeated, angry, bitter, hopeless and desperate is because they looked to these rules and regulations as their bridge to God and they have left them dusty and dry.
- The difference between Christians and the World is not the ability to keep rules or even the different believes but it is that we have found life and they have not yet found life.
- Formulas will never set us free. We hear people say all the time that ‘I’m a good person’.
- The reality is that Christians that live in the TKGE have the exact same attitude!
- In this world of blinded eyes, dull ears and hardened hearts, the life of God isn’t imparted according to formulas, but rather by dynamic, life-giving relationships.
- A person living in the tree of life loves and serves in the spirit of Truth (Jesus) while those living in the tree of knowledge of good and evil are fueled by facts.
- Genesis 3:1-7 (NKJV) 1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.' ” 4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.
- Interestingly, Satan appealed to Eve's desire for godliness… but, while it resulted in knowledge it was void of life. A form of godliness but void of power.
- Their recognition of their own nakedness was correct, but it was different than the revelation that God wanted for them.
- He wanted them to be childlike, but now they didn't have that capacity
- Kids are dependant, innocent, needy, vulnerable, fragile.
- Those that leave that become self-sufficient (fig leaves), not innocent (no payment for their sin), protective, defensive, proud, puffed up.
- When they ate of the tree, they became servants to it.
- Genesis 3:22-24 (NKJV) 22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”– 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
- Genesis 3:17-19 (NKJV) 17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it': “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. 18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. 19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.”
18. The tree of life that grew out of the same ground that God created Adam from was there to feed them… now, the tables were turned… they were now assigned to serve the ground, to till it. Their knowledge of good and evil resulted in slavery.
xix. Many live in the TKGE their entire lives. Many Christians.
xx. John 5:39- “You diligently study the scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me yet you refuse to come to me to have life.”
xxi. Remember, we should seek Truth ahead of facts!
xxii. If we live in the TKGE we tend to always blame! Parents, pastors, politicians, our boss, the way we were raised, etc.
xxiii. The TKGE always makes us point at somebody and say “I can’t, because they didn’t”, but the TOL says “I can, no matter what they do.”
xxiv. Jesus said the truth must be written on our hearts, not just our brains!
1. John 8:30-36 (NKJV) 30 As He spoke these words, many believed in Him. 31 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” 33 They answered Him, “We are Abraham's descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can you say, ‘You will be made free'?” 34 Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. 35 And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. 36 Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.
2. Proverbs 3:3-4 (NKJV) 3 Let not mercy and truth forsake you; Bind them around your neck, Write them on the tablet of your heart, 4 And so find favor and high esteem In the sight of God and man.
a. Facts have the power to divide, but truth delivered in love, with mercy, as they are written on your own heart, will result in favor with man! It's a powerful contrast!
b. We cannot elevate our opinions above the opinions of others.
c. Remember God's dream is for there to only be two involved parties- God and his people. We are knit together in love!
Philippians 2:1-4 (NIV)
2:1 If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Like-mindedness requires submission!
. Whenever two disagree, the result must be agreement!
i. The tree of knowledge of good and evil just grows and grows as we attempt to figure out right vs. wrong!
ii. We must learn to die to our opinions!
This tree is absolutely deadly.
Matthew 24:9-13 (KJV)
24:9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. 10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. 11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. 12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. 13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
That verse reveals three things that will happen if we allow ourselves to become offended:
. Betrayal, hatred and cold love.
i. This is the enemy at work to divide and conquer!
ii. We must see this!
iii. Gossip is actually revenge and hatred!
iv. For someone who is offended, betrayal, hatred and cold love all go hand in hand.
v. The last verse told us to endure. If we are to endure we have no choice but to deal with every issue that has an opportunity to cause us offense.
vi. We don't have the option to be offended, to withdraw.
vii. Between now and the time we die we will have huge opportunities to be offended.
viii. It will imprison us!
Proverbs 18:19 (NKJV)
18:19 A brother offended is harder to win than a strong city, And contentions are like the bars of a castle.
vii. We have seen this happen- people that are offended become defensive, lose their freedom, lose their love, retreat, leave churches, etc. The enemy wins day after day as he places the spirit of offense in people's hearts.
viii. We can't underestimate the power of the enemy on this one.
9. As Christians who are fighting against the enemy, we must never embrace the enemy!
. If we do, surrender the tree of life for the tree of knowledge of good and evil- and die.
a. We'll find ourselves unable to connect with God.
b. We won't be able to forgive.
c. We'll do everything we can to prove our point.
d. Gossip will be what makes us feel good about ourselves!
Jude 1:16 (NIV)
1:16 These men are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.
j. God hates gossip, complaining.
Proverbs 6:16-19 (NIV)
6:16 There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: 17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, 18 a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, 19 a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.
xi. The tree of life is very different!
0. When people negatively affect our lives, we heap blessings upon them!
a. We smile a lot!
b. We encourage them!
c. We allow ourselves to be refined and even corrected through them!
d. Joan Harmon- never stopped smiling!
e. Others refuse to smile until they finally have nothing to complain about.
Philippians 2:14-16 (NKJV)
2:14 Do all things without complaining and disputing, 15 that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.
12. To live in the tree of knowledge of good and evil results in complaining, which God says is a sin.
13. However, if we hold fast to the word of life there is rejoicing!
n. Repentance is wonderful as it causes us to immediately start feeding off of the tree of life.
. Francis Frangipane- An offense can strike at our virtues or sins, our values or our pride. It can penetrate and wound any dimension of the soul, both good and evil. I once brought a series of messages about gossip. Most people saw their sin and repented, but a core group of gossips were greatly offended and ultimately left the church. When the Holy Spirit exposes sin in someone's soul, if they refuse God's transforming grace, they often become offended at the person who brought the teaching. We need to become a people who say, “Lord, show us what needs to change in me.” I'm talking about growing up. A wise man will receive a rebuke and he will prosper. But a fool despises rebuke. (see Prov 17:10)
Opportunities for Offense
. When we're not recognized for our good works and ministry.
Philippians 2:3 (NIV)
2:3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.
i. I understand the wonder associated with being fulfilled in ministry, but we must be very careful!
ii. Ministry literally means- to serve.
iii. It's not a stepping stone to greater ministry, to recognition, to public accolades.
0. There are people who are on public platforms simply to stroke their own ego when in reality God is calling them to serve behind the scenes.
1. Paul often starts his letters with, Paul a servant of God.
Hebrews 13:17 (NKJV)
13:17 Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.
d. False expectations
. This is when we expect people to fulfill our lives rather than God.
0. We look to man to validate us, encourage us, love us and speak well of us.
1. When this doesn't happen, when we look to people to do what they really aren't designed to do, our false expectations lead to offense.
2. People will always fall short!
3. People can't meet our every need!
4. They won't meet needs that maybe we think they should!
5. This is why marriages can be so rough.
6. This is why church relationships can be difficult.
7. We want people to jump through our hoops! Stop it!!
8. When God becomes 100% of our provider and rewarder, what people do really doesn't matter that much anymore.
9. Francis Frangipane-
the very power of our expectations can choke out the sweetness
>of a personal relationship. Suppose that, instead of burdening people
>with our expectations, we simply learned to appreciate them for
>themselves – no strings attached. The fact is, our loved ones are not
>under any obligation to fulfill our expectations. If they do fulfill
>them, it is their free choice, not our demands, that makes for a loving relationship.
5. Train yourself- don't ever tip a waitress based on service, but rather out of love.
6. Jesus said the greatest among us would be the servant of all.
. We serve the waitress, those we hire to fix our plumbing, people under us at work, our spouse, and on and on.
7. God's offense
. Before God will elevate someone, he will often give them an opportunity to be offended.
0. Our pride and false expectations must die.
1. The Holy Spirit moves most freely when we lose our dignity!
2. God will rebuke and challenge and put people in unfair situations to see how they will respond.
3. Dreams must die, we must lower ourselves.
Matthew 15:25-28 (NIV)
15:25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said. 26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs.” 27 “Yes, Lord,” she said, “but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table.” 28 Then Jesus answered, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.
8. He called her a dog! He was testing her pride and she responded in humility.
2 Kings 5:1-12 (NIV)
5:1 Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the LORD had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy. 2 Now bands from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman's wife. 3 She said to her mistress, “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” 4 Naaman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said. 5 “By all means, go,” the king of Aram replied. “I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten sets of clothing. 6 The letter that he took to the king of Israel read: “With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you so that you may cure him of his leprosy.” 7 As soon as the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his robes and said, “Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life? Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy? See how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me!” 8 When Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his robes, he sent him this message: “Why have you torn your robes? Have the man come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.” 9 So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha's house. 10 Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.” 11 But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. 12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than any of the waters of Israel? Couldn't I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage.
ix. God will give us opportunity after opportunity to become offended.
0. We must stop saying, “I thought”.
1. Naaman's own expectations did him in!
2. Lean not on our own understanding.
3. Live in the tree of live.
4. Bless those who curse you.
5. Love and serve and talk well about your enemies.
6. Turn the other cheek and allow someone to hurt you again.
7. Become a servant to all.
Audio: A major prophetic word for the church and fervent prayer for Ellen DeGeneres
Last night I delivered what I consider one of the most important prophetic messages of the hour. It ended with wild intercession for Ellen DeGeneres.
Here it is. Last night was one of the most critical in the life of Revival Church, and I believe the message I delivered was a key message for every single church in the nation.
You can listen to a very clear, biblical and powerful call to repentance here: http://media.johnburton.net/2710877
I believe there is a mighty wave of deliverance and undeniable love that is scheduled for the homosexual community. As the church responds to the call to repentance, we will have the honor of participating in this great revival!
And you can follow along with the notes here:
Almost Homosexual
I. Come Full
a. One of the traps of being involved with a ministry based on prayer is that we can unwittingly use the ministry for our own personal edification.
i. We can minimize our own life of prayer in the hopes that the activity at church will make up for it.
ii. It won’t.
1. We must become well accustomed to praying fervently, alone.
2. Romans 12:11-12 (ESV) 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
a. Fervent: hot, boiling
3. Romans 15:30 (ESV) 30 I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf,
a. Fervent, urgent
4. James 5:16 (KJV) 16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
a. Fervent: To be active, to be mighty in, to work
iii. E.M. Bounds: Our Lord warns us against feeble praying. “Men ought always to pray,” He declares, “and not to faint.”
iv. E.M. Bounds: The atmosphere about us is too heavily charged with resisting forces for limp or languid prayers to make headway. It takes heat, and fervency and meteoric fire, to push through, to the upper heavens, where God dwells with His saints, in light.
v. E.M. Bounds: While fervency is not prayer, yet it derives from an earnest soul, and is precious in the sight of God. Fervency in prayer is the precursor of what God will do by way of answer. God stands pledged to give us the desire of our hearts in proportion to the fervency of spirit we exhibit, when seeking His face in prayer.
b. When we lose this intimate and active encounter with God, we unwittingly embrace spirits that are out for our destruction.
II. Almost homosexual: A crisis in the church
a. I had a dream. Email to Ellen:
i. Here's a strange story for ya! I'm a pastor & author, and I had a dream about you last night. It was crazy long and detailed and the first two part dream I've had (I got up to go to the bathroom in the middle and the dream continued after I went back to sleep). You aren't someone I think about often at all (sorry!), so I have a feeling God may have dropped that dream on me. It started with you at the Academy Awards (or something similar) and you called me on stage from the audience. I was overwhelmed with grief and whispered to you, “Please forgive me for judging you.” Later, you went on to share with me from your heart about some pain and you talked about your mom. Later on I met your mom and your brother at their home. (I didn't realize you had a brother until I googled it just a moment ago.) There were other pieces to the dream, but I thought I'd leave it at that for now. A little about me; I may appear to fit the stereotype as I do believe any lifestyle that embraces activities that God, in his wisdom, deems unhealthy must be avoided. Homosexuality included. However, what's also included is pride, which the Christian church is often steeped in. So is selfish ambition and having cold love. All deadly, all have hit the church at large. Again, please forgive me. After the dream I decided to preach tonight on a crazy controversial message calling the church to repentance titled, “Almost Homosexual: The Church in Crisis.” God likes you, he loves you. Me too.
b. From Kathy Mack: Matt 23:12Whoever exalts himself with haughtiness and empty pride] shall be humbled (brought low), and whoever humbles himself [whoever has a modest opinion of himself and behaves accordingly] shall be raised to honor.13 But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites)! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces; for you neither enter yourselves, nor do you allow those who are about to go in to do so.14 [Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites)! For you swallow up widows’ houses and for a pretense to cover it up make long prayers; therefore you will receive the greater condemnation and the heavier sentence.15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites)! For you travel over sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes one [a proselyte], you make him doubly as much a child of hell (Gehenna) as you are.
c. As I begin this urgent and troubling prophetic message, I must do my best to make several points extremely clear.
i. God is passionately jealous and zealous for his beautiful bride, the church. His emotions are extreme and deep as he yearns for love fueled intimacy with those he laid down his life for. His affection cannot be described by even the most romantic or poetic language.
ii. When I mention the church in this message, I am referring to the global body of Christ. The global bride of Christ. I’m fully aware and thankful that there are many local expressions of the church that are radically surrendered and given to the lover of their souls—Jesus Christ.
iii. The primary points I will expound on have little to do with sexuality, or sexual sin. You will have to intentionally keep this in mind so as to ensure you understand the issues when I deal with the spirits behind homosexuality and how these spirits are being embraced in the church (again, the global church; or, the church in general).
III. Massive Repentance
a. There is a MASSIVE movement on the earth that’s impacting millions of Christians… it’s being fueled by the message that we don’t have to repent, we should not let God reveal our sin to us.
i. It’s clearly unbiblical.
b. Jer 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? 10 I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.
i. This is a powerful verse, and the more time we spend on our face in the presence of God, the more we realize how true it is.
ii. If we don’t allow God to search our hearts and test our minds, we are doomed! We will be dealt with according to what’s in there… so, we must find it and repent!
1. Before we can go any further on this topic of homosexuality in the church, we have to all agree on the above point that is found in Jeremiah 17: Our hearts are both deceitful and wicked.
a. What does this mean? Very simply, it’s possible and common for impure motives to be rooted deeply in us even though we may be devoted followers of Christ.
2. The more time I spend in prayer the easier it is for the Lord to dig deep and bring to the surface issues that wouldn’t normally be evident.
a. My heart has harbored pride at times though at the surface I felt meek.
b. Other times I’ve verbally forgiven people, but then the Holy Spirit revealed to me a deeper reality—that I hadn’t truly done so.
3. This is why we must not only be OK with messages like this one, but we have to eagerly invite God to shine his burning light into every part of our lives.
4. Is 6:5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
5. When God is in our midst, a revelation of our own sin and issues are made known.
a. A key problem today is that God’s manifest presence isn’t with us as He should be! Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy. He is the Revelation. He is the Word. Where God is, revelation is. You can’t separate the two.
6. As God, in his burning love for us, reveals our hearts to us, we will find ourselves falling to our knees.
7. God is calling the church to massive repentance.
IV. The Word: Almost Homosexual?
a. God has suddenly revisited me with a prophetic word that shocked me and those I shared it with a few years ago—and he’s added to the revelation.
i. I’ve considered the trouble it may bring.
ii. I’ve also considered God’s thoughts about the matter and I’ve chosen to trust his wisdom that this will free many more people than it will disturb.
1. God’s word and his wisdom must return to the pulpits again.
2. “If Jesus had preached the same message that ministers preach today, He would never have been crucified.” — Leonard Ravenhill
b. As I was on the airplane flying into Colorado a few years ago, the Lord surprised me with a strong and striking word for the church. I was shaking.
c. The church is almost homosexual.
i. This is a word that I’m confident is tearing at the heart of God… he’s watching his bride become bewitched.
ii. Question—Is it possible that we in the church are embracing the same spirits that fuel the homosexual agenda?
d. As I was watching the mountains of Colorado draw closer during the final approach to the airport that day, the Lord revealed three drivers of the homosexual agenda:
i. Pride
ii. Identity
iii. Lust
e. Understand—the driver of the homosexual agenda is not same-sex attraction, but rather there are strong deceiving spirits of pride, self-promotion and identity, and lust.
i. I was on a train where two homosexual girls were very visibly hanging on each other, making it very clear that they were together. Their actions were not a result of raging hormones, but rather, they were making a bold declaration, a prideful pronouncement of their chosen identity as lesbians.
ii. They wanted to force affirmation, be noticed and demand acceptance and equality.
1. This same spirit is in the church!
iii. “All of the acceptable sins in church are keeping us sick.”-Steve Gray
iv. “Be careful about what you think is innocent. It may come back and choke you.”- Steve Gray
f. The church has been bewitched by the same spirits that give fuel to the homosexual agenda—and this is a primary reason we have not had success in winning homosexuals to Jesus. We can’t cast out the same demonic spirits we embrace.
g. This is the prime reason we are accused of being hypocritical: Homosexuals are picking up on the reality that the church is fueled by pride, identity and lust just like they are… but they aren’t afraid to admit it!
V. Driver #1: Pride
a. We’ve all heard of gay pride. Pride is a hallmark of the homosexual movement, and, all too often, it’s a driver of the church as well.
b. I hear continually that it’s rare to find a church where the tangible, manifest presence of God can be experienced.
i. I believe, sadly, there are more Ichabod churches than we realize. An Ichabod church is simply a church that is devoid of God’s glory. The ark of God’s presence has been captured. It doesn’t mean God hates that church. Quite the opposite—He is grieved that he must be removed from his lover, his bride.
1. 1 Samuel 4:21-22 (ESV) 21 And she named the child Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel!” because the ark of God had been captured and because of her father-in-law and her husband. 22 And she said, “The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured.”
ii. 1 Peter 5:5 (ESV) 5…Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
1. You may not have thought about it this way, but God, though he loves so deeply, actually opposes, or resists, those who are proud. God’s glory departs.
2. We live in a culture where we fight for success, we jockey for position and we can’t imagine being hidden or failing. Compromise has consumed the church as it seeks success, a larger building, more people, more influence, more money and other demands. Pride has resulted in worship of images made of gold where humility demands the gold is given as worship to God. Pride has resulted in worshiping a packed house where humility calls for laying down our lives for even one.
3. We wonder why the church isn’t having more success in the culture.
c. I believe a key reason is that we are attempting to attack worldly pride with religious pride.
i. We are actually retaining the services of the very same demons that we are attempting to battle! A spirit of pride! God resists the proud!
ii. Is it possible that we are attempting to change culture from a position of religious pride all while God is not standing with us?
iii. When humility reigns, the church will have the grace that God promises in 1 Peter 5.
VI. Driver #2: Identity
a. This point is the most burning issue in my spirit right now.
b. I am fully given to seeing people step into their destinies, discover their true identity in Christ and finding freedom from lies and emotional scars that the enemy has given them. It’s a significant focus of my own ministry.
i. However, we have a growing problem.
1. Focus is on self more often that it is on God.
2. Focus is on living more than it is on dying daily.
3. Our goal as humans cannot be to seek and demand our own happiness, but rather to fulfill God's glorious desires.
c. 1 Corinthians 4:10-13 (ESV) 10 We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. 11 To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, 12 and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; 13 when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.
d. Please understand, I believe we are seated in Heavenly places with Christ Jesus.
i. We are kings and priests. We have great authority. We have overcome. We are the head and not the tail, above and not beneath.
ii. But, our identities, when rightfully understood, don’t lead us to focusing mostly on personal benefit.
1. When we embrace the cross of Christ, which is where our identities originate, we are now focused on going low, humbling ourselves, serving with passion and identifying with the scum of the world—so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.
iii. A focus on our own benefits, our own healings, our own identities as it relates to personal gain has actually resulted in us aligning with a key spirit that drives the homosexual movement.
iv. God loves homosexuals and the church too deeply to affirm a false identity—no matter how desirable and convincing that identity may be! God’s wisdom is much higher than ours, and it takes humility to admit that.
1. This is a huge, huge point!
2. When we fight for a false identity that feels so overwhelmingly a part of us, and when our focus is on acceptance, affirmation and human rights, we give up the call to die to our own desires. Suddenly securing our own identity is more important than serving the masses.
a. The discovery of our true identity starts with crucifixion not affirmation.
3. The goal is not to be affirmed, accepted, liked or honored. We aren’t to look for equality. We don’t compare ourselves with others. We can’t make demands when life is unfair. The church is to die so that others may life. Our identity is to be fully and entirely in Christ.
4. An improper attention given to the pursuit of identity (acceptance, affirmation, etc.) causes us to forsake the call to focus on our mission for the sake of devotion to narcissism.
a. This is where the temptation to disobey God and submit to the demands of man can happen.
5. “For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.” James 3:16
VII. Driver #3: Lust
a. Lust is oozing through the church today. Yes, it’s true that sexual lust is rampant as pornography has been viewed by as many as 50% of Christian men recently.
i. However, lust is not limited to the sexual variety.
ii. Simply ask the question, “What causes you to get excited, to come alive?”
iii. Many honest Christians would admit that everything from money to fame to popularity to sex could be the answers.
iv. James 1:14-15 (ESV) 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
b. Lust results in death. It really is that simple. The life is sucked right out of people. Suicide is on the rise. Eternal death is another threat as well.
i. This is a tragic reality in the church today—we’ve lost our first love! False intimacy in the form of lust has take the place of a deep, satisfying, truly intimate and never ending encounter with Jesus! He yearns for us while his beautiful bride is yearning for other lovers!
ii. The church has lost its desire for intimacy with Jesus. Many Christians don’t even know what it is to be overwhelmed by his deep, burning love. Jesus is more of a principle or a foreign character in a book than he is a real, tangible, literal person you can feel.
c. This lack of revelation and encounter in a very intimate, life giving way with Jesus has resulted in one more comparison with the homosexual movement:
i. The bride is becoming intimate with the bride.
ii. What does that mean?
iii. We have become more interested in reproducing after our own kind than in receiving a fresh impartation directly from God himself. How does this play out? Several ways:
1. We become enthralled with a certain stream in the body (Word of Faith, house of prayer, etc.) and want to have a relationship with that stream hoping that it produces life.
2. We turn to other people in the church instead of to God through prayer and study of the Word in the hopes that the union can result in the outcome we are looking for.
3. We are move connected socially to people than we are spiritually to God.
4. We believe our church growth comes through people, so we comprise the mission, cancel prayer, water down the message and get intimate with the body!
iv. An intimate union with God will result in a fresh stream birthing through your ministry!
v. A deep encounter with Jesus will bring the results that a million human counselors never could!
vi. “You can have all of your doctrines right—yet still not have the presence of God.”Leonard Ravenhill
VIII. The Solution
a. Intimacy. Repentance. Falling in love with Jesus. Humility.
i. “A sinning man stops praying, a praying man stops sinning” — Leonard Ravenhill
ii. Yes, fervent, zealous prayer must return to our churches again!
iii. 2 Chronicles 7:14-16 (NKJV) 14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 15 Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. 16 For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.
b. We cannot anymore develop systems that enhance our own identities, stroke our pride or fuel our lust for power, recognition or anything else.
i. It’s time again to declare the cross, holiness, humility and passion from our pulpits and on our faces!
ii. The core call is for a movement of humility and holiness.
iii. It’s a call to become broken and undone, desperate and deeply intimate with Jesus.
iv. It’s a call to a fasted lifestyle, to full surrender and complete saturation in the advance of the Kingdom.
v. It’s a call to the deeply humble, yet powerfully bold life of John the Baptist.
c. Are we ready to let the Lover of our souls invade the deepest parts of our inner man? He is wooing his glorious bride back to him…will we respond?
d. Song of Songs 1:4 (ESV) 4 Draw me after you; let us run. The king has brought me into his chambers.
I repented to Ellen DeGeneres in a dream: Message change tonight at Revival Church
Money Magic will be taught soon… but, after a very emotional dream last night I will be preaching tonight on Almost Homosexual: A Crisis in the Church
After I woke up from my dream, I read my verse of the day… here it is:
Colossians 4:5 Be wise when you engage with those outside the faith community; make the most of every moment and every encounter.
I felt God had a message of love for Ellen that I should try to get to her.
I feel such an overwhelming anointing even now… and I’m sure some extreme and very real freedom will land at Revival Church tonight.
I decided to email Ellen. I have no idea if she will ever get it, but I pray she does.
Here’s what I sent to Ellen DeGeneres:
Here's a strange story for ya! I'm a pastor & author, and I had a dream about you last night. It was crazy long and detailed and the first two part dream I've had (I got up to go to the bathroom in the middle and the dream continued after I went back to sleep).
You aren't someone I think about often at all (sorry!), so I have a feeling God may have dropped that dream on me. It started with you at the Academy Awards (or something similar) and you called me on stage from the audience. I was overwhelmed with grief and whispered to you, “Please forgive me for judging you.”
Later, you went on to share with me from your heart about some pain and you talked about your mom. Later on I met your mom and your brother at their home. (I didn't realize you had a brother until I googled it just a moment ago.)
There were other pieces to the dream, but I thought I'd leave it at that for now.
A little about me; I may appear to fit the stereotype as I do believe any lifestyle that embraces activities that God, in his wisdom, deems unhealthy must be avoided. Homosexuality included. However, what's also included is pride, which the Christian church is often steeped in. So is selfish ambition and having cold love. All deadly, all have hit the church at large. Again, please forgive me.
After the dream I decided to preach tonight on a crazy controversial message calling the church to repentance titled, “Almost Homosexual: The Church in Crisis.”
God likes you, he loves you. Me too.
See you all tonight at Revival Church. 6pm. Prayer at 5pm. Get ready for a shocking, rocking night!
New Revival Network & New audio teaching: Almost Homosexual
Listen to a very interesting and important teaching about a church in crisis: Almost Homosexual
First, I thought I’d give you a sneak peek into a new ministry venture: Revival Tribe.
My heart is provoked to see 50+ churches launched in the Detroit region, and many others around the world. I am currently praying about what this looks like. Pray with me as God reveals his heart for revival style churches launching all around!
Visit the site here: www.revivaltribe.com
You can listen to the audio Almost Homosexual: Church in Crisis here: media.johnburton.net/2661671
You can follow along with my notes as you listen if you’d prefer. I taught this last night to my staff.
theLab Staff 072612 Almost Homosexual
I. Come Full
a. One of the traps of being involved with a ministry based on prayer is that we can unwittingly use the ministry for our own personal edification.
i. We can minimize our own life of prayer in the hopes that the activity at church will make up for it.
ii. It won’t.
1. We must become well accustomed to praying fervently, alone.
2. Romans 12:11-12 (ESV) 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
a. Fervent: hot, boiling
3. Romans 15:30 (ESV) 30 I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf,
a. Fervent, urgent
4. James 5:16 (KJV) 16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
a. Fervent: To be active, to be mighty in, to work
iii. E.M. Bounds: Our Lord warns us against feeble praying. "Men ought always to pray," He declares, "and not to faint."
iv. E.M. Bounds: The atmosphere about us is too heavily charged with resisting forces for limp or languid prayers to make headway. It takes heat, and fervency and meteoric fire, to push through, to the upper heavens, where God dwells with His saints, in light.
v. E.M. Bounds: While fervency is not prayer, yet it derives from an earnest soul, and is precious in the sight of God. Fervency in prayer is the precursor of what God will do by way of answer. God stands pledged to give us the desire of our hearts in proportion to the fervency of spirit we exhibit, when seeking His face in prayer.
b. When we lose this intimate and active encounter with God, we unwittingly embrace spirits that are out for our destruction.
II. Almost Homosexual
Almost homosexual: A crisis in the church
As I begin this urgent and troubling prophetic message, I must do my best to make several points extremely clear.
- God is passionately jealous and zealous for his beautiful bride, the church. His emotions are extreme and deep as he yearns for love fueled intimacy with those he laid down his life for. His affection cannot be described by even the most romantic or poetic language.
- When I mention the church in this message, I am referring to the global body of Christ. The global bride of Christ. I’m fully aware and thankful that there are many local expressions of the church that are radically surrendered and given to the lover of their souls—Jesus Christ.
- The primary points I will expound on have little to do with sexuality, or sexual sin. You will have to intentionally keep this in mind so as to ensure you understand the issues when I deal with the spirits behind homosexuality and how these spirits are being embraced in the church (again, the global church; or, the church in general).
Massive Repentance
Jer 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? 10 I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.
This is a powerful verse, and the more time we spend on our face in the presence of God, the more we realize how true it is.
Before we can go any further, we have to all agree on the above point that is found in Jeremiah 17: Our hearts are both deceitful and wicked. What does this mean? Very simply, it’s possible and common for impure motives to be rooted deeply in us even though we may be devoted followers of Christ.
The more time I spend in prayer the easier it is for the Lord to dig deep and bring to the surface issues that wouldn’t normally be evident. My heart has harbored pride at times though at the surface I felt meek. Other times I’ve verbally forgiven people, but then the Holy Spirit revealed to me a deeper reality—that I hadn’t truly done so.
This is why we must not only be OK with messages like this one, but we have to eagerly invite God to shine his burning light into every part of our lives.
Is 6:5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
When God is in our midst, a revelation of our own sin and issues are made known. A key problem today is that God’s manifest presence isn’t with us as He should be! Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy. He is the Revelation. He is the Word. Where God is, revelation is. You can’t separate the two.
As God, in his burning love for us, reveals our hearts to us, we will find ourselves falling to our knees.
God is calling the church to massive repentance.
Almost Homosexual?
God has suddenly revisited me with a prophetic word that shocked me and those I shared it with a few years ago—and he’s added to the revelation.
Trust me, I’ve waited several days before deciding to write this (I usually write prophetic words the moment I receive them). I’ve considered the trouble it may bring. I’ve also considered God’s thoughts about the matter and I’ve chosen to trust his wisdom that this will free many more people than it will disturb. God’s word and his wisdom must return to the pulpits again.
"If Jesus had preached the same message that ministers preach today, He would never have been crucified." — Leonard Ravenhill
Deuteronomy 4:23-24 (ESV) 23 Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the LORD your God has forbidden you. 24 For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
God is jealous of his church—and the spirits that have not only invaded the church, but that have been embraced by the church, have made him jealous indeed.
As I was on the airplane flying into Colorado a few years ago, the Lord surprised me with a strong and striking word for the church. I was shaking.
The church is almost homosexual.
This is a word that I’m confident is tearing at the heart of God… he’s watching his bride become bewitched.
Question—Is it possible that we in the church are close to embracing the same spirits that fuel the homosexual agenda?
As I was watching the mountains of Colorado draw closer during the final approach to the airport that day, the Lord revealed three drivers of the homosexual agenda:
- Pride
- Identity
- Lust
Understand—the driver of the homosexual agenda is not same-sex attraction, but rather there are strong deceiving spirits of pride, self-promotion and identity, and lust.
I was on a train where two homosexual girls were very visibly hanging on each other, making it very clear that they were together. Their actions were not a result of raging hormones, but rather, they were making a bold declaration, a prideful pronouncement of their chosen identity as lesbians.
They wanted to force affirmation, be noticed and demand acceptance and equality.
"All of the acceptable sins in church are keeping us sick."-Steve Gray
"Be careful about what you think is innocent. It may come back and choke you."- Steve Gray
The church has been bewitched by the same spirits that give fuel to the homosexual agenda—and this is a primary reason we have not had success in winning homosexuals to Jesus. We can’t cast out the same demonic spirits we embrace.
Pride
We’ve all heard of gay pride. Pride is a hallmark of the homosexual movement, and, all too often, it’s a driver of the church as well.
I hear continually that it’s rare to find a church where the tangible, manifest presence of God can be experienced. I believe, sadly, there are more Ichabod churches than we realize. An Ichabod church is simply a church that is devoid of God’s glory. The ark of God’s presence has been captured. It doesn’t mean God hates that church. Quite the opposite—He is grieved that he must be removed from his lover, his bride.
1 Samuel 4:21-22 (ESV) 21 And she named the child Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel!” because the ark of God had been captured and because of her father-in-law and her husband. 22 And she said, “The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured.”
1 Peter 5:5 (ESV) 5…Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
You may not have thought about it this way, but God, though he loves so deeply, actually opposes, or resists, those who are proud. God’s glory departs.
We live in a culture where we fight for success, we jockey for position and we can’t imagine being hidden or failing. Compromise has consumed the church as it seeks success, a larger building, more people, more influence, more money and other demands. Pride has resulted in worship of images made of gold where humility demands the gold is given as worship to God. Pride has resulted in worshiping a packed house where humility calls for laying down our lives for even one.
We wonder why the church isn’t having more success in the culture.
I believe a key reason is that we are attempting to attack worldly pride with religious pride. We are actually retaining the services of the very same demons that we are attempting to battle! A spirit of pride! God resists the proud! Is it possible that we are attempting to change culture from a position of religious pride all while God is not standing with us?
When humility reigns, the church will have the grace that God promises in 1 Peter 5.
Identity
This point is the most burning issue in my spirit right now.
I am fully given to seeing people step into their destinies, discover their true identity in Christ and finding freedom from lies and emotional scars that the enemy has given them. It’s a significant focus of my own ministry.
However, we have a growing problem.
- Focus is on self more often that it is on God.
- Focus is on living more than it is on dying daily.
1 Corinthians 4:10-13 (ESV) 10 We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. 11 To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, 12 and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; 13 when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.
Please understand, I believe we are seated in Heavenly places with Christ Jesus. We are kings and priests. We have great authority. We have overcome. We are the head and not the tail, above and not beneath.
But, our identities, when rightfully understood, don’t lead us to focusing mostly on personal benefit. When we embrace the cross of Christ, which is where our identities originate, we are now focused on going low, humbling ourselves, serving with passion and identifying with the scum of the world—so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.
A focus on our own benefits, our own healings, our own identities as it relates to personal gain has actually resulted in us aligning with a key spirit that drives the homosexual movement.
Just as with homosexuals, God loves them and us too deeply to affirm a false identity—no matter how desirable and convincing that identity may be! God’s wisdom is much higher than ours, and it takes humility to admit that.
This is a huge, huge point!
When we fight for a false identity that feels so overwhelmingly a part of us, and when our focus is on acceptance, affirmation and human rights, we give up the call to die to our own desires. Suddenly securing our own identity is more important than serving the masses.
The goal is not to be affirmed, accepted, liked or honored. We aren’t to look for equality. We don’t compare ourselves with others. We can’t make demands when life is unfair. The church is to die so that others may life. Our identity is to be fully and entirely in Christ.
An improper attention given to the pursuit of identity (acceptance, affirmation, etc.) causes us to forsake the call to focus on our mission for the sake of devotion to narcissism. This is where the temptation to disobey God and submit to the demands of man can happen.
"For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice." James 3:16
Lust
Lust is oozing through the church today. Yes, it’s true that sexual lust is rampant as pornography has been viewed by as many as 50% of Christian men recently.
However, lust is not limited to the sexual variety.
Simply ask the question, “What causes you to get excited, to come alive?”
Many honest Christians would admit that everything from money to fame to popularity to sex could be the answers.
James 1:14-15 (ESV) 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
Lust results in death. It really is that simple. The life is sucked right out of people. Suicide is on the rise. Eternal death is another threat as well.
This is a tragic reality in the church today—we’ve lost our first love! False intimacy in the form of lust has take the place of a deep, satisfying, truly intimate and never ending encounter with Jesus! He yearns for us while his beautiful bride is yearning for other lovers!
The church has lost its desire for intimacy with Jesus. Many Christians don’t even know what it is to be overwhelmed by his deep, burning love. Jesus is more of a principle or a foreign character in a book than he is a real, tangible, literal person you can feel.
This lack of revelation and encounter in a very intimate, life giving way with Jesus has resulted in one more comparison with the homosexual movement:
The bride is becoming intimate with the bride.
What does that mean?
We have become more interested in reproducing after our own kind than in receiving a fresh impartation directly from God himself. How does this play out? Several ways:
- We become enthralled with a certain stream in the body (Word of Faith, house of prayer, etc.) and want to have a relationship with that stream hoping that it produces life.
- We turn to other people in the church instead of to God through prayer and study of the Word in the hopes that the union can result in the outcome we are looking for.
- We are move connected socially to people than we are spiritually to God.
- We believe our church growth comes through people, so we comprise the mission, cancel prayer, water down the message and get intimate with the body!
An intimate union with God will result in a fresh stream birthing through your ministry!
A deep encounter with Jesus will bring the results that a million human counselors never could!
“You can have all of your doctrines right—yet still not have the presence of God.”Leonard Ravenhill
The Solution
Intimacy. Repentance. Falling in love with Jesus. Humility.
"A sinning man stops praying, a praying man stops sinning" — Leonard Ravenhill
Yes, fervent, zealous prayer must return to our churches again!
2 Chronicles 7:14-16 (NKJV) 14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 15 Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. 16 For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.
We cannot anymore develop systems that enhance our own identities, stroke our pride or fuel our lust for power, recognition or anything else.
It’s time again to declare the cross, holiness, humility and passion from our pulpits and on our faces!
The core call is for a movement of humility and holiness.
It’s a call to become broken and undone, desperate and deeply intimate with Jesus.
It’s a call to a fasted lifestyle, to full surrender and complete saturation in the advance of the Kingdom.
It’s a call to the deeply humble, yet powerfully bold life of John the Baptist.
Are we ready to let the Lover of our souls invade the deepest parts of our inner man? He is wooing his glorious bride back to him…will we respond?
Song of Songs 1:4 (ESV) 4 Draw me after you; let us run. The king has brought me into his chambers.
III.
Almost homosexual: A crisis in the church
Almost homosexual: A crisis in the church
After I woke up from a significant dream about Ellen DeGeneres, I read my verse of the day… here it is:
Colossians 4:5 Be wise when you engage with those outside the faith community; make the most of every moment and every encounter.
I felt God had a message of love for Ellen that I should try to get to her.
I decided to email Ellen. I have no idea if she will ever get it, but I pray she does.
Here’s what I sent to Ellen DeGeneres:
Here’s a strange story for ya! I’m a pastor & author, and I had a dream about you last night. It was crazy long and detailed and the first two part dream I’ve had (I got up to go to the bathroom in the middle and the dream continued after I went back to sleep).
You aren’t someone I think about often at all (sorry!), so I have a feeling God may have dropped that dream on me. It started with you at the Academy Awards (or something similar) and you called me on stage from the audience. I was overwhelmed with grief and whispered to you, “Please forgive me for judging you.”
Later, you went on to share with me from your heart about some pain and you talked about your mom. Later on I met your mom and your brother at their home. (I didn’t realize you had a brother until I googled it just a moment ago.)
There were other pieces to the dream, but I thought I’d leave it at that for now.
A little about me; I may appear to fit the stereotype as I do believe any lifestyle that embraces activities that God, in his wisdom, deems unhealthy must be avoided. Homosexuality included. However, what’s also included is pride, which the Christian church is often steeped in. So is selfish ambition and having cold love. All deadly, all have hit the church at large. Again, please forgive me.
After the dream I decided to preach tonight on a crazy controversial message calling the church to repentance titled, “Almost Homosexual: The Church in Crisis.”
God likes you, he loves you. Me too.
As I begin this urgent and troubling prophetic message, I must do my best to make several points extremely clear.
- God is passionately jealous and zealous for his beautiful bride, the church. His emotions are extreme and deep as he yearns for love fueled intimacy with those he laid down his life for. His affection cannot be described by even the most romantic or poetic language.
- When I mention the church in this message, I am referring to the global body of Christ. The global bride of Christ. I'm fully aware and thankful that there are many local expressions of the church that are radically surrendered and given to the lover of their souls—Jesus Christ.
- The primary points I will expound on have little to do with sexuality, or sexual sin. You will have to intentionally keep this in mind so as to ensure you understand the issues when I deal with the spirits behind homosexuality and how these spirits are being embraced in the church (again, the global church; or, the church in general).
Massive Repentance
Jer 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? 10 I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.
This is a powerful verse, and the more time we spend on our face in the presence of God, the more we realize how true it is.
Before we can go any further, we have to all agree on the above point that is found in Jeremiah 17: Our hearts are both deceitful and wicked. What does this mean? Very simply, it’s possible and common for impure motives to be rooted deeply in us even though we may be devoted followers of Christ.
The more time I spend in prayer the easier it is for the Lord to dig deep and bring to the surface issues that wouldn’t normally be evident. My heart has harbored pride at times though at the surface I felt meek. Other times I’ve verbally forgiven people, but then the Holy Spirit revealed to me a deeper reality—that I hadn’t truly done so.
This is why we must not only be OK with messages like this one, but we have to eagerly invite God to shine his burning light into every part of our lives.
Is 6:5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
When God is in our midst, a revelation of our own sin and issues are made known. A key problem today is that God’s manifest presence isn’t with us as He should be! Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy. He is the Revelation. He is the Word. Where God is, revelation is. You can’t separate the two.
As God, in his burning love for us, reveals our hearts to us, we will find ourselves falling to our knees.
God is calling the church to massive repentance.
Almost Homosexual?
God has suddenly revisited me with a prophetic word that shocked me and those I shared it with a few years ago—and he’s added to the revelation.
Trust me, I’ve waited several days before deciding to write this (I usually write prophetic words the moment I receive them). I’ve considered the trouble it may bring. I’ve also considered God’s thoughts about the matter and I’ve chosen to trust his wisdom that this will free many more people than it will disturb. God’s word and his wisdom must return to the pulpits again.
“If Jesus had preached the same message that ministers preach today, He would never have been crucified.” — Leonard Ravenhill
Deuteronomy 4:23-24 (ESV) 23 Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the LORD your God has forbidden you. 24 For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
God is jealous of his church—and the spirits that have not only invaded the church, but that have been embraced by the church, have made him jealous indeed.
As I was on the airplane flying into Colorado a few years ago, the Lord surprised me with a strong and striking word for the church. I was shaking.
The church is almost homosexual.
This is a word that I’m confident is tearing at the heart of God… he’s watching his bride become bewitched.
Question—Is it possible that we in the church are close to embracing the same spirits that fuel the homosexual agenda?
As I was watching the mountains of Colorado draw closer during the final approach to the airport that day, the Lord revealed three drivers of the homosexual agenda:
- Pride
- Identity
- Lust
Understand—the driver of the homosexual agenda is not same-sex attraction, but rather there are strong deceiving spirits of pride, self-promotion and identity, and lust.
I was on a train where two homosexual girls were very visibly hanging on each other, making it very clear that they were together. Their actions were not a result of raging hormones, but rather, they were making a bold declaration, a prideful pronouncement of their chosen identity as lesbians.
They wanted to force affirmation, be noticed and demand acceptance and equality.
“All of the acceptable sins in church are keeping us sick.”-Steve Gray
“Be careful about what you think is innocent. It may come back and choke you.”- Steve Gray
The church has been bewitched by the same spirits that give fuel to the homosexual agenda—and this is a primary reason we have not had success in winning homosexuals to Jesus. We can’t cast out the same demonic spirits we embrace.
Pride
We’ve all heard of gay pride. Pride is a hallmark of the homosexual movement, and, all too often, it’s a driver of the church as well.
I hear continually that it’s rare to find a church where the tangible, manifest presence of God can be experienced. I believe, sadly, there are more Ichabod churches than we realize. An Ichabod church is simply a church that is devoid of God’s glory. The ark of God’s presence has been captured. It doesn’t mean God hates that church. Quite the opposite—He is grieved that he must be removed from his lover, his bride.
1 Samuel 4:21-22 (ESV) 21 And she named the child Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel!” because the ark of God had been captured and because of her father-in-law and her husband. 22 And she said, “The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured.”
1 Peter 5:5 (ESV) 5…Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
You may not have thought about it this way, but God, though he loves so deeply, actually opposes, or resists, those who are proud. God’s glory departs.
We live in a culture where we fight for success, we jockey for position and we can’t imagine being hidden or failing. Compromise has consumed the church as it seeks success, a larger building, more people, more influence, more money and other demands. Pride has resulted in worship of images made of gold where humility demands the gold is given as worship to God. Pride has resulted in worshiping a packed house where humility calls for laying down our lives for even one.
We wonder why the church isn’t having more success in the culture.
I believe a key reason is that we are attempting to attack worldly pride with religious pride. We are actually retaining the services of the very same demons that we are attempting to battle! A spirit of pride! God resists the proud! Is it possible that we are attempting to change culture from a position of religious pride all while God is not standing with us?
When humility reigns, the church will have the grace that God promises in 1 Peter 5.
Identity
This point is the most burning issue in my spirit right now.
I am fully given to seeing people step into their destinies, discover their true identity in Christ and finding freedom from lies and emotional scars that the enemy has given them. It’s a significant focus of my own ministry.
However, we have a growing problem.
- Focus is on self more often that it is on God.
- Focus is on living more than it is on dying daily.
1 Corinthians 4:10-13 (ESV) 10 We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. 11 To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, 12 and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; 13 when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.
Please understand, I believe we are seated in Heavenly places with Christ Jesus. We are kings and priests. We have great authority. We have overcome. We are the head and not the tail, above and not beneath.
But, our identities, when rightfully understood, don’t lead us to focusing mostly on personal benefit. When we embrace the cross of Christ, which is where our identities originate, we are now focused on going low, humbling ourselves, serving with passion and identifying with the scum of the world—so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.
A focus on our own benefits, our own healings, our own identities as it relates to personal gain has actually resulted in us aligning with a key spirit that drives the homosexual movement.
Just as with homosexuals, God loves them and us too deeply to affirm a false identity—no matter how desirable and convincing that identity may be! God’s wisdom is much higher than ours, and it takes humility to admit that.
This is a huge, huge point!
When we fight for a false identity that feels so overwhelmingly a part of us, and when our focus is on acceptance, affirmation and human rights, we give up the call to die to our own desires. Suddenly securing our own identity is more important than serving the masses.
The goal is not to be affirmed, accepted, liked or honored. We aren’t to look for equality. We don’t compare ourselves with others. We can’t make demands when life is unfair. The church is to die so that others may life. Our identity is to be fully and entirely in Christ.
An improper attention given to the pursuit of identity (acceptance, affirmation, etc.) causes us to forsake the call to focus on our mission for the sake of devotion to narcissism. This is where the temptation to disobey God and submit to the demands of man can happen.
“For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.” James 3:16
Lust
Lust is oozing through the church today. Yes, it’s true that sexual lust is rampant as pornography has been viewed by as many as 50% of Christian men recently.
However, lust is not limited to the sexual variety.
Simply ask the question, “What causes you to get excited, to come alive?”
Many honest Christians would admit that everything from money to fame to popularity to sex could be the answers.
James 1:14-15 (ESV) 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
Lust results in death. It really is that simple. The life is sucked right out of people. Suicide is on the rise. Eternal death is another threat as well.
This is a tragic reality in the church today—we’ve lost our first love! False intimacy in the form of lust has take the place of a deep, satisfying, truly intimate and never ending encounter with Jesus! He yearns for us while his beautiful bride is yearning for other lovers!
The church has lost its desire for intimacy with Jesus. Many Christians don’t even know what it is to be overwhelmed by his deep, burning love. Jesus is more of a principle or a foreign character in a book than he is a real, tangible, literal person you can feel.
This lack of revelation and encounter in a very intimate, life giving way with Jesus has resulted in one more comparison with the homosexual movement:
The bride is becoming intimate with the bride.
What does that mean?
We have become more interested in reproducing after our own kind than in receiving a fresh impartation directly from God himself. How does this play out? Several ways:
- We become enthralled with a certain stream in the body (Word of Faith, house of prayer, etc.) and want to have a relationship with that stream hoping that it produces life.
- We turn to other people in the church instead of to God through prayer and study of the Word in the hopes that the union can result in the outcome we are looking for.
- We are move connected socially to people than we are spiritually to God.
- We believe our church growth comes through people, so we comprise the mission, cancel prayer, water down the message and get intimate with the body!
An intimate union with God will result in a fresh stream birthing through your ministry!
A deep encounter with Jesus will bring the results that a million human counselors never could!
“You can have all of your doctrines right—yet still not have the presence of God.”Leonard Ravenhill
The Solution
Intimacy. Repentance. Falling in love with Jesus. Humility.
“A sinning man stops praying, a praying man stops sinning” — Leonard Ravenhill
Yes, fervent, zealous prayer must return to our churches again!
2 Chronicles 7:14-16 (NKJV) 14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 15 Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. 16 For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.
We cannot anymore develop systems that enhance our own identities, stroke our pride or fuel our lust for power, recognition or anything else.
It’s time again to declare the cross, holiness, humility and passion from our pulpits and on our faces!
The core call is for a movement of humility and holiness.
It’s a call to become broken and undone, desperate and deeply intimate with Jesus.
It’s a call to a fasted lifestyle, to full surrender and complete saturation in the advance of the Kingdom.
It’s a call to the deeply humble, yet powerfully bold life of John the Baptist.
Are we ready to let the Lover of our souls invade the deepest parts of our inner man? He is wooing his glorious bride back to him…will we respond?
Song of Songs 1:4 (ESV) 4 Draw me after you; let us run. The king has brought me into his chambers.
New Detroit region church! Revival Church North is coming!
Revival Church North is a NEW church plant/satellite church currently in the planning stage!
If you are an adrenaline junky and would like to participate in a NEW CHURCH PLANT, this may be the adventure for you!
Revival Church North is currently in the planning and development stage, and we will launch as a prayer-fueled, brand new, baby church in the coming weeks.
The plan is to plant it the same way we did Revival Church (the mother ship!)… EXCEPT, North will launch on Sunday mornings instead of Sunday evenings.
We are not asking any of our current staff or leaders to participate with the Burton family in this new venture (they are already SUPER invested at Revival Church and I don’t want to add to their plates).
So, though there may be a few that do choose to help in this new mission, it’s fully possible that we’ll start by meeting in a small office or in our home… just Amy, the kids, me and anybody else who may wander in! Yep, it’s back to worship with CD’s, fervent prayer and big vision with a handful of Upper Room style people!
The Burtons will be moving to our new home in Washington Township in the next 3-6 weeks, and shortly after we’ll start hunting for a small property to start the new church in.
Interested in more info? Want to join with us in this exciting new mission? Contact me directly at [email protected]!
What about the Mother Ship?
Everything will remain as it has been at Revival Church! The vision will keep developing, theLab is still key and the dreams will keep coming!
And, yes, I’ll be as invested (or more!) than ever! I’ll minister in the morning at our new satellite church and in the evening, as usual, at Revival Church!
(By the way, have you registered for theLab School of Fire?! Don’t delay! Register at www.revivallab.com today!)
AND, have you seen our BRAND NEW WEBSITE?
This one is for potential visitors… they can visit the site, learn about Revival Church and let us know they are coming! We’ll be ready for them with a gift for their first visit!
Head over to www.explorerevival.com!
Matt Sorger, Brian Simmons, JD King and others recommend John Burton Ministries
Book John Burton for an event in your church and experience the fire and the glory of the Holy Spirit!
An event with John Burton will result in an atmosphere of freedom, fire, healing and joy!
John is currently scheduling meetings both nationally and internationally through the rest of 2012 and into 2013. He has a diverse ministry, has written six books and is ready to preach and train in revival, prayer, local church health, personal freedom and other powerful topics.
For more info and to book John visit www.johnburton.net/booking today!
theLab School of Fire : Matt Sorger at Revival Church
The Wonders Conference has been INSANE! Matt is at Revival Church again TONIGHT!
The School of Fire has completely changed my life. I have been marked, set free. Valerie
“I’ve been waiting 36 years to see and experience the awesome power of the fire of God through theLab.” Shelly
“God has brought a shift in every area of my life since starting theLab. It is a can’t miss, mind blowing God encounter that will change your life.” Joshua
“There is so so much breakthrough and clarity happening in my life right now! God really knew what he was doing when He put me here on this journey with such an incredible group of people!!” Victoria
There is really no way to sufficiently describe the experience at theLab School of Fire—except that it will awaken and activate you into the raging fire of God. You will be branded for eternity.
Our next 6-month School of Fire session begins January 9, 2013 and runs through June 29, 2013. More information: http://revivallab.com/school
Watch a video promo HERE.
THE WONDERS CONFERENCE
The last two nights at The Wonders Conference with Matt Sorger have been indescribable!
Matt is with us at Revival Church for ONE LAST NIGHT tonight at 6pm!
Revival Church meets at CENTRAL CHURCH, 1529 E. 12 Mile Rd, Madison Heights, MI 48071.
7pm tonight: Wonders in Detroit Conference with Matt Sorger & John Burton
Tonight is the night! Have you registered for the Wonders in Detroit Conference?
First: Have you signed up for the BRAND NEW xpgoteam? By all means, sign up TODAY! SHARE the gospel, BLESS the poor, EARN income! $50 a year…that’s all!
THE WONDERS IN DETROIT CONFERENCE
Prayer starts at 6pm and worship begins at 7pm!
TONIGHT at The Crossing Church (31590 Grand River Ave. Farmington, MI 48336) the Revival Church worship team, John Burton and Matt Sorger will be releasing fire and life into the city of Detroit!
*** REGISTRATION is FREE but REQUIRED! ***
Go to www.detroitrevivalchurch.com and register!
The conference continues tomorrow (Saturday) at 7pm at Revival Church (1529 E. 12 Mile Rd, Madison Heights, MI 48071) AND Matt Sorger will also be the special guest speaker at the regular Sunday church service on at 6pm at Revival Church!
You may be surprised to discover what salvation is—and isn’t. Revival Church Sunday 6pm.
We are devoted to studying the Word at Revival Church—and Sunday I’ll be teaching on the tenet of salvation.
FIRST: Have you registered for THE WONDERS CONFERENCE with Matt Sorger and John Burton? It begins FRIDAY and registration is FREE but REQUIRED. Register here: www.detroitrevivalchurch.com
FRIDAY’S event takes place at THE CROSSING CHURCH in Farmington (www.atthecrossing.com) and SATURDAY’S event takes place at REVIVAL CHURCH in Madison Heights.
God’s death was required for our justification. Our death is required for our sanctification.
This is a critical message! So many are way too comfortable in a risky eternal position.
I want to encourage you to come ready to fall in love with Jesus in a much deeper way—salvation makes that quite easy!
Here’s a sneak peek from my notes:
- "In regeneration we receive a new life; in justification, a new standing; and in adoption, a new position.”
- We can live in such a way that we are full of joy! Full of life! Full of the Holy Spirit! Alive!
- Isaiah 12:3 (ESV) 3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
- Habakkuk 3:17-18 (ESV) 17 Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
- Life situations do not have the power to steal our joy, if we truly understand salvation.
- If we find life situations stealing joy, we must reinvestigate our understanding of salvation.
- Though he’s eager to forgive, he’s not haphazard in the administration of forgiveness.
- He cannot forsake his position as just judge and overlook sin.
- Can you imagine a world led by an indifferent God?
- His passion, not his indifference, led him to the cross.
- John 3:16-18 (ESV) 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes (to have faith in and commit to) in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe (has faith in and is committed to) is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
- God’s death was required for our justification.
- Our death is required for our sanctification.
REVIVAL CHURCH MEETS AT CENTRAL CHURCH, 1529 E. 12 MILE RD, MADISON HEIGHTS, MI 48071.