The Church
John Bevere Answers: ‘When Should I Leave My Church?’
John Bevere Answers: ‘When Should I Leave My Church?'
I’m often asked, “When should I leave a church or ministry team? How bad does it have to get?”
I respond, “Who sent you to the church you presently attend?”
The majority of the time they answer, “God did.”
“If God sent you,” I reply, “do not leave until God releases you. If the Lord is silent, He is often saying, ‘Don’t change a thing. Do not leave. Stay where I have placed you!’”
When God does instruct you to leave, you will go out with peace, no matter what the condition of the ministry: “For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace” Is. 55:12, KJV). Therefore, your departure will not be based on the actions or behavior of others but rather on the Spirit’s leading.
So leaving a ministry is not based on how bad things are. To leave with an offended or critical spirit is not the plan of God. It is reacting rather than acting on His guidance. Romans 8:14 (NKJV) says, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”
Notice it does not say, “For as many as react to difficult situations, these are sons of God.”
Almost every time the word son is used in the New Testament, it comes from the two Greek words teknon and huios. A good definition for the word teknon is “one who is a son by mere fact of birth.”
When my first son, Addison, was born, he was John Bevere’s son by mere fact that he came from my wife and me. When he was in the nursery in the midst of all the other newborns, you could not recognize him as my son by personality. When friends and family came to visit, they could not pick him out except by the nametag above his crib. He did not possess anything that set him apart. Addison would be considered a teknon of John and Lisa Bevere.
We find teknon used in Romans 8:15–16. It says that because we have received the spirit of adoption, “the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children [teknon] of God.” When a person receives Jesus Christ as Lord, he is a child of God by fact of the new birth experience. (See John 1:12.)
The other Greek word translated sons in the New Testament is huios. Many times it is used in the New Testament to describe “one who can be identified as a son because he displays the character or characteristics of his parents.” As my son Addison grew, he started looking and acting like his father. When Addison was 6, Lisa and I took a trip and left him with my parents. My mother told my wife that Addison was almost a carbon copy of his daddy. His personality was like mine when I was his age. As he has grown, he has become more like his dad. He now can be recognized as John Bevere’s son, not only by the fact of his birth but also by the characteristics and a personality that resemble his father’s.
So, to put it simply, the Greek word teknon means “babies or immature sons,” and the Greek word huios is most often used to describe “mature sons.”
Looking at Romans 8:14 again, it reads: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons [huios] of God.” We can see clearly here that it is the mature sons who are led by the Spirit of God.
Immature Christians are less likely to follow the leading of the Spirit of God. Most often they react or respond emotionally or intellectually to circumstances they face. They have not yet learned to act only on the Spirit of God’s leading.
As Addison grows, he will progress in character development. The more mature he becomes, the more responsibility I will entrust to him. It is wrong for him to stay immature. It is not God’s will that we remain babies.
One way the character of Addison has grown is by facing difficult situations. When he started school, he met up with some “bullies.” I heard some of the things these rough kids were doing and saying to my son, and I wanted to go and deal with it. But I knew that would be wrong. For me to intervene would hinder Addison’s growth.
So my wife and I continued to counsel him at home, preparing him to face the persecutions at school. He grew in character through obeying our counsel in the midst of his suffering.
This is similar to what God does with us. The Bible says, “Though He [Jesus] was a Son [Huios], yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered” (Heb. 5:8, emphasis added).
Physical growth is a function of time. No 2-year-old child has ever been 6 feet tall. Intellectual growth is a function of learning. Spiritual growth is a function of neither time nor learning, but rather of obedience. Now look at what Peter says: “Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin” (1 Pet. 4:1, emphasis added).
A person who has ceased from sin is a perfectly obedient child of God. He is mature. He chooses God’s ways, not his own. Just as Jesus learned obedience by the things He suffered, we learn obedience by the difficult circumstances we face. When we obey the Word of God that is spoken by the Holy Spirit, we will grow and mature in times of conflict and suffering.
Our knowledge of Scripture is not the key. Obedience is.
Now we understand one reason why we have people in the church who have been Christians for 20 years, who can quote verses and chapters of the Bible, who have heard a thousand sermons and have read many books but still wear spiritual diapers. Every time they meet with difficult situations, rather than responding by the Spirit of God, they seek to protect themselves in their own way. They are “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 3:7). They never come to the knowledge of the truth because they do not apply it.
Truth must be allowed to have its way in our lives if we are going to grow and mature. It is not enough to give mental assent to truth without obeying it. Even though we continue to learn, we never mature because of disobedience.
John Bevere is a popular speaker at conferences and churches and the author of best-sellers The Bait of Satan and The Fear of the Lord. He is host of The Messenger TV show and directs Messenger International ministry. This article was excerpted from his popular book The Bait of Satan.
theLab House of Prayer launches tomorrow | Pavement People
Join us for raw, fervent prayer Thursday at 7pm at theLab House of Prayer!
FIRST: “Life with John and Amy” which takes place the first Saturday of each month at our house is CANCELLED this Saturday. We are officially on BABY EVA WATCH! She could come any time, so we’ll see you in May!
SECOND: Listen to a sharp word about how to stay on fire for God in the first part of a new series: Four Fires http://media.johnburton.net/7931865
Featured XPMedia Video
The prayer movement in Michigan is capturing the attention of the world!
My video on “A Revival Prayer Model” was featured on Patricia King’s XPMedia today. It was sent out to over 47,000 subscribers!
You can watch it here: https://www.xpmedia.com/video/10529/a-revival-prayer-model/?affid=8389
theLab House of Prayer
This is the key initial step in the establishment of a house of prayer in the Detroit region!
There is an awakening and gathering of what I call pavement people in the Detroit area—people, as in 2 Chronicles 7, who are willing to hit the cold, hard pavement and glorify God.
tAs soon as Solomon finished his prayer, ufire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, vand the glory of the Lord filled the temple. 2 And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord's house. 3 When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the Lord on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying, “For he is good, wfor his steadfast love endures forever.” (2 Chronicles 7:1-3, ESV)
Are you a pavement person—one who places no demands on God, who couldn’t care less about personal comforts and who is provoked to spur this region on in repentance, surrender, fervent intercession and passionate worship? We want to meet you!
theLab House of Prayer is a place to boldly declare the Word of the Lord and cry out night and day for revival in our region!
Join us from 7-9pm every Thursday night beginning tomorrow, April 4th, 2013.
theLab House of Prayer and Revival Church meet at CENTRAL CHURCH, 1529 E. 12 Mile Rd, Madison Heights, MI 48071.
Lion’s Paw • Janice VanCronkhite • April 6-7
An inspiring conference speaker and prophetic activator, Janice challenges the church to be released into the fullness and anointing of God’s creativity and to see his love and supernatural power exhibited through every kind of earthly artistic medium. Her depth of wisdom, favor and experience practically illuminate how to overcome obstacles and continue the journey into creative fullness.
Register TODAY at www.explorerevival.com/paw.
Our NEW twelve week online university launches on July 18, 2013! www.thelabuniversity.com
Instructors: John Burton, Chris Ferguson, Julia Palermo
Classes include: The End-Times, Carriers of Fire, Prayer 101, Intro into the Prophetic, The Forerunner Lifestyle, more!
Charisma Magazine | Rooting Out Fuzzy Theology Behind the Hyper-Grace Message
Rooting Out Fuzzy Theology Behind the Hyper-Grace Message
9:21AM EDT 4/2/2013 David & Nancy Ravenhill
Imagine a car dealership that provides every car buyer with a free car wash for as long as they own the car. You purchase a car, and along with the required paperwork you are given a free-car-wash certificate. The dealer tells you he has fully paid for all the car washes you will ever need, saying he believes that a clean car is the greatest way of advertising and promoting his dealership.
Several days later, you happen to drive down a muddy country road full of potholes and ruts. Later, you notice your car is covered with mud and decide to avail yourself of your free lifetime car wash. But before you have time to drive through the car wash, your friends inform you that you no longer have to go there. They tell you that your first car wash was all that was necessary. Any suggestion that you need another wash is not only wrong, but a lie.
You try and reason with your friends and even show them your dirty car. They still refuse to acknowledge that the car needs washing, even after seeing the condition of the car. They inform you that what the dealer really meant was that once the dealership had purchased the car wash for you, that would keep the car clean forever. They also argued that to suggest it needed washing again was an insult to the dealer and the dealership. “Don't you realize,” your friends tell you, “when the dealer first paid for your car wash, that automatically washed it for life; all past, present and future dirt was washed away, and therefore it never needs to be washed again.”
Such logic would, by anyone's reasoning, be considered imbecilic, ignorant or crazy, to say the least. Obviously, what the dealer intended was that anytime you needed your car washed, you could avail yourself of a car wash because he had already paid for it in advance.
Thinking back on your conversation with the dealer, you recall him telling you that he has a personal hatred for dirty cars and that is why he paid for a lifetime of free washes to anyone who asked. He went on to say that if—and not when—you happen to get your car dirty, the car wash would take care of it. He obviously never intended for you to drive around searching for dirty roads just so you could avail yourself of the car wash. That, he said, would be abusive to the car-wash program and an insult to his dealership.
In a similar way, the atoning work of Christ paid in full for all my sin. This, however, does not exclude my need for repentance, nor does it give me license to sin as I please. For my “friends” to tell me otherwise is totally false and misleading.
Sadly, this is the logic behind the new hyper-grace message. The essence behind this false teaching is that all sins past, present and future have already been atoned for and therefore there is no longer any need to repent. That, the proponents of this idea say, would be tantamount to telling God you don't believe He has paid for all your sin.
This type of fuzzy theology falls apart for this reason: If repentance is acknowledging a sin that has already been forgiven, thereby making repentance unnecessary, then why do we tell people to repent the first time in order to be saved? If repentance is wrong following salvation, then using the same “logic,” repentance is wrong prior to salvation too.
The error here is that this type of teaching leads to ultimate reconciliation or universalism. Jesus paid for all sin; therefore, all are saved.
The fact is that the provision for my cleansing was completed at the cross but the process of my cleansing is conditional upon my repentance, and not before.
Check out these other articles that deal with the false-grace message:
What’s Wrong With Grace? Mike Bickle and the distorted grace message
Why a distorted message of grace is the church’s greatest crisis today—and how we must respond
The original article can be found here: http://www.charismamag.com/spirit/spiritual-growth/17080-what-s-wrong-with-grace
You can read my article Five Marks of the False Grace Message here: www.johnburton.net/grace-message
The most powerful, significant and liberating message ever given to the human race is the gospel of grace. The Christian life is established on the foundation of this wonderful truth, which emphasizes what Christ did for us on the cross and what the Holy Spirit does in us in our daily life. Paul’s dramatic declaration that we have become new creations in Christ has vast implications for our lives: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away … all things have become new … that we [our spirit] might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:17-21).
The “he” that is a new creation is our spirit man. We possess the very righteousness of God in our spirit (v. 21). This describes our new legal position in Christ—how God sees and relates to us. In Christ, all things have become new pertaining to our spirit. This includes being fully accepted by God, receiving the authority to use the name of Jesus and possessing the indwelling Holy Spirit—all of which enable us to resist sin, sickness and Satan; to walk in victory; and to release the works of God through prayer. The old things that passed away under this legal shift include no longer being under the penalty of sin nor being dominated by the power of sin.
So what’s the problem if we’ve been given such freedom as new creations? Unfortunately, man’s natural tendency to distort truth gets in the way. And when it comes to a truth as fundamental and crucial as grace, that distortion has far-reaching implications. In short, it can become the central crisis of an entire generation.
The Crisis of Our Time
The apostle Jude confronted the great spiritual crisis of his day when he exhorted believers to contend earnestly for the “faith” or for the message of grace originally delivered to them through the first apostles. In Jude 3-4, he writes: “I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed … ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness.”
Think about this: Within one generation after Jesus’ resurrection, it was already necessary to contend for the true grace message. That’s how key this battle over the true grace message is and always has been since Jesus’ definitive work on the cross.
Jude warned of certain men who crept into the fellowship of the church unnoticed—that is, their error went unnoticed by most of the leaders and the people. These men turned the message of grace into a message of lewdness or one that affirmed various compromises, even sexual immorality. These men with persuasive teaching abilities twisted what the Bible said about grace, thus empowering many to confidently continue in sinful activities without feeling any urgency to repent.
Undoubtedly, these teachers of error appeared outwardly to live godly, but in their private lives they refused to repent of various lusts. Instead, they justified their ungodly habits by distorting the message of grace to accommodate their lifestyles.
The result was devastating, as many in the church concluded that it was acceptable for them also to live with similar compromises because these popular teachers were justifying this sort of lifestyle with various Bible verses. In reality, they took these verses out of context of the broader New Testament message, which called believers to live in wholehearted love for Jesus as evidenced by seeking to live in obedience to Him (John 14:15, 21).
The same is true with hyper-grace teachers today. They choose to emphasize only God’s love and forgiveness while practically ignoring Jesus’ call for His people to walk in wholehearted commitment to the Lord. They preach mostly on forgiveness without repentance and on receiving God’s blessing on their circumstances without any conditions. The truth is, it’s glorious that we are freely forgiven by Jesus and that He blesses our circumstances; but these truths are in context to seeking to live in a real relationship with Him and in agreement with His leadership and Word.
Jude’s exhortation is a significant warning for the body of Christ today. When the grace message is distorted, everything else in one’s spiritual life becomes blurred. In fact, there is no spiritual battle more significant in the church today than contending to keep the grace message faithful to Scripture.
Sadly, some believers aren’t even aware of this spiritual crisis regarding a diluted grace message. They must wake up to the emergency at hand—because today, as we contend for the spirit of truth, we are fighting for the very soul of a generation.
It’s easier in today’s world for teachers to creep in unnoticed, as Jude said, because of television and the Internet. Some contemporary teachers distorting the message of grace come from high-profile ministries whose very popularity gives them a false sense of credibility. We must not receive a ministry because it’s attractive and popular; we should only receive it if it’s faithful to the truth.
Paul prophesied of a time when many who profess loyalty to Jesus would fall to unsound doctrine: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables” (2 Tim. 4:3-4).
These people aren’t willing to embrace the challenges of a lifestyle of obedience to Jesus as emphasized by the sound teaching in the New Testament. Instead, they have “itching ears” to hear messages that affirm their sinful desires. They want to feel comfortable in their relationship with God, even as they continue to boldly walk out their sinful lusts.
By isolating Bible verses about God’s blessing and forgiveness from the larger context of the New Testament’s call to love Jesus with obedience, they affirm the lustful desires of their hearers. One famous TV preacher went so far to say that there is no longer a need for a believer to repent because Jesus’ work on the cross did that for them. He obviously overlooked the fact that Jesus repeatedly called born-again believers to repent for yielding to various compromises (see Rev. 2:5, 16, 21-22; 3:3, 19).
Grace: The Power to Love and Obey Jesus
If countless sincere believers have already succumbed to the rising tide of this distorted grace message, how can we stand strong through the crisis? It starts by remaining grounded in biblical truth. We must approach the biblical grace message through the lens of God calling us to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength (Mark 12:30).
The Lord wants us to love Him in a wholehearted way because that’s how He loves us—with all of His heart, mind and strength. This mutual relationship of wholehearted love between a believer and the Lord is foundational to the kingdom. In fact, this is the very way that the Father loves the Son—with all of His heart. The Son loves the Father and the Spirit loves the Father and Son in this way too. Oh, the glorious mystery of one God in three persons who delight in Their relationship of wholehearted love for each other (see John 3:35; 5:20; 14:31; 15:9; 17:23, 26)! God’s plan from the foundation of the earth was to redeem people so that they could participate in this loving fellowship that the three persons of the Trinity enjoy.
The core reality of the grace message is to empower us to walk with God in a relationship of wholehearted love. Jesus called this “the first commandment” (Mark 12:30). Thus, the Holy Spirit’s first agenda is to establish the first commandment in first place in the church. This must also be our first agenda. Wholehearted love is to be “first” in our response to God because it is how the Father relates to the Son and how the Godhead relates to us. We must see grace through the lens of this quality of love. To think of grace without it being anchored in the first commandment is to be aiming at the wrong target. Thus, we distort the grace message when we do not interpret it through the lens of the first commandment. We must love Jesus on His terms, and He defined loving God in terms of a spirit of obedience to His commandments (see John 14:15, 21, 23).
There’s no such thing as loving Jesus without seeking to obey His Word. Some seek to love God on the terms of a humanistic culture that has no reference to obeying the Word. But loving and seeking to obey Jesus are synonymous. All of His commands are based in His love. Thus, the biblical message of grace teaches us to live righteously and to deny ungodliness as the way of expressing our love to God. Titus 2:11-12 says, “The grace of God … has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly.”
If you hear a teaching on grace that doesn’t call you to deny ungodliness, it’s not a biblical grace message—it’s a distorted one.
Legal Position vs. Living Condition
As we correctly view the grace message through the lens of the first commandment, we can also begin to understand the difference between our legal position before God and our ongoing living condition as a response to what Jesus has done. Not only is there a key difference between these two, it’s often the element that hyper-grace adherents conveniently overlook.
Our legal position is what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross, while our living condition is what Jesus requires of us in our response to Him. In our legal position, we stand before God by possessing His righteousness (2 Cor. 5:21). Our legal standing before God is so glorious that it will never be improved upon—not even with the perfection of a resurrected body—because we received Christ’s very own righteousness. Our legal position relates to receiving His righteousness instantly on the day that we are born again.
Our living condition, on the other hand, relates to growing in righteousness progressively as our mind is renewed, causing our behavior and emotions to be transformed by the Holy Spirit in us.
The gospel is the good news about receiving God’s righteousness and can be seen in three tenses:
- Justification: our legal position—past tense, focused on our spirit
- Sanctification: our living condition—present tense, focused on our soul
- Glorification: our eternal exaltation—future tense, focused on our body
One-third of our salvation is complete (the salvation of our spirit), but the other two parts are not yet complete in our experience (the salvation of our soul and body). All believers have received the fullness of grace in their spirit (legal position), and yet they can still live far below it in their daily experience (living condition).
Much misunderstanding about grace can be traced to misunderstanding the distinctions of these truths. Many confuse what Jesus did for us in our legal position with what He requires of us in our response to Him in our living condition.
Jesus’ finished work on the cross makes His grace fully available to us as a gift. However, our regular interaction with the Spirit causes us to experience the transforming power of this grace in our daily life. James wrote about this when he urged believers to walk in a greater measure of grace because God “gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).
James wrote this to born-again believers, calling them to receive more grace. A believer already has the gift of righteousness and therefore can’t receive “more grace” in his or her legal position. However, each of us can receive “more grace” in our living condition—and this is what James was referring to. We can always experience more of God’s grace to transform and renew our mind and emotions (see Rom. 12:2).
Grace in the Eight Beatitudes
If we hope to experience more of this transforming grace on a daily basis, then we must follow the words of the greatest teacher on grace who ever walked the earth: Jesus. The Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7) is His most comprehensive statement about a believer’s role in cooperating with God’s grace. In this teaching, Jesus defined loving God in context to the eight beatitudes (5:3-10), offering us a rich understanding of how to walk out biblical grace in our daily lives.
One aspect of this is Jesus’ exhortation to us to hunger for more of God’s righteousness (v. 6). Here, Jesus affirmed the need to press into God for a greater release of righteousness in our daily lives—our living condition. Keep in mind that He wasn’t calling us to receive more of the gift of righteousness, since we already fully possess this in our legal position. Our hunger for righteousness doesn’t cause us to deserve grace—nothing can do that—but hunger positions us to receive more of the outworking of righteousness in our character.
Some believers don’t hunger to grow in righteousness in their daily life. Rather, they seek to know how far they can go in sin and how little they need to talk with Jesus to keep their salvation intact.
Imagine a couple in their wedding ceremony who have just completed their vows. While walking down the aisle for the first time as “one,” the man whispers to his new bride, “How far can I go with other women before we get divorced? And how much do I have to talk to you each week?” Adding insult to injury, he then says, “By the way, we just signed a marriage license that legalized our marriage—so now I have legal rights to all that you possess.”
Of course, the new bride would be heartbroken to hear that her husband didn’t love her with all of his heart but was instead establishing their marriage on a faulty foundation—and focusing almost entirely on the bare-minimum “requirements” and legal ramifications involved.
Some teach about grace in a way that parallels the lack of wholeheartedness portrayed in this analogy. It’s a version of grace more concerned with what it takes to “meet the requirements” on paper than to engage in the authentic, loving relationship for which it was originally intended. Sadly, this error is bound to occur whenever people separate the grace message from the first commandment.
How to Receive God’s Grace
Grace was never intended to be abused, but as our current church crisis proves, it can be. God gives us the freedom to choose relationship and obedience to His Word—and thus benefit from the true liberty found in grace. Yet this is also why Paul urged the believers in Corinth “not to receive the grace of God in vain” (2 Cor. 6:1).
The gospel of grace is distorted in two main ways: first, by presenting God’s love as something we can earn; second, by refusing to call people to respond in wholeheartedness to God. The fruit of the biblical grace message is confidence in the gift of God’s love combined with a spirit of obedience. If either of these two elements is missing, then it isn’t the true message. Thus, receiving God’s grace in vain is to receive it in such a way that it doesn’t produce confidence in God’s love nor the resolve to respond wholeheartedly to Jesus’ leadership. Either distortion is disastrous for our spiritual life.
Like Jude in the first century, we must earnestly contend for the truth about grace. The very soul of the youth in our nation hangs in the balance.
The good news, however, is this: The Holy Spirit is highlighting this spiritual crisis and is committed to the recovery of the biblical grace message. We can be confident that He will release His power to establish the first commandment in first place in the church before Jesus returns for His fully prepared Bride (see Rev. 19:7). Let’s come alongside Him, rather than opposing Him, when it comes to receiving, understanding and walking in grace.
Mike Bickle is the director of the International House of Prayer Missions Base of Kansas City, Mo., and author of several books. For more information, visit mikebickle.org or ihopkc.org.
Watch as Mike Bickle explains how the American culture has colored the understanding of grace at grace.charismamag.com
Big, exciting announcement at Revival Church : A unique new worship movement
A new leader to spur on a groaning worship movement at Revival Church
First: Last night was HOT! We live in a day where people are tending to shut out sharp prophetic messages. Listen to a message that will shake you here: http://media.johnburton.net/7931865
JOHN BURTON TO LEAD NEW GROANING WORSHIP MOVEMENT
April Nabal: John Burton is tuned in to this new, emerging movement of groan-driven worship more than anyone I know. While musically unskilled, his passion for this is unmatched.
I will be stepping up as the primary worship leader at Revival Church as I introduce a unique, brand new movement.
I am aware that my musical skill is lacking, but that’s the beauty of this new movement—it requires no instruments, no singing ability, no professional training at all!
I am so excited about the opportunity to stand before all of you every Sunday night for 45 minutes as I make guttural sounds of every type!
Groans that can’t be uttered will take on a brand new meaning for you!
You will quickly forget the smooth, beautiful sounds that come from skilled musicians and vocalists. What a glorious day this is!
I will, without words or instruments, passionately groan out before you each week the old classics like:
- We Exalt Thee
- Dance in the River
- Ain’t No Party Like a Holy Ghost Party
- I’m Gonna Dance That Crazy Dance
- And MORE!
CAN-O-GROAN
How will you participate in such a movement? You will groan along with me!
I do understand that many of you may not be comfortable with that quite yet, so we are introducing a brand new worship product!
Do you remember the “moo can?” When you turn it over, it moos.
We have taken that brilliant invention to a completely different level!
Can-O-Groan, when turned over, will emit a powerful, bellowing groan!
John’s own personal groan has been captured and included in each Can-O-Groan!
Imagine an entire congregation with Can-O-Groan—the atmosphere will be electric!
I can’t wait!
GREEK AND HEBREW LESSON:
Hebrew Word: נָבָל
Transliteration: nābāl
Phonetic Pronunciation:
naw-bawl'
Usage Notes:
English Words used in KJV:
fool 9
Tonight at Revival Church : Pics from theLab University Graduation
Powerful worship, intercession and a teaching on the resurrection that will cause you to come alive—tonight at Revival Church!
But first, theLab students have graduated! A new generation of carriers of fire is emerging!
Last night was simply amazing as theLab University students graduated! I’ll share some pics below.
THELAB UNIVERSITY ONLINE
Have you checked out theLab University Online? Do so now! www.thelabuniversity.com/online
Our NEW twelve week online university launches on July 18, 2013 with an INTRODUCTORY TUITION PRICE of $100!
Now anybody in any part of the world can get equipped as an end-time intercessor, prophetic messenger and revivalist.
TONIGHT AT REVIVAL CHURCH
As a house of prayer our primary mandate is to contend in intercession—and we will do that in the Prep Room at 5:15pm. Join us in the sanctuary as we pray for Detroit and the nations!
At 6pm the prayer rolls right into a powerful night of worship and teaching.
I’ll be starting a series titled Four Fires. It’s one of the original, and most important teachings I brought when I first started traveling to Detroit. And, yes, part one includes a powerful resurrection message!
Revival Church meets at CENTRAL CHURCH, 1529 E. 12 Mile Rd, Madison Heights, MI 48071.
PICS FROM THELAB UNIVERSITY GRADUATION
Video: It has to stop! Competition, accusation and jealousy between churches
God forgive us for building kingdoms of man on doctrines of demons in your name. ~Brian Ming
IT HAS TO STOP!
Watch this short, raw video on the issue of competitiveness, accusation and jealousy in the church. It has to STOP!
When Amy and I first moved to Detroit and launched Revival Church we sent out 200 copies of my book Pharaoh in the Church to pastors in the Detroit region. The book is written to leaders and those who are called to lead the people of God into encounter.
In that book I deal directly with the issue of personal kingdom building & how it can be a threat to the advance of God’s Kingdom in a region.
Not shockingly, but sadly we only heard from one pastor. One.
When a new Kingdom building church arrives on the scene, the pastors of the region should celebrate their arrival!
PEOPLE, MONEY & REPUTATION
Too much energy is invested into keeping people, protecting our financial situation and enhancing our reputations as leaders—energy that can not be used for its intended purpose of going hard after revival in a region and leading people into encounter.
If we are serious about the city church exploding in life and power, we must be willing to lose people, lose financial security (salaries, benefits) and lose our reputation. Jesus was of no reputation, why should we be?
How can you deal with this issue? Have a healthy ministry policy!
HEALTHY MINISTRY POLICIES
- PEOPLE: Have a policy that any pastor, leader or other person can come into your church at any time, with no fear or guilt, and openly recruit anybody, even your staff, to leave your church and join theirs. The fear of losing people and the resulting spirit of competition will disappear.
- MONEY: Give regularly to other churches and pray for them to be blessed in a greater measure financially than your own. Giving always causes fear of financial loss to subside. Additionally, never hold back leading in a biblical direction with full unction of the Holy Spirit if key givers may get leave. Preach them out and trust God!
- REPUTATION: Die. Surrender. Go low. Be humble. Allow people to ridicule you, accuse you, attack you and discredit your ministry. This happens when you preach truth. If you are of no reputation, then when you lose people, money, influence or anything else, your ego won’t drive you whatsoever.
DISQUALIFIED
Gossip.
Here’s a definition: Any conversation about an absent third party that wouldn’t meet the approval of that person.
Gossip is biblically forbidden communication.
When I, as a church leader, hear anybody gossip about a former pastor they are immediately disqualified from consideration for leadership in my church.
Why? I can’t afford to give place to a demonic anointing in my church.
This is how important it is to honor other pastors, churches and leaders—and everybody else in the body of Christ!
What do you do if you hear someone gossiping about a leader?
I am personally blessed when someone displays their honor, love and faithfulness when they won’t receive gossip about me. But, it’s not about me…it’s about the health of the church and the church of the city we are called to run with. It really is a big deal.
PROPHETIC VOICES
Why is it a big deal? Many reasons. One that will become very clear as the end of the age develops is that the church is going to be shifted violently to calibrate with God’s end-time plans.
The announcement of the shift will come through people. Prophets. Apostles. Those chosen by God to move into a region and reveal with boldness what is changing.
These people will be a serious threat to the status quo, and if pastors rely on the status quo to keep people in position, their salaries stable and their reputation under their control, they will resist these prophets of God with ferocity.
This is why we need to develop a culture of celebration, humility and honor for other leaders, new churches and people who are in the body of Christ in a region.
If we don’t, crosses may remain on the steeples while Ichabod is posted above the doors of resisting, self-centered pastors flowing in the spirit of Pharaoh as they remain focused on building their own kingdoms.
FINAL THOUGHTS
God led Amy and my family to Detroit to see revival land. God is bringing many others here as well. Many others have been laboring here for years and have been prepared for what’s coming. Let’s do all we can to unite and take advantage of the amazing convergence in this critical end-time season!
Special Events: Powerful week of prophetic impartation, end-times teaching & more!
Chris Ferguson from IHOP and prophetic messenger Julia Palermo will be at Revival Church and theLab School of Fire THIS WEEK!
First: Listen to Sunday’s teaching on the Joshua Generation and hear about the shock that’s coming to our nation and the call of the church to move with passion into position! Listen here (notes will be included below): http://media.johnburton.net/7637627
THE COMING CHURCH
What is coming to and through the church? That’s the theme this week as very special guests Chris Ferguson and Julia Palermo minister in fire at Revival Church and theLab School of Fire!
THURSDAY: END TIMES TEACHING
Julia and Chris will be ministering prophetically over everybody in attendance, and then a key teaching on the end-times and the church’s role in the Tribulation will be presented.
This is a MUST attend event!
We normally charge $25 to audit a class at theLab, but we are opening this class to everybody at NO CHARGE! FREE!
Simply show up at 7pm on Thursday! Revival Church & theLab meet at CENTRAL CHURCH, 1529 E. 12 Mile Rd, Madison Heights, MI 48071.
FRIDAY: INTERCESSION IN DETROIT
Julia and Chris will be joining theLab and other revivalists and intercessors at Apostle Londen Winters Ministries THIS FRIDAY, March 22nd at 7pm.
The level of prophecy in this ministry is high and the atmosphere is hot! Bring friends or come alone!
This special prayer event is being held at: 8316 Dexter Blvd., Detroit 48206.
SUNDAY: THE COMING CHURCH
Get ready for powerful worship and an unusual night of prophetic fire!
Chris, Julia and I will be tag team teaching on what we see coming for the church in the end-times.
There is a great shock that’s coming, and we need to be prepared for this amazing upcoming season in the church of our nation!
We begin with IHOP worship on the screen and intercession in the sanctuary at 5:15pm.
The service begins at 6pm. You can let us know you are coming and we’ll give you a FREE copy of my book SIX ENEMIES! Go here: www.explorerevival.com/plan-your-visit
JOSHUA GENERATION NOTES
http://media.johnburton.net/7637627
Joshua Generation
I. The Great Mission
a. Threefold Strategy of God
i. Salvation & Deliverance: The initial goal in the Exodus was to escape captivity. (inward)
ii. Intimacy & Offering: The secondary goal was to worship God in intimacy in the desert. (upward)
iii. Warfare & Possession: The ultimate goal was to take their new culture of intercession and worship into the Promised Land and conquer demonic strongholds on cities that stand in the way. (outward)
b. This is our focus at Revival Church: get you free, encounter God in intimacy, rise up as warriors and fulfill a mission. All three must be active!
i. The house of prayer must come before we take the city!
c. That’s the great mission, and now let’s look at a great mistake.
II. The Great Mistake
a. They had been slaves there for over 400 years, and God went to great lengths to deliver them from bondage.
i. They appreciated the deliverance, but they didn’t transfer their gaze from inward to upward, from them to God.
b. Shortly after their salvation form Egypt, due to their persistent unbelief that God would faithfully and safely take them into a land of their own, the Promised Land (Canaan–or Israel), God brought judgment and chastisement upon them (Numbers 13–14). He sent them into the desert to wander for 40 years. (This is most Christians!) All of the people aged 20 years or older were destined to die in the desert and to never enter the Promised Land because of their unbelief (Numbers 14:26–35, Hebrews 3:16–19).
c. The great mistake? The Israelites were known for their complaint!
i. What a legacy!
ii. Their complaining led to unbelief which led to wandering and then death.
1. If you wander too long, you will not see your promise!
iii. One of the most tragic mistakes we can make is to assume our attitudes and personal dispositions don’t have much of an impact.
iv. Check this out:
d. Numbers 11:1 (ESV) 1 And the people complained in the hearing of the LORD about their misfortunes, and when the LORD heard it, his anger was kindled, and the fire of the LORD burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp.
e. 1 Corinthians 10:8-10 (ESV) 8 We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.
i. Dang! What is that! To be destroyed by serpents! Hard core! The Destroyer!
ii. Why? Just for sexual immorality? Grumbling?
iii. Yes, our attitudes and actions reap consequences!
f. Numbers 14:1-10 (ESV) 1 Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. 2 And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! 3 Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” 4 And they said to one another, “Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.” 5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the people of Israel. 6 And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes 7 and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, “The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. 8 If the LORD delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. 9 Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them.” 10 Then all the congregation said to stone them with stones. But the glory of the LORD appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel.
i. Do not rebel.
ii. Do not fear.
iii. You would think the complaining would end…but no! Check it out!
1. Numbers 16:1-3 (NIV) 1 Korah …became insolent 2 and rose up against Moses. With them were 250 Israelite men, well-known community leaders who had been appointed members of the council. 3 They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the LORD is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the LORD‘s assembly?”
2. Numbers 16:31-33 (NIV) 31 As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart 32 and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, with their households and all Korah's men and all their possessions. 33 They went down alive into the grave, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community.
iv. This is getting serious!
1. Today it’s expected that leaders make it easy for people to follow.
2. I disagree. Leaders are called to lead you into the most challenging, risky and humanly impossible adventure!
3. We should make it easy for leaders to lead!
4. Paul said, Follow me as I follow Christ.
5. If you are going to follow apostolic leaders, you better have your running shoes on!
6. Philippians 3:13-14 (ESV) 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
7. 1 Corinthians 9:24-26 (ESV) 24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air.
a. Apostolic leaders lead into a difficult, costly mission with a sharp prophetic edge.
b. Pastors mostly lead you into comfort, and there is a place for that… and apostles lead you into mission, into movement.
c. This is why churches are usually best led by apostles and small groups are usually best led by pastors, or the regional church led by apostles, and local bodies led by pastors. They must work together.
d. We equip people to work, to move, to fulfill a mission.
e. Ephesians 4:11-12 (ESV) 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
f. It’s time to move!
III. The Great Movement
a. From the Great Mistake to the Great Movement.
b. From dead in the desert to moving into destiny!
c. The older generation complained, grumbled, sinned sexually, had idols, etc… but the younger generation was humbled, tested and disciplined by the Lord during their desert sojourn.
d. They were ready to move into their mission.
i. Only 10% of Christians know what their calling is…their mission!
1. This means that precious days are being lost wandering and surviving instead of advancing!
2. Just because you are moving, doesn’t mean you are advancing in your mission!
3. Psalm 107:4-5 (NIV) 4 Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle. 5 They were hungry and thirsty, and their lives ebbed away.
4. The only way to discover your calling is to be fully given to it!
a. This is why thelab and other ministry schools are so powerful.
b. It requires a complete surrender of time, dreams, comfort in a movement of radical unity!
c. God is isn't coming back for a church with scattered believers. He's coming back for a company of people with a common vision. ~Mike Bickle
d. The highest blessing, the commanded blessing, comes when God's people gather together in unity.~Mike Bickle
5. This end-time passage gives us the critical secret to fulfilling our mission.
a. Revelation 12:10-12 (ESV) 10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. 11 And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. 12 Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”
b. Salvation, power, the Kingdom, authority!
c. How do we live in that and conquer?
i. The blood of the lamb
ii. The word of our testimony
1. JFB: Their testimony evinced their victory over him by virtue of the blood of the Lamb. Hereby they confess themselves worshippers of the slain Lamb and overcome the beast, Satan's representative.
iii. Death to self
iv. This is such an important step…today most are looking for ‘life to self’…but don’t realize that life doesn’t come before death.
v. If we emphasize the benefits while ignoring the cost, people will run from Jesus when their cross is presented to them.
1. Romans 8:35-36 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
2. Matthew 16:24-25 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”
3. John 12:24-25 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25 Those who love their life will lose it, while those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
4. Colossians 3:5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
a. Die daily! It’s worth it because of the power of the resurrection!
5. 1 Corinthians 15:30-34 (ESV) 30 Why are we in danger every hour? 31 I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day! 32 What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” 33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” 34 Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.
e. Our church’s key verses:
i. Joshua 3:4-5 (ESV) 4 …Do not come near it, in order that you may know the way you shall go, for you have not passed this way before.” 5 Then Joshua said to the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.”
1. Verse 4 is why we must embrace apostolic leadership—we have never been this way before…apostles are ‘sent ones’…they are pioneers.
a. You need a Daniel Boone leading you!
b. Despite some resistance from American Indian tribes such as the Shawnee, in 1775 Boone blazed his Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap in the Appalachian Mountains from North Carolina and Tennessee into Kentucky. There he founded the village of Boonesborough, Kentucky, one of the first American settlements west of the Appalachians.
c. Boone was a militia officer during the Revolutionary War (1775–83), which in Kentucky was fought primarily between the American settlers and the British-aided Native Americans. Boone was captured by Shawnee warriors in 1778, who after a while adopted him into their tribe.
d. Before the end of the 18th century, more than 200,000 European people migrated to Kentucky/Virginia by following the route marked by Boone.
2. The only way we can survive such a dangerous mission is if we follow verse 5 instructions: Consecrate yourselves and prepare for wonders!
a. The call to movement means that we have to leave what is familiar into what is risky!
b. We can’t add God’s supernatural assignment to our human dreams. We have to leave our dreams and lay down our lives!
i. The non-negotiable price of supernatural mission is the surrender of convenience, comfort, and control.
3. Consecrate: Prepare, sanctify, clean, dedicate, purify
a. The older generation who died in the desert complained because they were lacking, and because they had unbelief.
b. Notice the remedy: The younger generation embraced a fasted lifestyle as they consecrated themselves…and also embraced ridiculous faith as they were called to step into the waters of the Jordan and march around the walls of a fortified city.
i. The requirements? Anybody can do it!
1. Don’t complain.
2. Be holy.
3. Believe.
4. Respond in extreme unity and precision.
ii. We are moving into the uncharted, impossible, not into the predictable and casual! Daniel Boone! Joshua! How about Peter Pan?
1. Peter Pan Jesus
2. It’s time to follow! To blaze a new trail!
3. Now, you have to understand, you are either living in the camp or dying in the desert!
a. You can’t just live between the two in some imaginary safe place.
f. Boldly following
i. If you really want to advance, you will have to literally face trouble and threatening situations.
1. There are giants to take down, city walls to march around.
2. “I've found that great leaders are comfortable making other people uncomfortable.” JD King
a. Look at Joshua. He was leading people into sure drowning in the river, sure defeat at Jericho!
b. Today we are looking for comfort when God is calling us to challenge!
c. 1 Kings 18:21-22 (ESV) 21 And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word. 22 Then Elijah said to the people, “I, even I only, am left a prophet of the LORD, but Baal’s prophets are 450 men.
i. Will you follow those you are in relationship with, even if they lead you astray? Are you with the 450 or the 1? It’s time to lock in! Don’t be tossed around! Don’t waver any longer!
ii. If you live a decisive life, you will have to move, and you will have to break away from comfort and what is familiar.
1. Never be afraid to stand with the minority which is right, for the minority which is right will one day be the majority; always be afraid to stand with the majority which is wrong, for the majority which is wrong will one day be the minority.—William Jennings Bryan
2. A wrong choice results in death in the desert!
3. The following quotation is from the “Cadet Prayer.” It is repeated every Sunday in chapel services at West Point: “Make us choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and never to be contented with half truth when whole truth can be won. Endow us with courage that is born of loyalty to all that is noble and worthy, that scorns to compromise with vice and injustice and knows no fear when right and truth are in jeopardy.”
4.
iii. Ephesians 4:11-14 (ESV) 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
d. The mission is not one of personal satisfaction, but one of full surrender.
i. If you are looking for comfort and personal satisfaction, you are primed to fall into whatever false-doctrine provides that.
e. You can’t just soak in the river!
f. You are either dead in the desert or advancing into destiny!
i. Revelation 3:1-2 (ESV) 1 “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. “‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.
ii. Revelation 3:5-6 (ESV) 5 The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. 6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
g. If you just soak, the river will carry you away into death:
i. The Jordan river flows to the salt sea, the dead sea!
ii. If you stay still, you will be carried away into death! The salt sea has no outlet. No movement! Death!
iii. The Dead Sea is 8.6 times saltier than the ocean. This salinity makes for a harsh environment in which animals cannot flourish, hence its name. The Dead Sea.
iv. We are to be salt to the earth, not in our place of comfort! If we carry salt, we must move!
v. When Lot’s wife stopped advancing, she turned to salt. Sodom was located next to the Salt Sea, the Dead Sea.
vi. The only way to live as salt is to move! To obey!
1. Lot’s instruction: Genesis 19:17 (ESV) 17 And as they brought them out, one said, “Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.”
vii. Not only can’t you complain, you can’t look back! You must advance!
3. Joshua 3:2-3 (ESV) 2 At the end of three days the officers went through the camp 3 and commanded the people, “As soon as you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God being carried by the Levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place and follow it.
4. God is raising up trailblazing leaders who carry the presence of God into the land of promise! Dare you follow?!
5. Joshua 3:9-13 (ESV) 9 And Joshua said to the people of Israel, “Come here and listen to the words of the LORD your God.” 10 And Joshua said, “Here is how you shall know that the living God is among you and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites. 11 Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is passing over before you into the Jordan. 12 Now therefore take twelve men from the tribes of Israel, from each tribe a man. 13 And when the soles of the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off from flowing, and the waters coming down from above shall stand in one heap.”
ii. Joshua 6:1-2 (ESV) 1 Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out, and none came in. 2 And the LORD said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor.
iii. Joshua 6:3 (ESV) 3 You shall march around the city…
iv. It’s time to move!
IV. Conclusion
a. If you want your city, you have to conquer your river.
b. If you want your Goliath, you have to conquer your lion and your bear.
c. If you are not interested in taking the city, you’ll waste away in the desert on the wrong side of promise.
d. If you aren’t interested in taking on Goliath, you’ll be bait for a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
e. We have no option. We must fight. We must believe. We must advance.
Oops. Correction and a new house of prayer for the Detroit region…
Life with John and Amy is THIS Saturday March SECOND (not third) at 6pm!
Just in case there may have been some confusion, the community of revivalists meets this Saturday, March 2nd… which is TOMORROW!
See you there at 6pm! Bring food, friends, kids and anybody else you can find! Our house is at 64639 Tara Hill Drive, Washington, MI 48095. 
And, while I have you, I should let you in on a powerful shift that has taken place at Revival Church.
A HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR THE DETROIT REGION : IHOP WEBSTREAM
No revival has come without a fiery, consistent foundation of intercession.
Soon, we will host intercession daily in our new mission base. But, we aren’t waiting!
Last Sunday we started gathering those who are ready to pray without ceasing and with fire in their bellies at 5:15pm for aggressive, fervent intercession in the sanctuary with the IHOP webstream video playing over us.
We then roll right into the worship service that has a mix of praise, intercession, worship and declarations throughout the night.
Of course, passionate teaching on revival and altar ministry will close out the night.
EVERYBODY PRAYING
I’m convinced that only those who are alive in the place of prayer, who are intimate with Jesus and deeply connected to his heart, will thrive, or even survive, in the end-times.
We are in the end-times right now.
Revival Church desires to see everybody joyfully alive and maturing rapidly in the place of prayer. theLab School of Fire, Revival Tribes, our worship experience and other focuses are fueled by people who pray.
These people (YOU!) will change the world!
We are always looking for praying people who are ready to take the fire to the cities of the Earth. We are taking intercessory warriors to Manitou Springs, Colorado SIX times this year. People who pray best understand the power they have to shock regions and nations!
So, come on out and get your feet wet at 5:15pm THIS SUNDAY!
A fun revival community event at John and Amy’s house Saturday
We want YOU to be a part of our growing and exciting revival community!
Saturday, March 3rd at 6pm you are invited to John and Amy's house for a night of food, fun and community!
Don't be shy—bring friends, family, all the kids and food to share TOMORROW at 6pm!
We'll eat, have some fun discussion on the mission, play games and have an amazing night!
Our address is: 64639 Tara Hill Drive, Washington, MI 48095
