The Church
Unusual stirring of the Holy Spirit
We need to be in position are ready for a massive move of God… it's coming!
Technorati Tags: fire, Holy Spirit, revival
Is the House of Prayer movement running out of steam?
FIRST—This afternoon (Sunday, November 22) at 4pm is the Revival Church Thanksgiving Dinner! Come on out and make some new, hungry (for turkey AND revival!) friends! Then, we’ll kick into strategic pursuit of revival at 6pm. www.detroitrevivalchurch.com.
Is the House of Prayer movement running out of steam? That question is sure to elicit a wide range of emotions and reactions, from radical disagreement to a yawn of indifference.
Here’s my thought: The House of Prayer movement is a strategic and divine plan of God. However, the House of Prayer movement in its current form is to bring 
recalibration to the church—it in itself is not meant to be an enduring structure.
Now, allow me to bring some clarification. The church is to be a house of prayer for all nations. Those of you who follow my ministry know my heart on this topic well.
I feel it is utter insanity that prayer is nearly non-existent in churches today. I mean, lets talk about this. Churches that don’t have prayer as the primary ministry and activity is like encouraging people to stand in a shower with no water. It’s so obviously nonsensical.
Prayer is the clear, tangible connecter between man and God. It’s the conduit of relationship that Jesus made possible for us on the cross.
Matthew 7:21-23 (NKJV) 21 "Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'
The clear idea here is that it’s possible to align ourselves with God, work for him, be dramatically involved in his business, while also not knowing him, not ‘saved’.
So, the problem is that we have churches full of devoted people, people who are working, serving and ministering, who don’t intimately know God. This is a more serious issue that we can imagine.
In my book The Terror of Hell I wrote about a dream that shook me to my core. As I prayed for interpretation of that dream, God wrecked my theology and comfort level. He said, “John, many people in the church will be shocked one day to find themselves in Hell.”
I believe the House of Prayer movement is a necessary shock to the church system. It must bring recalibration to a prayer-starved church.
It’s re-emphasizing the call to return to our first love. Check out this striking scripture:
Luke 10:25-28 (NKJV) 25 And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" 26 He said to him, "What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?" 27 So he answered and said, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,' and ‘your neighbor as yourself.' " 28 And He said to him, "You have answered rightly; do this and you will live."
This should be our primary salvation scripture. This should be our primary salvation strategy. The question was clear: What shall I do to inherit eternal life? Love God! Deeply! With every part of our being!
If we do this, and let that love reach others around us, we will be saved.
So, with prayer being the vehicle of relationship and intimacy with God, we must be severely alarmed when that vehicle is out of service.
The Global Prayer Movement and the House of Prayer Movement are not one in the same, though, of course, they are uniquely connected. The Global Prayer Movement is ramping up and gaining momentum. Right now, it seems that the House of Prayer is its primary driver.
However, this cannot remain. The church, with its governmental authority and biblical mandate inherent in it, must receive the baton of intimate, prophetic prayer from the House of Prayer movement.
I don’t believe Houses of Prayer, in their current form, can survive indefinitely. They must transition into or merge with churches.
For example, we see the International House of Prayer in Kansas City functioning as a keenly focused prayer ministry. People there pray hours a day as their primary life activity. However, it also functions as a church. They meet that need for people. They have no need to send people to a ‘real church’ because IHOP is a church.
Additionally, this year, they moved from an 80%/20% model of prayer/ministry to a 50/50 model. Their prayer is enabling and infusing church ministry.
I know this is a provocative and even offensive question, but if we at least consider it I believe we’ll be well on our way toward reformation in the church: Is it possible that IHOP and prayer-fueled ministries like it have a radically higher percentage of people who are truly saved than a typical church?
I’m not saying they have better theology or that they are somehow elite. I’m decreasing this issue to the lowest foundational level. They pray. The are intentionally applying the Luke 10 salvation strategy. They are focusing on the call to intimately know God.
This strategy and primary focus must return to every typical church on every street corner. That’s what the House of Prayer movement is doing. Rick Joyner says that if house of prayer leaders do their job well, they will work themselves out of that job. The true, biblical structure is the church, which is a house of prayer for all nations.
If houses of prayer succeed in their mission, there will no longer be a need for houses of prayer as we now know them.
Thoughts?
Press Release – Detroit Revival Church
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
John Burton Ministries starts Revival Church in St. Clair Shores, MI, welcomes Jeff Garvin
St. Clair Shores, MI – November 14, 2009
The world is watching Detroit, waiting on the report of its complete demise or of a miraculous restoration.
John Burton launched Revival Church with that in mind.
“After traveling to the Detroit area to minister several times over the past year, it became obvious that a permanent move was in order. Our house sold in the Kansas City area in under a week, and we have since moved in and are ready to see a dramatic reformation in Detroit. My heart is to see a legitimate outpouring of God here that will bring order to chaos, life to hurting people and vibrancy to a desperate society.”
John Burton has been in ministry since 1991 and has written five books including 20 Elements of Revival, Revelation Driven Prayer and Six Enemies of Fulfilled Destiny. He was recently featured on the Miracle Channel (www.miraclechannel.ca) as he discussed the thrill and importance of living a prophetic life.
John also planted Revolution Church in Manitou Springs, Colorado, directed an internship at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, Missouri and gave leadership to a city-wide prayer initiative in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
After several pre-launch meetings in their home, John and Amy Burton, along with their three boys, would like to invite you to advance toward revival in their new location. Revival Church meets every Sunday evening at 6pm at First United Methodist Church at 24036 Greater Mack, St. Clair Shores, MI 48080.
Prophetic prayer starts at 5pm and children can be checked in for their ministry at 5:45pm.
They also host a weekly prayer and strategic revival radio show online every Monday at 8pm. You can listen at www.detroitrevivalchurch.com/radio.
Internationally known prophetic revivalist Jeff Garvin, who was a significant part of the recent Lakeland, Florida Outpouring, will be ministering at Revival Church in December. He will be at a sister ministry, International House of Prayer East Detroit, on Friday, December 4th at 7pm, and at Revival Church on Saturday, December 5th at 7pm and Sunday, December 6th at 6pm.
Contact:
John Burton
[email protected]
www.detroitrevivalchurch.com
Ph: 313-799-3473
A crisis in the church : Revival Church Sunday
I'm working on my 2010 calendar, and also have availability certain weeks during the rest of 2009. If you would like to schedule me to minister in your church or at your conference or event, visit www.praytherevolution.com/booking.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
- Revival Nation Church– Join me in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada THIS SUNDAY morning at 10:30am as I minister the fire of the Holy Spirit. We can caravan- just let me know if you’d like to go and we’ll head out as a team. Email me at [email protected].
- Revival Church– Sunday evening we’ll contend for a strategic and overwhelming move of God in Detroit. Passionate and prophetic prayer starts at 5pm and we’ll flow right into the service at 6pm. www.detroitrevivalchurch.com
- Revival Radio– Join us every Monday at 8pm Eastern for prayer and discussion on advancing toward revival and an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. www.detroitrevivalchurch.com/radio
- Jeff Garvin– Jeff will be back with us in December for THREE NIGHTS. Friday, December 5th he’ll be at the International House of Prayer East Detroit and Saturday and Sunday evenings he’ll be at Revival Church. www.ihopedetroit.org
I wrote a book titled The Terror of Hell about an encounter I had with demons who were 
dragging me into the Earth- toward Hell.
I can’t begin to communicate the absolute terror that I experienced that night in the early 1990’s. However, the message that has caused me to tremble in the fear of the Lord ever since is this- many church goers, many people who have faithfully attended and supported the churches on the corners throughout our nation will be shocked beyond measure to find themselves in Hell one day.
I won’t go into the detail that is best found in the book, but suffice it to say that there is a critical connection between one’s salvation and one’s intimate relationship with Jesus.
I feel the infamous ‘sinner’s prayer’, when handled wrongly, can easily become a ticket to Hell instead of Heaven. We must never over-sell the prayer. We can’t guarantee someone’s position in Christ simply because they are having a rough day and decide that they want things to get better, and hope a prayer does the trick.
I was at an event recently that caused me to cringe. A pastor was leading a large room full of people, many of them children, in the sinner’s prayer. At the end of the prayer, everybody repeated after the pastor, “…thank you Jesus that I am saved.”
Is it possible that many of then may go through the rest of their lives with a tragically false assurance of their salvation?
A Crisis in the Church
Allow me to attach this to the emotion that’s raging in my heart right now. There is a move all across churchdom against the experiential reality of the Holy Spirit. People are increasingly anti-emotion, anti-trembling, anti-encounter, anti-feeling. It’s a left-brained world that’s resulting in a logical, passionless ‘connection’ with religion.
For me, to not be emotionally impacted in the presence of God should send red flags flying! How can we simply stand there are grin as the power of God burns around us?
Understand, people are tired of hype, false representations of the activity of the Holy Spirit, etc. They should be. I am too. However, the right reaction is not to deemphasize the dramatic, experiential activity of God. The appropriate response is to contend for it and settle for nothing less!
To dismiss the norm of living a revelation and encounter driven life, to not expect a biblical life to result in an inner trembling that never ends, is a terrifying proposition.
We can’t call for the presence of God to invade our lives and be absent of a powerful, prophetic, weighty encounter.
Here’s a great quote from someone who has grown tired of ‘charismania’ that I fully agree with:
- If I ever experience the “manifest presence of God” where human flesh cannot stand, that’d be great. But until then, I choose to avoid pale imitations.
Here’s other quote that causes concern:
- I’ve come to believe that the only definite thing we have to go on is what is promised to us in the Bible. And I don’t see the Bible as advocating an experience-oriented faith.
There must be an alarm sounded. God is real. He is to be encountered. He can be felt. He can be heard. This is a serious issue to say the least.
A “Whatever Church” : TONIGHT Live Radio Broadcast
First- TONIGHT, Monday, November 2nd at 8pm Eastern (just over two hours from now) I’ll be live on blogtalkradio.com along with several other Revival Church ministers, revivalists and hungry people from all over the nation and around the world.
We’ll be praying, declaring and releasing fire into Detroit at 8pm sharp, and will then move into discussion on the topic of strategic revival.
You can participate by:
- Listening by visiting www.detroitrevivalchurch.com/radio.
- Listen by calling in at (646) 478-4408
- Listen AND join in on the show at (646) 478-4408
Also, a NEW teaching from yesterday’s service will be uploaded to www.detroitrevivalchurch.com/teaching SOON! It’s part two of Six Enemies of Fulfilled Destiny.
A WHATEVER CHURCH
I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling a bit raw, incredibly desperate. I am craving a revival and move of God in our region- and I’m certain that church as usual isn’t the appropriate structure.
There are over 19,000 cities in America, and none of them are experiencing revival. Something’s wrong.
There are hundreds of thousands of churches in America, and few are experiencing revival. Something is very wrong.
We can’t continue with the same structure, the same model of ministry.
Last night was an unusual night at Revival Church. Prayer started as it always does at 5pm. Then, at 6pm, when we were to launch into worship, our worship leader was having an encounter with the Lord. Several people were around her, praying, warring, interceding. Banners were being waved over her as she contended under a veil. It was powerful.
I leaned over to a friend and said, “Do you think it’s time to give the announcements and take the offering?” He laughed.
Yet, in many churches, the activity of the Holy Spirit would be stopped to ensure everything remained on schedule.
Well after the normal 6pm starting time, our worship leader shared about her encounter, about how fire was all over her hands. She remembered an encounter she had of going to heaven a year ago, and that the trembling is intense in her yet again.
I want that kind of person leading worship at Revival Church! I’m losing interest in all of the ‘supposed to’s’ of church planting. I am raw, and I want a raw move of the Holy Spirit.
I want a place where people tremble as they walk through the door.
Last night someone was praying and declaring on the microphone and she collapsed under the glory of God. She was still there as I started to preach.
A strong prophetic atmosphere kept increasing throughout the night, and several were impacted by revelation from God at the altar.
After it was all done, someone said, “Revival Church is a ‘whatever’ church. Whatever God wants to do at any time during the service just happens.”
I like that. I think we need a lot of “Whatever Churches” in our nation.
A new partner in revival : many resources available to you
FIRST- Be sure to listen to a clear message on revival strategy. I believe the fire of God will erupt in you as you listen. If you want to know what Revival Church is all about, you’ll find out as you listen to this message. We’ll use it for leadership training in Revival Church as we call people into position for the coming move of God. It’s titled “Intro to Revival Church- The Joshua 3 Mandate.” Listen now at www.detroitrevivalchurch.com/teaching.
SECOND- I want to take loads of people with me as I minister at Revival Nation Church in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada on Sunday morning, November 8th. Let me know if you want to go! (You’ll need your passport.)
Revival Church is deeply focused on impacting your life with the message of legitimate revival. The Lord burned in my spirit recently a call: Hope & Hype- We must move beyond unfulfilled hope and man-made hype.
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, and God will always out do hype if we let him.
We are seeking new ministry partners locally and around the nation and world to infuse Revival Church financially. The Detroit mission is demanding, yet we know that success here will result in a domino affect through the nation and around the world.
You can give your tithe or special offerings on our new giving system at www.detroitrevivalchurch.com/donate.
Additionally, you can set up RECURRING donations on the same page. A monthly recurring donation would be a wonderful way to plant seed into this fertile soil all year long.
Here are some of the ways you can stay connected to our ministry:
- NEW internet radio show at www.detroitrevivalchurch.com/radio. You can pray with us, listen to prophetic insights and vision casting and, if you would like, call in to the show and participate. Every Monday at 8pm sharp we'll start with focused prayer for an outpouring in Detroit and then we’ll move on to discussion.
- FREE teachings. You can listen to the messages from Revival Church every week, and also enjoy a vast archive of past teachings at www.detroitrevivalchurch.com/teaching. Be sure to listen to The Joshua 3 Mandate and Six Enemies of Fulfilled Destiny from this past weekend.
- Subscribe to our email updates. I regularly share prophetic messages, insights and teachings on a variety of topics. You can also be alerted to new sermons that are uploaded, special events and other news items. www.detroitrevivalchurch.com/subscribe.
- Podcasts on the go. I regularly call in from my cell phone and record quick, punchy podcasts. If the Lord is burning in me on a certain topic, I just pick up the phone and share. It’s instantly added to the site at www.detroitrevivalchurch.com/podcast.
- Articles. You can read articles on revival, prayer, prophecy and other topics at www.johnburton.net/blog. Be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed!
- Books. I’ve written five books, and am convinced that the Holy Spirit will impact you powerfully as you read through them. www.detroitrevivalchurch.com/resources.
- Facebook. Become a FAN and follow along with everything that’s going on in the church. http://facebook.detroitrevivalchurch.com. Also, send a friend request to my personal profile at www.facebook.com/johnburton.
- Twitter. I update to Twitter several times a day. Follow me at www.twitter.com/johneburton.
- Personal ministry site. Head over to www.praytherevolution.com and see booking info, my bio, video and other info not on the Revival Church site.
Thank you for your support of this ministry. Your donations are very meaningful and will go a long way toward enabling ministry in Detroit and beyond!
www.detroitrevivalchurch.com/donate.
John
A Regional Revival Center – Mass Deliverance – Prophetic word on Detroit’s finances
I’m sitting in an Alistair Petrie summit in Sarnia, Ontario Canada right now, and I’m stirred! He’s talking about principles of city transformation, which is the 
topic of the hour in Detroit.
I’ve been connecting with Bishop Larry Jackson and others this week in meetings, and it seems that God is suddenly sparking a lot of hearts at the same time. Urgency is increasing quickly.
Revival Church has a mandate to focus on regional revival and transformation. Our heart is to effectively connect the city church, pour into it and do our part in starting fires of revival.
SUNDAY
4pm- If you have any level of interest in the mission of revival at Revival Church, you are invited to a very important meeting tomorrow (Sunday) at 4pm. This is a gathering and vision imparting meeting that will give you a lot of info and will help you connect with other revivalists. We’ll be downstairs in the children’s ministry room. Again, this is for anybody reading this message, whether you have been with us since the beginning, or you’ve never been to an event. (please be prompt and also be respectful of Mercy and Truth Church that will be meeting in the sanctuary until 5:30pm for a special event)
6pm- Join us for a night of passionate prayer, declaration, worship, dance, freedom in the Holy Spirit and vision driven teaching.
MASS DELIVERANCE
There have been some interesting prophetic words on my life regarding ‘mass deliverance’. I function in personal deliverance regularly, and have started to see deliverance on a corporate level ramp up. What I feel is coming next is mass, city-wide deliverance. Alistair Petrie is teaching now on this concept! As vivid and undeniable truth invades a person, that person can easily and suddenly be free. As the secret things come to the surface and as light is shined into a situation, the power that deception has had is instantly dissolved.
This will also come to a city. Strongholds will break on a city level.
PROPHETIC WORD- KINGDOM FINANCES
For example, last night I had a strong prophetic impression. God was saying, “Now! Now! The church must move now in the financial realm. Right this moment the secular world is sitting around board room tables planning on instilling principles and methods to rescue Detroit from financial ruin. This must not happen. The church must not allow the world to run ahead and put into place humanistic strategies that will bring greater harm. The Church must set into place Kingdom principles in the city.”
We can’t afford to let the world maintain its level of influence on the economy. The Church and biblical financial principles must be brought into the story!
Alistair Petrie said, “Kingdom finances will be released as integrity and Kingdom culture develops and prevails.”
He also said that the church is a litmus test of the society it is in. The culture of the church is an indicator of the culture of a city. We must see Kingdom financial (and all other!) principles activated in the church and individual local churches of Detroit.
He said, “You can’t pray for transformation in your city unless you go through the same thing yourself that you’re asking for others to experience. We must become ‘changed agents’ before becoming ‘agents of change’.”
John
City strategy : Multiple church commitment
It's time to stop presuming people will only commit to one local church or ministry.
I regularly consider how we are going to see the massive reformation in the church come to pass. The way we see church today will become a distant memory as the entire structure changes.
We’ll need to take intentional steps toward a city church structure, which means the face of the local church is going to morph considerably.
Some preliminary steps:
- Multiple church commitment: We will begin to see people primarily commit to one church and also commit (truly commit, no hopping allowed!) at a lesser, yet still significant level at other churches. When this happens, every church won’t have to be focused broadly on everything, but they will focus intently on the few areas they are called and gifted to facilitate. When the body is expected to connect at only one church, they in turn have no other option but to expect that church to have a broad focus. The current system works against itself. When the reformation comes, a family will connect in one church where they will serve and sit under apostolic leadership that’s running with strength in a streamlined ministry, and on other days and nights of the week they may serve at another church’s youth ministry, Bible study or small group.
An important element here is that instead of limiting themselves to senior leadership at the local level, the various leaders of the churches in the city take on the role of associate leaders of the city church. So instead of thinking of it like people frequenting multiple local churches, they are actually strategically connecting in multiple departments of a single city church. One night they are in the teaching department growing in discipleship and on another night in the prayer department serving in intercession. These departments are actual churches and ministries spread out all over the city.
The five-fold ministry does not have to function in every single church or ministry. It's not realistic for that to happen. One church might be led by someone in a teaching office while another is led by a prophet. Pastors will give leadership to small groups and other ministries. Evangelists will train and lead out in strategic soul winning events. Apostles will govern and serve all of the city's leaders by casting vision, gathering the Ekklesia in the region and instructing at a high level.
Local church pastors will have to surrender their solitary leadership position in people's lives and begin to emphasize the city church more than their own local church. Senior pastors will then lead the way multiple times a month into other events, conferences, prayer meetings, church services and small groups in the region. People under their leadership will truly experience refreshing and renewed passion as they are no longer limited to what a single local church can provide.
- Prayer as a primary ministry: We must start where the first church started in Acts 2- in the prayer room. It’s shocking how absent prayer is in the church, and it’s terrifying how few Christians are intimately connected with Jesus in the place of prayer. I propose we cancel most everything we’re doing in the church and hit our face night and day and pray, and soak, and intercede and declare as a corporate body.
- Connecting with apostolic and prophetic leaders: We need to pray in, invite in and partner with apostolic and prophetic leaders who God is preparing right now. Who is God going to use regionally to help give leadership to a move of God? It probably won't be your local church pastor, but your pastor and everyone in your church should support whoever it is.
Time Magazine : Detroit financial reformation : The church
As I have often shared recently, I have felt since before we moved to Detroit in May that there is a coming two-fold spiritual AND financial revival.
The Church is in the midst of an opportunity unlike any other in our lifetime- to display the power, effectiveness and efficiency of biblical Kingdom financial principles.
Revival Church is in its infancy, yet we are determined to see a business department develop that will do the following:
- Offer deliverance from wrong mindsets, demonic influence and a spirit of poverty
- Train in biblical financial principles
- Equip people to develop new skills
- Actually have business opportunities identified for people to step in to
We don’t only want to offer hand outs- the goal is to see people proactively move from unemployment, welfare or sub-standard employment situations into health, prosperous and biblically sound new realities.
The testimony about Detroit should be: We cannot deny that God, His Church and biblical principles were the direct reason for financial revival in Detroit.
Here’s some snips and a link to an article by the folks in the recently purchased house here in Detroit- Time Magazine. I left a comment on that site.
http://detroit.blogs.time.com/2009/10/12/a-key-to-our-salvation/
A Key To Our Salvation?
Personally, I don't need to read any more "letters" to or from Detroit, but at least in this one Detroit native Ryan Mack offers a reasoned, proactive take on seedy businesses, our economic climate and what more we can do to change our material conditions.
Most intriguing to me is the following:
What would happen if churches learned how to combine forces and create economic development corporations? The largest employer in Queens, New York is Floyd Flake of Allen AME Church Cathedral and last I checked he has $30+ million Corporation with over $75 million in real estate assets. Other churches like Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, Harlem Congregations of Community Improvement, and the list goes on across the country of how churches have used their leverage for the greater good of the community. We can do the same in Detroit. If done right, an economic movement of the church can create thousands of jobs for the city of Detroit.
Whatever your position on faith and religion, do you think Detroit houses of worship can and should develop a broad-scale cooperative effort to attack the city's worst problems?
From Lakeland: Jeff Garvin THIS SUNDAY at Revival Church
We are preparing for the coming Detroit Outpouring, and we are excited to have Jeff Garvin running the race with us in this region THIS SUNDAY at 6pm.
Visit www.detroitrevivalchurch.com for our address and a map.
Forward this flyer on to everybody you know who has a burning in their spirit for revival in Detroit.
