Posts Tagged ‘hungry’
A church that’s a challenge to run with | Revival Church’s unapologetic mission
This testimony from a 16 year old about the hardcore challenge of Revival Church totally rocked me—and it will you too.
Amy Smith and her 16 year old daughter were having a discussion about the intense environment at Revival Church. The discussion was revealing and quite powerful:
Amy: It seems to be quite the challenge to run with Revival Church. Why do you think that is?
Abby: Because there is accountability through the preaching and teaching. Stuff gets called out and you can't hide. There are no excuses. At other churches it might be easy to act or think everything is fine and you can slip and it seems normal because others are doing that too. It seems lukewarm.
At Revival, it's more than just being taught basics, you feel like you're in training. It's like you're being built up, not just filled in.
Amy: Why do you like Revival?
Abby: It's straightforward and there's nothing fake about it. I can respect someone who is straightforward and tells the honest truth for your own good no matter how hard or risky it is than someone who sugar coats it just so you can follow them.
Long ago I made a promise that I would never tone down the activity of the Holy Spirit out of respect of those less hungry.
I often am celebrated for taking that stand as most people presume I’m simply in favor of more freedom during the services. I am, but that’s barely the tip of the iceberg.
When the Holy Spirit moves, a culture of brokenness, conviction, submission, training and fear of the Lord is also the result.
After 24 years of ministry, I’m absolutely confident that my wife and I have the skills to grow a church of at least 200-300—if we toned down the message, the call and the expectations. I’d have a healthy salary and a stable life. There would be no need to develop additional income streams. We’d be beloved by many! However, my stomach turns when I think about that option. It scares me a little that it’s available to me!
I have never had even the slightest passion to lead a ministry that affirmed the lukewarm, game players or those with their own agenda. That may seem harsh, but the truth is that the end is near and the mission is extreme. Only those who are willing to die in the battle are going to crucify their flesh, lay their own desires down and run toward the enemy.
Of course, even the most immature, weak and struggling are welcomed in if they are ready for boot camp and the resulting war! It’s the hungry, rejected and broken that will be leading the charge!
I want to challenge pastors to grab hold of the vision God has given you and call everybody up much higher into it. When the call reaches the point where comfort is violated, many will probably bolt for the exits but those who remain are more precious than you can imagine.
It’s that remnant army that will turn the world upside down. Abby Smith sure seems to be developing as a general in that army.
Ministry: Can I give you a call?
Hi!
My name is John Burton and I am praying for new Kingdom connections with pastors and leaders both in this nation and around the world.
I’d love to give you a call and hear more about your ministry. Is there a time that would work?
If you feel it would benefit your ministry, we can discuss scheduling a church event or conference in your region that would powerfully encourage you and your team!
In the meantime, my bio can be viewed at www.johnburton.net if you’d like to take a look.
The short version is:
- I’ve planted two churches, one in Colorado and one in Detroit.
- I’ve written eight books on the topics of prayer, reformation and revival.
- I directed one of the primary internships at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City.
- I crave being in God’s presence with other hungry people!
- I also believe strongly in the local church and would love to serve your mission.
Contact me any time via email at [email protected] or phone at 719.231.6000.
I can’t wait to hear from you!
Photos & video: I can’t imagine any revival hungry person in the Detroit region missing this
It landed again. The spirit of revival exploded onto the scene in Detroit last night!
I honestly can’t imagine any revival hungry person in the Detroit region missing these services! Watch the video HERE!
We had people from Wisconsin, Chicago, Toledo and other places make the trip just to experience the revival fire that has been lit in Detroit!
I'm barely able to function as my eyes attempt to focus on the blazing glory in front of me. Obliterating the old, and experiencing something new. The glory is hitting the earth. They had to carry me out of the mtg last nite. That hasn't happened to me for many years.~Brian Simmons
I was consumed by the glory of God myself all night long. Leading a meeting under such a strong influence of new wine is a site to behold! Then, when I was in the foyer one of my heavily anointed staff comes over and touches me… and I was done. I crashed. The anointing was so intense, and so new, that I collapsed. I’m still carrying that glory right now as I type this.
IT CONTINUES TONIGHT AT REVIVAL CHURCH
I’ll say it again, if you live within 2-3 hours of Detroit, and you are hungry for God, hungry for revival, it just wouldn’t make any sense to stay home today. If you think the Super Bowl is a better alternative, I have done a tragically poor job of revealing to you the level of God’s glory that arrived in the city last night. We cannot treat this arrival of the King casually. His Royalty is here!
Join with us at 5pm at Revival Church for an hour of prayer that will shock you to your core. Then, at 6pm, Catherine Mullins and Brian Simmons will be taking us further into the burnings of revival!
Revival Church meets at CENTRAL CHURCH, 1529 E. 12 Mile Rd, Madison Heights, MI 48071.
Do you want monthly outpouring meetings in Detroit? Response requested
If the response is HOT, pastors in Detroit are considering planning monthly outpouring meetings in Detroit.
**Send me a quick email at [email protected] (by 2pm today if at all possible!) if you are interested in participating in monthly events—I have a meeting with some pastors today from 3-5pm, and we’ll be discussing the level of interest, the prophecy behind it and the timing.
Everything that happened at the Fire in February conference is leading us to believe that God is preparing his church for a very unique and heavy manifestation of his presence in Detroit.
Here’s what we’re looking for:
- Pastors and leaders who will rally their churches and invest their time and resources into this movement
- Hungry people who will spread the word and participate at a high level as we pursue revival together
SHOULD THE CHURCH BE ALIVE?
This movement absolutely depends on the response of the church to be together on a city level. People can’t be alone, and churches can’t be alone.
I was watching the TV show I Shouldn’t Be Alive the other day, and a warning for the church jumped out at me.
The show is a dramatization of life and death situations—people lost at sea, climbers injured on Mt. Everest, etc.
This show was about a man who decided to go rafting alone in a remote part of the Grand Canyon. His raft was lost and he was alone, wet and freezing in the night air. He had a small fire that he was working hard to keep burning.
Then, the narrator said, “If he falls asleep, and the fire goes out, he will die.”
There it is.
Here’s the breakdown of this clear message to the church:
- We can’t be alone. Our individual church pursuits are important, but only as they fit into the larger city church mission. Instead of wondering how we can reach our local church goals, we must start asking the question, “What must I do to help fulfill the greater city-church mission.” The local congregations must gather together regularly with the greater city church in prayer and mission advance.
- We can’t fall asleep. To be asleep means that we are not alert, focused and engaged in what is most demanding. We seek comfort and relaxation ahead of advancing toward the fulfillment of the mission. It’s possible to be wide awake to finding friends, climbing the corporate ladder, being entertained and also to anxiety and fear and stress…while being numb and disengaged to prayer, ministry and mission.
- We can’t let the fire go out. Simply, we must be burning continually. We have to be people that pray in the Spirit, who know God deeply, who are wrecked, undone and full of the never ending burning of the Holy Spirit.
If we are alone, asleep and without the fire, we are near spiritual death. If we gather together continually, stay on task and are alert corporately and burn as a single unit, Detroit will encounter God in power.
This vision of monthly outpouring meetings, along with weekly prayer gatherings will ensure we’re not alone, we’re wide awake and the fire is hot and getting hotter.
**Please let me know if you are ready for a movement like this in Detroit.
I’m accessible. Here’s how you can contact me:
- Email: [email protected]
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/johnburton
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/johneburton
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/johnburtonministries
I’m alarmed : Hungry yet sleepy, scattered and distracted : The core call for Christians in this hour
This prophetic analysis is specifically for the Detroit region, yet I’m confident it has impact in cities around the world.
[Don’t miss Aaron Crider Sunday night at Revival Church! This is most definitely a critical weekend as we gather together and advance toward revival!]
Aaron Crider was sharing with us at dinner after an amazing night of worship about the lifestyle to expect 
when revival breaks out in Detroit.
For six years he and his wife were invested in the Brownsville Revival. They would be at the church by 5pm each night and wouldn’t leave until after 1am… EVERY NIGHT except Sunday and Monday! Then, he’d wake up after 3-4 hours of sleep to get up for work by 6am. Work would finish at 11:30am and he’d go right to school. After school it was time for another revival service.
He said that every day 2,000 people would line up at 7am—for a service that started at 7pm! Every day!
This type of investment, of this level of focus is will become the norm for those involved in revival in Detroit.
Let me continue with a simple statement: The core call for Christians in this hour is to gather. To be together. Continually. We must daily build the house of God with fiery devotion.
When I arrived in Detroit a year and a half ago I immediately discerned an atmosphere of extreme hunger. The feel of breakthrough was in the air.
My guess was that it would be easy to sound the alarm, call the hungry to gather together in pursuit of the meal of a lifetime (revival) and the masses would quickly unify, come together and pray. I envisioned a movement of builders, of blue collar zealots who would lock arms and work with passion, together, day after day until the foundation for revival was built.
2000 years ago, in a historic moment of desperation, a key event unfolded. The disciples were about to experience the rocking of the Earth by the Holy Spirit as revealed in Acts 2, but they had to do two things in order for this to happen:
- Gather together
- Pray
It was a similar call that Jesus had for the disciples in the garden. Stay awake, gather together and pray.
It’s the same strategy for us today.
I’M ALARMED
There are hungry people in Detroit, but I sense that hunger is being overcome by a sleepy, scattered and distracted people. Let me say this clearly: Right now, the mission of revival in Detroit absolutely has to be primary for every Believer in the region!
We must be together—continually. We absolutely have to pray.
The new reformation that’s coming to the church that will result in a Brownsville style 24/7 level of participation must be introduced now. We must rearrange our lives around the mission, and build.
The first two elements in my book 20 Elements of Revival are:
- Agreement
- An extreme devotion of time
As we’re locking arms, building together, praying in the Spirit and developing a new culture of daily participation in the church we’ll find revival rushing closer at warp speed.
ALL OVER DETROIT THE CHURCH MUST GATHER
It must become normal, very quickly, for churches to be filled to overflowing as people gather to pray several nights a week. It’s time to resist the urge to scatter. We can’t be distracted by lesser things. We must wake up and understand the magnitude of the mission. This is an all hands on deck all the time season!
I’M ENCOURAGED
Yes, I’m alarmed, but I’m also encouraged. That alarm is sure to wake up a ready remnant that will break through the religious system and build up the walls of this city with passion.
If you are one who is ready for reformation, you call is simple. Be in the church every time the doors are open. Contend for the doors to be open even more than they are! Then, pray and build the House of the Lord.
If we can begin to see a pattern of daily gathering and fervent prayer through the region, we’ll actually be able to watch the wave of revival come crashing over us.
REVIVAL CHURCH PLANS
The dream is clear—we want to see an army of people explode a movement of night and day prayer, facilitate regional, large scale prophetic events, raise up a team of revivalists to take the fire to other cities and initiate the culture of revival as we help establish the 24/7 city church.
Can you give 10-20 hours a week to this vision? Contact us. We’re ready to see revival come, and we need the laborers to handle the harvest.