Posts Tagged ‘intercession’
The Detroit Outpouring returns to Revival Church
The Fireplace with Brian Simmons, James Levesque and the rest of the team will be at Revival Church Sunday night!
Trust me. You’ll want to come early. Some of the most fiery, deep intercession that I’ve experienced as of late starts one hour before every service. Tonight’s intercession turned into a prophetic impartation that flowed into the first 30 minutes of the service. Fire was imparted powerfully!
So, at 5pm, we’ll be praying with fire at Revival Church, and then the service starts at 6pm.
People are currently flying and driving here so they can jump into this revival fire! Amazing!
Brian Simmons just posted this to Facebook:
Flying back to Detroit! So excited about the outpouring that broke loose. Filled with love for a city I barely know.
You can also watch the services LIVE online (we’re actually streaming as I’m typing this) at www.thefireplacedetroit.com.
See you Sunday!
An Invitation
Well, it's happening. The fire is burning in Detroit as so many have been expecting. After years of preparation, it's time to launch.
People are buying airplane tickets and loading up in cars from far away to travel to Detroit for the upcoming meetings at The Fireplace! People are so hungry for revival that they are paying a great price just to get here!
I'd like to invite YOU to dive into the burning presence of God with us as Brian Simmons is clearing his schedule to be with us starting this Friday.
He has actually cleared his calendar for 21 days in the expectation that revival will break out and the week long meetings will extend! He is leaving an event with Che Ahn, Jim Goll and others in Aruba early so he can follow the smell of revival to Detroit!
INTERCESSION
I'm looking for as many fiery people as I can find to join me one hour prior to every service to pray with passion and precision. This is a critical, foundational structure that must be exceptionally strong.
SCHEDULE
- Friday, March 4th at 7pm at First Assembly of God in Dearborn Heights www.dhfirstag.org
- Saturday, March 5th at 6pm at First Assembly of God in Dearborn Heights
- Sunday, March 6th at 6pm at Revival Church in St. Clair Shores www.detroitrevivalchurch.com (with Brian Simmons, Leonard Jones and Aaron Crider!)
- Monday, March 7th-Friday-March 11th at 7pm each night at First Assembly in Dearborn Heights
Check out the new website- www.thefireplacedetroit.com.
Join our Facebook group- simply search for The Fireplace.
If you have any questions, just let me know!
theLab Internship : Monthly revival events in Detroit
Check out the developing plan for facilitating the move toward revival in the Detroit region.
The last prophetic word I received before leaving IHOP and Kansas City for the new mission in Detroit came from a pastor and friend from World Revival Church—the ministry that hosted the Smithton Outpouring. The word was something like:
“John, you are a fire starter. You ignite the fires of revival when you minister, and now God is calling you to build a fireplace. He needs a place to host and facilitate that fire so it continues to burn hot, so it doesn’t die out.”
I often wondered how I was to do that. Then, Brian Simmons rocked me this past Saturday morning when he said, several times, that the Detroit region was to be a fireplace of God’s presence.
You see, my calling and focus in Detroit is very much regional as opposed to local. Revival Church is a regional prophetic center of revival. My heart is to see the fire of the Holy Spirit burn all over the greater Detroit Metro area.
Additionally, I have been feeling strongly the need for a monthly event, much like The Ramp in Alabama, in Detroit for quite some time. Now, that plan is starting to come to pass.
So, we are investing significantly into the regional revival strategy. Here’s some of what is coming:
- theLab prayer—We’re calling 1000 intercessors to gather with us each week as we pray in a different church somewhere in Detroit.
- theLab internship—We are raising up a team of revival minded, prayer fueled people who are interested in serving the coming outpouring. We are in pre-launch right now and are inviting those who want to join with us to show up at our next meeting (We meet at IHOPE every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday from noon-1pm, ever Friday somewhere in Detroit from 10pm-midnight and at Revival Church Sundays at 6pm). We’ll have an info meeting in March, then we plan on launching in June. Contact me for more info at [email protected]. Also, visit www.revivallab.com.
- theLab sponsored/endorsed events—Pastor Joe Sazyc is giving leadership, along with several other pastors, to a new monthly gathering. The fire is simmering, and we will be stoking those flames once a month in a worship and teaching mini-conference once a month somewhere in Detroit. The Fire in February Conference started something that words cannot describe. I’m still trembling! Stay tuned… we’ll announce the schedule as we develop it.
I’d love to hear from you! What do you think? How would you like to participate?
I believe theLab internship will go a long way in covering the monthly events in intercession AND in serving the events practically. A well oiled machine, a unified team of revivalists will be working together each month to serve the mission of revival in Detroit!
Of course, there are other key movements under way as well including EACH, 24FLOOD, IHOPE and several others. We’re behind all of them and can’t wait to see how it all will come together!
This is very exciting! Contact me at [email protected] and share your thoughts!
Detroit strategy tonight with Miles Anderson
Miles Anderson TONIGHT at Revival Church!
First, have you registered for THE THINNING OF THE VEIL conference with Michele Perry? Head on over to www.detroitrevivalchurch.com/events and register TODAY!
Yesterday was easily one of the most powerful and most important days in Revival Church history. Miles Anderson from Revolution House of Prayer in Manitou Springs, Colorado met with our church staff all day and imparted strategies for intercession, deliverance and for dealing with the warfare in this region.
TONIGHT he will be ministering at Revival Church at 6pm. If you want to experience a highly prophetic atmosphere with some serious breakthrough anointing, don’t miss this special event.
Miles is a great friend and a General of the faith. For years he woke up every morning at 4am, seven days a week, and covered me, my family and the ministry in intercession. His strategies of breakthrough are powerful and effective and he is intent on seeing the church rally together in Detroit.
Prayer starts at 5pm and we would love to have you join us!
For a map and directions, click here.
You are NOT the church : The scattering movement : What about church online?
THE SCATTERING MOVEMENT
To say that I’m concerned would be a gross understatement. There is a scattering movement in the nation that’s causing deep harm to the mission of the church. This scattering of believers is so widespread that we are seeing theologies and philosophies emerging that support the idea that it’s actually healthy to disband and withdraw. It becoming common to hear people say things like, “The church isn’t a building,” or, “I am the church, so I don’t have to go ‘to church’.” The idea is that people have become so wounded or dissatisfied with their experience in the church that they have decided that it’s not only better but actually biblically acceptable to minimize participation in an organized church setting. This mindset is threatening the corporate mission to a terrifying degree.YOU ARE NOT THE CHURCH
If we understand the meaning of the word ‘church’ we could never presume that we alone are the church. That idea is contrary to the origin of the word (ekklesia, meaning “assembly”). In fact, that word has secular origins. It literally means an assembly of people who have been called together by an authority in the city or region. Wow! That sheds a lot of light on what the church is. The church is an assembly of people organized under defined governmental leadership. It’s a regular gathering of people who are deeply agreed and in pursuit of mission advance under God’s apostles, prophets and other governmental leaders. Further, the pure definition of the word reveals that it isn’t used as easily in the context of the global company of believers as it is in the regional and local gathering of believers. The definition reveals that it’s a well defined local group vs. a loosely defined larger group of people (who mostly don’t know each other at all). We can’t be a part of the church if we aren’t gathered together with other parts of the church. Church is corporate. Additionally, the church is a group of people who assemble, fellowship, pray and respond together to apostolic teaching. That can’t happen in a more nebulous global context. The church has inherent in it’s core call the expectation of assembly and a corporate response so as to ensure the local mission is fulfilled. Again, a fulfilled mission can’t be realized without this type of intentional and faithful participation at a local level where communication and commonality are clearly defined.WHAT ABOUT HAVING CHURCH ONLINE?
I agree that there is much to enjoy and gain from this amazing technological world. We can watch church services online (I was watching one myself just tonight), listen to worship, meet Christians in forums and on Facebook, pray for one another and involve ourselves in Kingdom business in very unique ways. However, if this is the limit of one’s involvement, there are some key issues to be considered:- DEVOID OF APOSTOLIC LEADERSHIP—There is most probably (there are exceptions) no clearly defined apostolic leadership involved. We have to know who we’re called to serve with. We have to all hear, together, in our local congregation, how we are to respond in mission advance. What’s God calling our leaders to focus on? How are we to participate? What are the goals? What steps must we take to prepare ourselves to see this come to pass?
- LACK OF STRATEGIC CORPORATE INTERCESSION—While not impossible, it’s very hard to involve ourselves in the number one purpose of the church this way—corporate intercession. We just have to be together to pray with unity and consistency if we are to have the sufficient strength to see significant impact.
- NO ACCOUNTABILITY—Accountability and discipline are nearly non-existent outside of the context of the local church. Most who flock from the church and into alternative spiritual activities do so to avoid conflict, accountability and correction from leadership. We have to understand that this is a critical part of the refining process. We must be receptive and humble and ready to be challenged—even if the leaders God established for us are exceptionally flawed and out of touch with our needs.
- PROMOTES MISUNDERSTANDING OF THE PURPOSE OF THE CHURCH—It can quite easily reinforce a wrong understanding of the purpose of the church. I would say this is the most serious issue. The prevailing thought these days is that the church is there for us. Whatever needs we have, we can get many of them met in the church. So, we attend if we are ministered to. Or, we may determine that we can get what we’re looking for without regular church attendance. So, the church becomes unnecessary to us. Friend, this concept is a defilement of the church. I can’t say it any less striking than that. We are called to gather together with other believers primarily to intercede for the nations. We are there to give, to leave offerings, to serve, to minister, to pray, to grow. The church isn’t primarily there for us, we are to be there for the mission of the church. We may say that we don’t need the church but have we considered that the church needs us?
1000 Prophetic Intercessors : Revival Church Detroit Strategy
Our intercessors, ministry staff and I are deeply in the place of prayer in our current season concerning the advance of LIFE and the power of Jesus in Detroit.
This will be no small movement. Mega. That’s the word that God has burned in my spirit. We have an opportunity to dream and see well beyond our own abilities right now—God is provoking many in this region to awaken, move into position and cry out for fire from Heaven!
The Revival Church strategy continues to unfold, and it has become clear that the foundation of night and day prophetic prayer all across the region must be developed—and quickly. It’s time to decree and declare in unity. The groans of our spirit must roar out in unison!
Romans 8:22-23 (ESV) 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Romans 8:26 (NIV) In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.
1000 PROPHETIC INTERCESSORS
There are three types of people we are seeking to identify:
- People who will be uniquely connected with Revival Church team on Sundays and other key times of the week to prophetically pray and advance the mission. They will additionally help serve and give leadership to our satellite churches and ministries in the area, our traveling revival team and other Revival Church entities.
- People who are connected primarily with other ministries of the city church of Detroit, and want to be counted among the 1000 prophetic intercessors.
- People from other parts of the nation and the world who sense a calling to contend for revival in Detroit and desire to be a part of the 1000 intercessors.
All three groups will be intentionally connected with the Revival Church team via a weekly interactive radio show. That show currently airs on Mondays at 8pm EST at www.detroitrevivalchurch.com/radio.
Additionally, the 1000 intercessors will receive “Rhema style” prayer points each week as we receive them in prayer. They will also be responsible to report back any prophetic data they receive concerning the mission.
REGIONAL STRATEGIC IMPACT
Revival Church is a prophetic and apostolic ministry that has a mandate of helping facilitate revival. As a prophetic revival command center we desire to communicate with other likeminded leaders and help develop strategy for our area.
Revival Church itself will have a central hub, a command center. Out of that central ministry, our plan is to launch satellite churches and ministries in several different sections of the Detroit region. While we will develop according to God’s timeline, our vision is to see twelve or more churches planted throughout Detroit. As a multi-site ministry of night and day prayer for the region, and as we work closely with other churches and ministries, we will develop the reach and the leadership necessary to cover Detroit in continual intercession, ministry and the fire of revival.
If you would like to consider joining with us at any of the levels, we would love to connect. If you are a ministry leader and would like to consider working with us as a partner ministry, let us know. Our heart is to develop a “Revelation Driven Network of Ministries” all around the world.
You can email me at [email protected] or call me at 313.799.FIRE.
Let’s see Detroit experience a fiery outpouring of the Holy Spirit right on schedule!
John Burton
Photos : Detroit report : Tonight at Revival Church
What a night we had at the monthly Ministry Staff meeting last night! WOW! (Did you know that YOU can join the Ministry Staff?! Contact us at [email protected] for info!!)
AND I have to let you know that Amy and I lead the BEST CHURCH IN THE WORLD!! Our Ministry Staff surprised Amy and me with a 5-day trip to the “Growing River Churches” conference at Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship next week!!! Ahhhhh!!!!! Thank you! We love you all!!!!
Last night was full of revelation and intercession—Joshua 3 is our chapter… and we know that we’ve never been this way before! A BRAND NEW apostolic move of God is upon us!! It’s time that we sanctify ourselves… for tomorrow wonders of God are coming!
Wow! Wow! Wow! I’m BURNING!!
TONIGHT at Revival Church (www.detroitrevivalchurch.com) is going to be FIERY! Get ready to EXPERIENCE GOD together with other burning men and women of God at Revival Church! Prophetic prayer starts at 5pm!
I’m still trembling even as I type this. God is BURNING in our midst!
God spoke very clearly when we launched Revival Church that we must find a ‘greater groan’ of the Holy Spirit so that “all things will work together for good…” (Rom 8)
Our revival team groaned and cried out with fire and depth last night as we contended for the next steps in a MASSIVE vision for revival in Detroit.
The words “mega” and “venues” have been deposited in my spirit… and are key for us as we continue to move toward the development of a multi-faceted revival command center for the region. We don’t have all the details, but our vision is quickly expanding. We want to see every geographic section of the Detroit area (for starters!) strategically impacted by teams of prophetic revivalists, intercessors and lovers of Jesus. (If you’d like to book me and our revival team in your church to cast the vision and impart some life and fire, contact me here: www.praytherevolution.com/booking.)
We’re contending for a 100-fold increase of key prophetic intercessors, which would mean well over 1000 people in Detroit who are tightly & continually connected and interceding in agreement with the blueprints of the Lord. They will contend night and day and prophetically release the plans and purposes of God in the city.
We want to see various venues—Revival Church directed ministries AND a network of other likeminded churches and ministries—set up as revival command centers all across the region. It’s important to have a lot of strategic cross-pollination between churches in Detroit. This is a city-church movement that will apostolically break and take new ground.
Here’s some pics from last night… if you are local, don’t miss Revival Church tonight! If not, you can still join our revival team!! Contact me for info: [email protected].
FIRE!!
Special prayer for Detroit TONIGHT
FIRST: Let’s spread the word about the vision of Revival Church! Point your friends to our new welcome magazine! Send Facebook status updates, tweets, emails and whatever else you can to get the word out! I did the hard part (designed it!) 🙂 and now I need your help! Point people to www.detroitrevivalchurch.com/welcome.
SECOND: In lieu of our Wednesday prayer meeting, join me online for a LIVE video broadcast! We’ll gather a larger group together for prayer, discussion and teaching at 7pm every Wednesday. Just head to www.detroitrevivalchurch.com/live!
I’ll be at a special prayer meeting tonight (Friday) from 11pm-1am, and would like to invite you to join me!
I’ll be at IHOPE as usual at 7pm, and will then head on over to the prayer meeting.
Here’s all the info that I received:
Dear Praying Friends,
Bishop James Williams has asked me to lead a prayer time called Midnight Cry at Spirit and Truth Ministries this Friday at 11:00 pm til about 1 am. You can read the details below. This is an important opportunity to seek God for the metro region.
I would love for you to come and join in this united calling out to God. This "city" church is enlarging its vision for the whole region. I SOO appreciate Bishop Williams larger than normal desire to see God affect the region and build bridges to the suburbs! Will you encourage him by standing with him and the sweet people of Spirit and Truth?
The details are below. Let me know if you can go. Feel free to extend this invitation to others.
Humbly,
Eric Moore
Greetings Eric and thank you for consenting to share with us this coming Friday in our Midnight Cry prayer service. The month of January is our Month of Outpouring. It is a time of consecration when we come together to worship and pray and to hear prophetic direction from the Lord for the course of the new year.
This year we are having special services every Sunday afternoon and the Midnight Cry services every Friday at 11:00 p.m. Scriptures tell us that Paul and Silas prayed at midnight from the Roman prison and God responded by opening the prison doors and loosing their bonds. We expect God to open doors and loose bondage over His people in this new season.
We really have no set agenda. Last week for example, each of our Intercessors, who have been given specific assignments to cover individual ministries of the church, were given opportunity to lead prayer in their specific areas of responsibility. Then, we heard from a visiting evangelist and a visiting Bishop. I gave some closing words of prophecy and prayer and we were done.
I'm looking for you to help us expand our prayer beyond our ministry and our people and help us pray strategically over this region. You and your guests are free to move as the Spirit leads you. I'll begin and we'll just move from there. We're usually done about 1:00 a.m. but that's not set in stone – a little before or a little after is fine.
Hope this helps. See you Friday.Blessed to Prosper in the Year of Harvest (Lev.25:22; Ps.126:1, 5)
Bishop James A. Williams, II.
SPIRIT & TRUTH CHRISTIAN MINISTRIES
KINGDOM BUILDERS ASSOCIATION OF FULL GOSPEL CHURCHES & MINISTRIES
1335 Oakman Boulevard, Det. MI 48238
(313)-867-7729
Why is the Holy Spirit so commonly minimized in churches today?
Are we ready for an Acts 2 style outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our churches?
There’s an ongoing discussion on my Facebook wall about this issue. I felt it would be good to broaden the discussion and see what some of you might bring to the table.
I’ll paste some of the comments first, and then present my thoughts:
Original post- Have you noticed how focus on the Holy Spirit, speaking tongues, ,etc. has been minimized in the church today?
- Yep, noticed it! The enemy doesn't want us uttering the mysteries of God!
- Yes sir. It's easier to have a "seeker" driven service, than to Preach a Prophetic message under the Power of the Holy Spirit. That takes time in the prayer closet-the former can happen with a slick marketing team (sometimes hired as the "pastoral" staff).
- There definitely has been a move away from experiencing the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, the use of tongues in the 80 got so beyond what scripture says. It was pretty abused.
- That may be true, but we are entering a Decade where there will be a parting of the waters. Those who have been trained AND utilize the weapons of the Spirit will thrive; others will suffer much pain.
- I just heard a George Barna stat about this recently less than 2% of the churches will hear their pastor preach a message on the Holy Spirit this year. Its alarming.
- A couple of years ago I heard leaders from a main line denomination speak at a Rocky Mountain regional meeting for that denomination. The leaders saw that the denomination that they led was becoming Spirit Filled in name only. They felt the need to see 500,000 people receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Yet the churches in this region still take the approach of the Holy Spirit isn't for Sunday morning approach. Its scary.
- Interesting, the Holy Spirit in benched on Sundays…until we need a big play, then he get's play time like Michael Vick…what a sad way to treat my Best Friend.
- The Holy Spirit misses His church. He's going to get it back though.
- Many pastors have been reduced to a role as MC and the show must go on, on schedule, or peeps won't come back.
- Absolutely.. If people knew the incredible power that is released in you when you pray in the Spirit, they would never stop lol. I encourage it in those I teach. God bless.
My thoughts:
There are some realities that we need to consider:
- From what I've discovered, a significant percentage of Christians, pastors and leaders included, don't easily hear God, encounter him. This makes it difficult to even consider embracing a Holy Spirit driven environment. Prayerlessness is a key reason for this problem. The average pastor prays 6 minutes a day. Leonard Ravenhill said, "Pastors who don't pray two hours a day aren't worth a dime a dozen." It's a difficult but important point that would be well worth considering.
- In an environment driven by the Holy Spirit, these people who don't easily hear God can get quite frustrated. They will tend to find another place to go to church. So, the natural church preservation strategy is to minimize the invisible/supernatural and maximize the logical/tangible.
- There has been a huge misunderstanding of the primary purpose of the church. Many feel it's to be a socially focused entry point for the lost. The church actually isn't to be a house of evangelism or a house of relationships. It's a house of prayer first and foremost. It's a believer's ministry. We have lost faith that God, in his wisdom, set it up this way. If we truly have a church of people who are releasing the ‘groans that can't be uttered', who intercede for the nations, who pray in the Spirit, then we will have the ‘expected outcomes' of mass salvations, a huge harvest, life-giving small groups, etc.
- There can be a knee-jerk reaction to the problem of people who abuse freedom in such an atmosphere. Trust me, I understand the issue of people who just want to be seen and heard, who are manipulative, who are emotionally unstable or who operate in charismatic witchcraft. But, the answer is not to shut down a prophetic, Holy Spirit driven environment.
- The focus on teaching. I'm a teacher, I love to teach and I value greatly the ministry of teaching. However, I think a valid question is, "Why are most church services teaching-centric?" If the Holy Spirit breaks out, if there's deliverance going on in the room, of a spirit of intercession erupts, would people be OK with forgoing the sermon? The Holy Spirit (the Teacher) can impart more biblical truth in two seconds than we ever could in two hours.
What do you think?
John’s interview on the Miracle Channel : Watch tonight
I was interviewed back in October on Canada’s largest Christian television network, The Miracle Channel. It was an awesome experience.
I talked about my book Revelation Driven Prayer on an hour long episode of The Bridge.
You can watch the show as it airs tonight at 10pm Eastern. Head on over to www.miraclechannel.ca and click the ‘Watch Us Online’ banner on the top right.
You will also be able to view the archive starting tomorrow by going here: www.miraclechannel.ca/thebridge
Let’s pray that this message of encountering God reaches millions of people and impacts them powerfully.
ALSO: I’ll be preaching tomorrow (Friday) at IHOPE at 7pm. Come on out for a night of intercession, prophecy and fire!