Sixteen dangers of the positive Christianity movement

By John Burton | December 20, 2013

Are we are forming a culturally acceptable version of God?

And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.” And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Exodus 32:4-6

I’ll begin by affirming that God absolutely is LOVE! He is good, all the time. However, his goodness may not always register as good on our human grid.

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 2:14

There is a rapidly growing aversion to any discussion about God that includes anything that feels negative. The problem? Cover to cover in scripture we see endless accounts of God displaying his attributes—many of which would not be defined as positive.

Instead of proclaiming the full counsel of scripture, people today are looking for a buffet Bible when they can load up on chocolate cake and milk shakes while quickly stepping by the peas, carrot and salad.

People want to form a god of their own design as the Israelites did when Moses was meeting with a fearful God. The plan is to sit down to eat and drink, and rise up to play.

Today it’s nearly impossible (not an exaggeration) to find a church that preaches cutting, hard core truths of scripture that break us out of prison and into freedom. If you want to hear about how good God is and little else, than you can pick most any church in the nation.

“If Jesus had preached the same message that ministers preach today, He would never have been crucified.” ~Leonard Ravenhill

Sixteen dangers of the positive Christianity movement

False conversions—I could spend a lot of time on this point, and I do address it extensively in my book The Coming Church. For the sake of brevity, we must finally come to the understanding that salvation requires an extreme step, not a casual one. It’s when we understand the great drama that includes God, Satan, eternity, heaven, hell, judgment and abundant life that authentic conversions can occur. Who wouldn’t sign up to follow a God that promises gold coins and butterflies? The question must not be, “How can I benefit from salvation.” It has to be, “Is God worthy of me surrendering all I value to him?” When we truly know him in his fullness, in his grace and wrath, in his mercy and judgment, as a Lion and a Lamb, we will be able to make the fearful decision, “You, Lord are worthy of my entire life.”

Misunderstanding of the fear of the Lord—It’s stunning to me that so many are renouncing any fear whatsoever, even the fear of the Lord! If we have a view of God that is only positive, we will reject anything that feels negative, and this includes the fear of the Lord. Let’s set the record straight—the fear of the Lord is not simply to be in awe of God or to respect him. Fear of the Lord is translated over and over as terror, to be afraid, to dread. The love of God and the dread of God are not mutually exclusive. In fact, his love shines brighter we we realize how fearful he truly is.

That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. Romans 11:20-22

God is limited—When we eliminate a major part of God’s personality and character, we greatly limit our revelation of him, and his ability to move in our lives. God is much more than the leader of some euphoric land of fantasy.

Rejection of judgment (that we need so badly)—I believe one of the most important prayers I can pray is, “God, judge me daily.” For those who reject God’s judgment because they perceive it to be negative, their lives will be marked by areas not given access to God’s loving calibration. Additionally, our nation is in desperate need of loving judgment from a righteous judge. Judgment is not hatred, it’s love. It’s deep love. We see this in our own society. We are so touchy/feely that we react in anger when we presume someone to be judging us. However, it’s true love that will judge an issue and help someone break free into healing. We must embrace judgment in these dire end-times.

And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. Acts 10:42

Rejection of God—This is one of the most serious issues. God absolutely still judges in the New Covenant, and those who reject this will be at risk of attributing judgments of God to Satan. God’s wrath is still on the Earth, and we have to understand that much of the trouble we see today has actually been initiated by God—all while many of his followers are rebuking him and calling him Satan.

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. John 3:36

Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit—Even more serious is the risk of blasphemy. I believe we have to be radically opposed to God to fall into this unforgivable sin (I know many wrestle with this, but unpacking it will require more time than we have here), but, the positive Christianity movement can nudge people closer to falling into this. When we attribute an act of God to Satan, that is blasphemy, and this occurs often within positive Christianity.

“Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.” Mark 3:28-30

Ignoring calls to battle—If we think God is mostly interested in our safety and happiness, we will deem unnecessary and invasive any call to battle. It’s time we mature and understand we are already in the midst of a vicious battle, and it’s our calling to fight hard. God really is OK with his children being tortured and killed as martyrs for the sake of other people discovering Jesus, and we should be too. We are end-time soldiers, and this means we have signed up for a life of inconvenience, brokenness and struggle. That negative reality is glorious when we understand what it is unto.

Misinterpretations of negative situations—News flash: it’s not always the devil. How often to people rebuke demons when it’s actually God that caused the situation? If we think that God only functions positively than what are we to do with the fact that God actually demonized Paul and refused his deliverance? What about God striking people with sickness?

So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

God actually endorsed an assault of Satan on Paul to keep him humble! Paul embraced a “negative” God, because he was True. He was content with weaknesses, hardships, calamities. He didn't rebuke them, and that didn't cause him to attribute them to Satan. Of course, Satan wouldn't want to keep Paul from becoming conceited, so this wasn't his plan. Just as with Job, God will allow attack of the enemy for our own benefit. In fact, it was Satan who was allowed by God to kill Jesus. He literally had thorns in his flesh as he hung on the cross, and they were not taken away.

Minimized need for intercession—If we think things are getting better and better, as many who support the positive Christianity movement do, than we have no need to intercede. However, if we truly understand some very troubling times are ahead, and God has called us to stand in the gap, then our passion for intercession will skyrocket. We need Abraham’s and Jonah’s who will see the judgment of God ahead and pray with passion and warn those in his direct path. Our God who is the same yesterday, today and forever, totally destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. He destroyed the earth in a flood. His wrath remains on those who reject him today.

Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.” Genesis 18:32

Rejection of call to martyrdom—Martyrdom is the pinnacle of negative experiences for the Christian. Of course, the truth is that it’s not negative at all. It’s glorious!

Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. Acts 7:54-58

How powerful is it that Jesus stood as Stephen died! Not only that, but did you notice what young man was mentioned in the story? A young man who would end up turning the world upside down. Saul. Paul. We need Stephen's to arise and lay down their lives in such a way that a new company of Saul's are awakened into their destinies.

Universalism—You’d be surprised at how many professing Christians reject any thought of eternity in Hell—for anybody! After all, how could a good God cast people into eternal torment? It doesn’t register on the grid of positive Christianity.

Rejection of tenets of the faith—I’m angered at how today’s Christians get sad and withdrawn when core tenets of the faith are preached. The cross, hell, fear of the Lord, surrender, brokenness and repentance are minimized as they prefer to focus on how giddy God is about them! We absolutely need a fresh wave of blood bought fire and brimstone preachers again!

Wrongly discern God’s presence & purpose—The presumption is that whenever God is manifesting that the feelings we experience are to be happy, warm and positive. Any manifestation that includes fear of the Lord, conviction, rebuke, challenge or mourning is soundly rejected. If the atmosphere isn’t electric, many today check out and disengage.

Using God—A spirit of religion is in this positive Christianity movement. The thought is that God is there for our enjoyment and must respond to our cries for satisfaction. We determine the experience instead of letting God use us as he sees fit.

Self-centeredness—Related to using God, instead of focusing on the devastation in the world and our responsibility to bring resolution to it, those in the positive Christianity movement are focused on self.

Forsaking our anointing by always being nice—Boy, we have to stop it. We think God always has perma-smile with a twinkle sparkling off of his grin. If we think of God in this light, we’ll attempt to do the same. It can manifest many different ways. For example, instead of boldly preaching repentance and the terror of Hell, we might just smile and be sweet and sugary by encouraging people to take baby steps toward Jesus. We have become so tentative and passive when dealing with severe threats against the church such as the homosexual agenda, the false-grace movement and others. We need prophets to rise up and preach judgment and repentance again!

Sometimes we need to look someone in the eye, under the unction of the Holy Spirit, and say with no hint of a smile that they are destined for Hell. Repent!

Conclusion

Of course, there are limitless positives about God and our relationship with him. However, we don’t want to stop there. We must trust him enough to embrace him in his fullness.

The judge is coming, and he will start with the church. How many will fall away when he arrives, disappoints and confuses people by looking nothing like the god of their own design?

Posted in The Church and tagged blasphemy, christianity, church, dangers, egypt, exodus, faith, fear, fear of the Lord, God, holy spirit, judgment, martyrdom, moses, movement, positive, tenets

A bold strategy against fatherlessness | Stepping into your destiny with no excuses

By John Burton | December 2, 2013 |

No more excuses: Don’t let an orphan spirit keep you from fulfilling your destiny!

It’s widely acknowledged today that there’s a serious problem with fatherlessness and orphan spirits in the church and in the world.

I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me. 1 Corinthians 4:14-16

It’s true that spiritual fathers are needed, and it’s also true that sons and daughters must discover their true identities—and those identities are not dependent on whether fathers appear in their lives or not. It’s much deeper than that.

The sins of the fathers are significant, and they impact the succeeding generations dramatically. The call is for every one of us as sons or daughters to break off generational destruction and align ourselves with Father God. If we don’t, the devastation will continue. Children of God arise!

…Why is the land ruined and laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through? And the LORD says: “Because they have forsaken my law that I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice or walked in accord with it, but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them. Jeremiah 9:12-14

Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will feed this people with bitter food, and give them poisonous water to drink. I will scatter them among the nations whom neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.” Jeremiah 9:15-16

This generational problem resulted in judgment then—and we are at risk of judgment again today. Notice that judgment was not due to the father’s sins, but rather to the children’s refusal to break the cycle. The children have the power to cover the sins of their fathers and experience blessing. But, that’s not what happened.

The same story unfolded with Noah:

Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.” He also said, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant. Genesis 9:20-26

The children had the power to either cover or enjoy the sin of their father. Blessing followed Shem who interceded for his father. A curse followed Canaan who exposed his father.

Children are called to stand in the gap, intercede and cut off the pattern of sin set by their fathers. As we align with our true Father, Jehovah, great blessing will come.

In fact, a major end-time prophecy hinges on the resolution of this problem:

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.” Malachi 4:5-6

Interestingly God reveals that this issue must be fixed, or as in Jeremiah, destruction will come.

The Malachi prophesy resurfaces in the story of John the Baptist:

And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” Luke 1:16-17

Did you notice the end-time spirit of Elijah, as manifested through John the Baptist, had, and still has, a two-fold mission:

Turn the hearts of the fathers to the children.
Turn the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just.

This isn’t mostly about dads and kids rediscovering their lost friendships. It has to do with aligning ourselves, as disobedient children, with the spirit of Wisdom, with God himself.

What’s an orphan to do?

I absolutely validate the desire that is within us as Christians to have earthly, spiritual fathers—whether they are biological or not.

I remember many years ago when I was extremely young in the Lord that a strong desire for a mentor overcame me. I asked a youth pastor if he would be that to me, and he was visibly taken aback. He said he had never been asked that before.

Well, he never did follow through on that, and I want to share with you why that was the best thing for me. God’s best for me was to not have an earthly spiritual father at that point in my life.

I grew up in a phenomenal family with an amazing mom and an incredibly spiritually strong father. However, at the time of this story, I had moved from Missouri to Ohio and was very much alone on a new adventure as a young man. I had recently encountered God in dramatic fashion and I craved a deeper relationship with him. I also yearned for spiritual growth.

I didn’t understand it then, but I believe God wanted me to understand how he would be using weak, inexperienced children, many of whom are spiritual orphans without a godly human mentor, to change the world.

What I did know what this: I was burning so hot inside, and my vision was so consuming, that there was no way I was going to wait for a spiritual father to show up in my life. In fact, I knew early on that few fathers would be able to keep pace with me.

Now, of course, there have been many people in my life that have impacted me, and there are others that I highly value and I have submitted myself to. But, to date, I’ve never had a spiritual father other than my natural one.

A lonely venture

From that moment I started blazing trails and advancing very quickly. This child wasn’t waiting for a father because he had already discovered one—Abba!

I ultimately ended up in Manitou Springs, Colorado to plant my first church.

I’ll never forget a life-changing lunch I had with an older, wiser man whom I had just met shortly after moving to Colorado.

He looked the part too. He had a beard and eyes burning with wisdom. A long wooden staff would have completed the picture! He asked me, “John, what is the one thing you want on a personal level as you begin your new church?”

I immediately said, “Well, I’m alone in this new venture. I am craving someone who has the same vision as me, who will run at the same pace with me as we get the church off the ground, and as we go after full blown city transformation.”

His answer is one I’ll never forget: “It will never happen.”

What? Was he serious? He absolutely was.

He said, “God gave you the vision, and he has given it to no one else. You can’t wait for others to lead the charge. That is your job. Others will come along side you and support the vision, but nobody else in the world has that unique, special gift that God himself has given you.”

The wisdom of this fatherly man ensured I wouldn’t be disobedient in my calling by waiting around instead of advancing. There was work to do. You have work to do too. This next section will help you fulfill your calling without waiting around for outside help.

The Gideon Strategy

Are you ready for the strategy to boldly break off an orphan spirit? Great. As I’ve said before, it’s not to wait for spiritual fathers to arrive in your life. Let’s look at Gideon.

The Israelites were under attack and went into hiding. There was no true, bold leader in the camp and the result was insecurity, fear and delay in fulfilling their destiny.

The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD gave them into the hand of Midian seven years. And the hand of Midian overpowered Israel, and because of Midian the people of Israel made for themselves the dens that are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. Judges 6:1-2

God was the one who gave them over to the enemy, and God would be the one who would give them a strategy to break off their orphan spirit that resulted in a confused identity.

You see, fathers are supposed to nurture and build up, but since Israel forsook their Father, they were left with the opposite—oppression and brokenness.

For whenever the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East would come up against them. They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the land, as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. For they would come up with their livestock and their tents; they would come like locusts in number—both they and their camels could not be counted—so that they laid waste the land as they came in. And Israel was brought very low because of Midian. And the people of Israel cried out for help to the LORD. Judges 6:3-6

They were orphans who were aimless and lost, but eventually they cried out—to their Father.

Mighty Man of Valor

Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.” Judges 6:11-12

Keep in mind, God will be using children who break off an orphan spirit to accomplish his purposes—children who are united with their Father. This was true in the story of Gideon, and it’s true today in the end-times. An emerging army of supposed orphans are rising up. They won’t take no for an answer as they advance in their missions with ferocity and boldness as their Heavenly Father leads the way.

With Gideon, God was restoring this beautiful relationship by referring to him according to his true identity. His Father saw him as a mighty man of valor! He didn’t see him the way Gideon saw his self. This revelation comes through a dynamic, growing relationship not with people but with God himself!

Confusion

What happened next was a critical lesson to be learned. Gideon was confused about the Father/son relationship and God was about to school him.

And Gideon said to him, “Please, sir, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” Judges 6:13

Gideon incorrectly presumed that the role of a father is to fully alleviate burdens, answer every question and to resolve issues. This isn’t the case. If you are craving a spiritual father, that is good. However, be warned. God the Father will stretch you to your breaking point so you can discover the power and responsibility you have as a child! Fathers point the way and children go.

Check out how God responded to Gideon’s confusion and frustration:

And the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” Judges 6:14

Did I not send YOU? God again addressed him according to his true identity, as one who is mighty, and let him know in no uncertain terms—you don’t send me, I send you!

As a spiritual child (quit referring to yourself as an orphan) you have a Father and you are a part of this end-time mission! Go in your might!

Gideon continued in his confusion with another excuse:

And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” And the LORD said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” Judges 6:15-16

Gideon felt like the least and the weakest. In fact, he said something quite interesting: I am the least in my father’s house. He had an orphan spirit. He acknowledged rejection and a disappointing relationship with his earthly dad.

Growing Close

What happened next was so important for Gideon. He was learning how to draw from his spiritual Father.

And he said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay till you return.” Judges 6:17-18

Please don’t depart…I will stay till you return.

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you… James 4:8

That’s it! The child noticed the favor of his Father and started into an interactive relationship with him. He had a bad earthly dad. His entire nation had no leader. He was confused. He had an identity crisis. But, something was compelling him. He found One who believed in him, and One who was calling him higher. He found his Dad.

Two Altars

As the drama continues, Gideon’s eyes are opened and he is undone before his Father. He is an orphan no more!

Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD and called it, The LORD Is Peace. To this day it still stands at Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites. Judges 6:24

He immediately built an altar to God, but there was another altar to deal with—his earthly father’s.

That night the LORD said to him, “Take your father’s bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it and build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down.” Judges 6:25-26

Children of the end-times will not only discover their true identities as revealed by their true Father and build an altar of worship to him—a spirit of boldness will arise in the children to tear down altars established by the previous generations—altars to Baal that will result in continued bondage and destruction. End-time children won’t wait for their fathers to make things right—they will go to battle and initiate deliverance no matter the cost!

Identity!

When children tear down altars of old, there will be threats of death! This is the moment of destiny we are looking for! Gideon went from weak and the least to one with an identity of might that was given to him by his Father. His call wasn’t to wait for his earthly father to come around, it was to destroy the generational curse that was devastating him, his dad and the entire nation!

When the men of the town rose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built. And they said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” And after they had searched and inquired, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.” Then the men of the town said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it.” But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been broken down.” Therefore on that day Gideon was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, “Let Baal contend against him,” because he broke down his altar. Judges 6:28-32

It was then that Gideon’s dad finally rose up! Gideon’s leadership was clear and God’s leadership was being reestablished in the nation as his dad agreed with the destruction of Baal’s altar. The hearts of father and son were turned!

Gideon was then called Jerubbaal which literally means, “let Baal contend.” Now that’s an identity!

Is there an army of former orphans who refuse to wait for earthly fathers to show up? Is there an army that will discover their true spiritual Father? Is there an army of spiritual children who just might have their names changed as they contend against the spirit of the age? Come on! It’s time!

Children, it’s time to awaken! No more hiding! No more confusion! Get alone with your Father and respond to his call into destiny!

Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars. They held in their left hands the torches, and in their right hands the trumpets to blow. And they cried out, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!” Every man stood in his place around the camp, and all the army ran. They cried out and fled. Judges 7:20-21

The miracle? Gideon fulfilled both roles: He discovered his identity as a child of God and he emerged into a spiritual of father who lead companies into destiny. This is your story!

Today’s children are marked to be leaders and fathers who will take cities and rout the enemy.

Yes, you are one of them.

Conclusion

As I said above, I’ve never had a spiritual father. However, there is a very important takeaway for me.

While I am ever learning and endeavor to glean much from the generals of the faith, I have come to understand that nobody I’ve met has been where I am called to go. The same was true for Gideon.

Nobody can lead me into my personal land of Promise except God, my Father.

Others can support the vision and encourage me in the journey, but most of my learning has been one-on-one with my Father—and it has been priceless. I wouldn’t change a thing.

I want to strongly encourage you to read my book, “Piece of Cake.”

It is a practical guide for starting ministries, missions, businesses and other ventures. It will help set you free from the waiting game. You as a child of God, as a mighty person of valor, absolutely can advance with confidence and strength without delay!

You can find the book here: www.johnburton.net/resources

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged Abba, altar, bold, curse, curses, dad, destiny, end times, excuses, fatherless, fatherlessness, generations, Gideon, God, judgment, Lord, orphan, spirit, strategy, weak

A coming civil war in the church—centered around the fear of the Lord

By John Burton | September 18, 2013 |

A civil war in the church is drawing near—and it will be centered around the fear of the Lord.

Before I get into the meat of this message, I want to address something that I’m sure many of you have wondered about.

Yes, I am absolutely intentional regarding my “unbalanced” approach on the end-times, the church and the call to reformation. The reason is simple—the situation in the church is so dire that an urgent, radical response is necessary.

We cannot casually sit back and initiate Christian small talk as we seek to find common ground anymore. Billions are headed to Hell, and in their ranks are a very high percentage of those who call themselves Christians.

Many believe the church is mostly doing well with a few minor, non-essential issues to address, and an upgrade in positive, encouraging messages will help nudge us back on course. A focus on God’s goodness and love alone will be enough to convince people to veer back on course. If that were the case, I would absolutely be more subtle in my approach. However, it is not. The church is way off balance, and an extremely weighty counterbalance is necessary.

I let my son Skylar get behind the wheel of the car for the first time in a parking lot the other day to begin to teach him how to drive. He was getting used to the steering, gas pedal and brake responsiveness, and, under my watchful eye in the passenger seat, he would jerk the car left and right, brake too hard, step on the gas too quickly and give us quite a ride. My response? Subtle, encouraging words to straighten it out, to ease up on the gas, to brake more softly. He was on the right track, but was simply learning how to stay on it.

That is not where the church is today. Things are not mostly good. We are not on the right track.

How would you react if the person driving your car decided to go the wrong way down a highway, at 100 miles per hour, at night with the headlights off, with his eyes closed and not a care in the world?

You would scream! You would grab the wheel! You would not passively, subtly encourage him to straighten it out. You would not talk about how lovely an evening it is. It wouldn’t be the right time to teach him how to parallel park or how to change the oil. You both are near death and immediate, continuous cries and alarms must be sounded! Not only are you near death, but others will be crushed by your wayward vehicle as they come over the next hill!

The church is also near death—and is putting many others at risk. Many in the church are on their way to Hell—and they have no idea. This is why I sound alarm after alarm after alarm. If you choose to turn a deaf ear, so be it.

However, I challenge you to be receptive and responsive, and not shut out the warnings of the Lord, no matter how irritating and repetitive they are. In fact, join me in my cry. Cry out REPENT! Turn around!

Matthew 3:1In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 3For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said,

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare^a the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’”

A Coming Civil War

I needed to explain what I did in the opening section to help you understand what I’m going to share next.

Entire popular movements today are in the wrong lane, going the wrong way and putting the church at risk of eternal death.

We are going way to far with our ecumenically driven strategies of unity within the church. The false-love movement that focuses on friendships and affirmation has led to a false-unity movement where we presume anybody who goes to church and professes Christ to be a legitimate Christian worthy of our alliance.

I’ve said before and I’ll say again—I will love everybody with the fiery love of Jesus, but I absolutely, unapologetically refuse with bold resolve to unite with anybody who isn’t carrying their cross, dying daily and burning hot for Jesus Christ.

I do not presume people to be saved simply because they say they are.

We are all in process, and as long as we, in our weakness, in our struggles and in our brokenness are truly running after Jesus, I will be right there with you. However, if that is not the case, you heard me right—I will not run with you.

I will love you. I will pray for you. I will honor you. I will encourage you. But I won’t run with you. I won’t unite with you.

You might be wondering how, with that type of resolve, we can avoid a civil war in the church. We can’t. We don’t want to.

The sickle is about to be taken to both the wheat and the tares, so we will all be hit with the judgment of God. This will be a very difficult season for everybody, but it is a necessary one.

Matthew 13:30Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”

Matt 10:34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.36And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. 37Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Jesus boldly revealed what a true believer looks like. His sword of truth is about to strike the church and those who are not fully his will be revealed.

North vs. South

The true remnant will rise up with spiritual violence to liberate masses from the slavery that has been granted them through inappropriate theologies and religious systems.

Matthew 11:12From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence,^d and the violent take it by force.

There will be great confusion in the nation as the world watches this happen in the church, yet it will only be for a season. The true church will eventually emerge, finally, with the power and love they have been craving to see.

Great leaders will rise up in the spirit of Elijah and John the Baptist to initiate conflict (instead of avoid it) and to wrestle with spiritual forces of darkness.

Ephesians 6:12For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

“The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong.” – September 1862 – Abraham Lincoln – Meditation on the Divine Will

The Fear of the Lord

Please consider what I’m about to communicate very carefully.

We must be humble, teachable and repentant. As prophetic messengers, we cannot move in the flesh and come against what may be a true move of God. Take your viewpoints to God and ensure he confirms them to you. Allow your theologies to be challenged by the Holy Spirit. Let the Spirit of Truth reign in your life.

That being said, we cannot stay silent when there is a clear and present danger in the church. To do so would be treason! When God sounds an alarm in your spirit, you must respond to that alarm!

The coming civil war in the church will hinge on the issue of the fear of the Lord (among a handful of other issues).

There are entire movements that are vocally opposing the validity of the fear of the Lord. The civil war in the church will form as the camp divides on this primary issue.

Of course, the false-grace movement and the false-love movement (that refuses any scriptural reality that doesn’t feel like love) are devoid of the fear of the Lord. There are other significant movements out there that may not be as extreme as this, but are at least silent if not resistant to any discussion of the fear of the Lord.

Spiritual pride is a direct result of the absence of the fear of the Lord. So is apathy, a focus on personal experience, the rejection of the call to live a repentant life and having a benefit and blessing mindset.

Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.

Luke 1:50 And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.

While I understand, and even affirm to a degree, the desire to call God “Daddy,” I am at least a little troubled at how casual we have become with such a fearful, mighty God.

God is not our personal emotional warm fuzzy. He cannot be limited to that. He is mighty indeed!

Does he comfort? Oh my, YES! Does he encourage? Yes! Is he your Daddy? Absolutely! But, my friend, he is so MUCH more.

We can and MUST experience both comfort and fear simultaneously! The civil way in the church will see a departure on this issue. Many will reject this mandate to fear God.

Acts 9:31 So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.

Without the fear of the Lord, his true nature cannot be discerned. Without the fear of the Lord, there is no friendship of the Lord.

Psalm 25:14 The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant.

1 Peter 1:17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile

This fear of the lord is indeed the beginning of wisdom. This consciousness of sin is the straight pathway to heaven. ~Joseph Barber Lightfoot

It is critical that we allow the fear of the Lord to expose issues of our heart that put our relationship with him at risk! This is very good! This is desirable! And, the fear of the Lord is not “respect” of the Lord. The Bible calls it dread. Terror. It’s quite the mystery indeed that we can experience both terror and love at the same time! How mighty is our God!

2 Corinthians 7:1 Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

The fear of the lord is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death (Proverbs 14:27)

Vision of a Chess Board

I once had a vision of a chess board, and on the appropriate squares stood actual humans, Christians. They each were fervent and focused as devoted warriors. They all seemed to be spiritual mature and responding to their call of duty.

Suddenly, the chess board began to shake violently. It was clearly a tremor from Heaven as God was causing everything to be hit by his loving judgment. He will shake everything that can be shaken.

What happened next was remarkable. Most of the Christian soldiers remained standing, while a few hit their faces in humility and brokenness. Those who stood, in pride, were suddenly shaken so violently that they turned to dust.

This shaking is coming to the church. Those who pridefully reject the fear of the Lord are in great danger, though they are fervent in their religion.

A Concentration of Government

I shared at a recent regional church leader’s prophetic prayer meeting that we must be careful.

There is a lot of pride in this region—especially within the church of Detroit.

Acts 10:35 But in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.

It’s right to respond to God’s mandate to focus on our region and on the state of Michigan. I am friends with some phenomenal leaders who are spearheading a movement of prayer in this state, and they are doing so with great humility.

We must follow their lead, and we cannot allow the pride of Detroit to manifest in our zeal to see a great end time revival land here.

While geographic boundaries do have extreme significance, we have to understand the greater reality.

Washington DC is not important to this nation because of its geographic boundaries. In fact, it’s a very small area. The reason Washington DC is significant is because of the concentration of government. It is our governmental center, and the governmental activity is greater there than anywhere else in the nation.

Yet, the Pentagon is also important and strategic to our nation. So are our military bases. Why? Because of their affiliation and alliance and responsiveness to the governmental leadership in Washington.

Michigan is no different. Pride would cause us to presume that there is something special about our geography. Humility, and an accurate analysis of the situation would reveal something very different—Michigan will be special because of the concentration of humble, cross-bearing, anointed Kingdom government officials and offices that will be established here. Heaven’s authority is coming, I believe, to Michigan. Our impact will be determined by our willingness to humbly respond to God’s governmental leadership.

Just as with Washington DC, it’s not about making Detroit famous. We have been given a sober mandate—to serve our nation in the midst of a coming national, civil war.

A Dividing Line

As God’s government increases, no matter where it is, the division will increase. Gray will become black and white. People will have to choose where they stand. It sounds terrible, but in a wheat and tare season, it is absolutely necessary. God is bringing judgment to the church, and people will absolutely choose sides.

1 Peter 4:17For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18And

“If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”

This is why the fear of the Lord is so critical! We are scarcely saved and judgment is coming!

Those with a casual disposition and a resistance to the fear of the Lord, and a focus on “Daddy God” without also acknowledging him as “Fearful Judge and Father” will be disturbed beyond description.

Their understanding of who God is will be threatened and they will end up choosing to resist the one they say they know! My God!

Thus, the civil war will commence.

The false-unity, “can’t we all just get along” hopes will be crushed as the fearful reality of the Judge brings his sword of division. His love will provoke him to call the true bride of Christ out and give those compromised by faulty theologies a clear and compelling chance to run to him.

The false-grace, false-love, false-unity movements are radically resistant to the fear of the Lord, yet they won’t be able to escape it when it all comes crashing down.

The world is getting better and better?

The glorious fear of the Lord results in radical and continual repentance as we joyfully encounter the lover and judge of our souls at the same time.

The grief and mourning is multi-faceted, yet much of it comes from an understanding that great destruction is upon us and Hell is expanding as millions are sucked into its horrors.

Those who reject this idea are focused on blessing and benefits. The belief is that the world is getting better and better, and we can rest easy—eat, drink and play.

Exodus 32:4And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden^a calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” 5When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.” 6And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

So many have fashioned a god of their own design—and have given it glory for rescuing them from Egypt! The plan is to play instead of forging ahead to save the world. They want to stay at the bottom of the mountain with their hands in their ears saying, “La la la la la!”

I’ve heard it said that God is always in a good mood. This is not only ridiculous theology, but it’s dangerous. Why? When those who subscribe to this idea experience the fearful shakings of God, they will reject him as a foreigner or as a demon.

John 8:48The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” 49Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. 50Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge.

I honestly have no patience for the argument that God is always in a good mood, and that he no longer judges. We need his judgment!

How can 4000 babies a day murdered in our nation, an increase in radical terrorism, absolutely disgusting moral decline, pornography viewed by most people—in the church and increasing suicides, murders and other atrocities cause anyone to presume the world is getting better?

The goal is not to live a great life now—it’s to rescue a dying planet and prepare the way of the Lord!

The fear of the Lord will result in a sobriety that will shake us terribly. We will see the heartbreak of God and join him in his distress.

God is absolutely not in a good mood all the time. If he was, he’d be a monster as he laughed and did a happy dance as he cast people into eternal torment in Hell.

No, God is very often sad, disturbed and heartbroken.

Now what?

Pray. Pray like your life depends on it. It does.

Mourn. Cry out. Sound alarms. Prepare ye the way of the Lord!

Be broken. Be humble. Be repentant.

A civil war is coming. Will you choose the way of comfort and pleasure and personal benefits as you fashion a god of your own design? Many significant movements and churches will do so. The pressure to join them will be extreme. The deception will be convincing. Will you seek after peace and safety with them?

Or will you drop your toys, leave the remote on the couch, let the dead bury their own dead and head up the mountain where the lightening, thundering, shakings—and God himself are?

^{Exodus 19:16}On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. ¹⁷Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. ¹⁸Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain^[b] trembled violently. ¹⁹As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.

Posted in The Church and tagged church, civil war, detroit, fear of the Lord, hell, humility, judgment, michigan, reformation

Hell, Holiness and Fear of Man | The true, prophetic church must emerge

By John Burton | August 16, 2013

When did it become hateful to warn people of the reality of Hell? Most go there and we have to get that message out.

Ephesians 5:11 (ESV) ¹¹Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

I have no patience for the current trend in the church to ensure hearers of its messages suffer no troubled emotions or theological crisis.

If we read the Bible, and believe it is our blueprint for ministry, we cannot buy into this strategy. The Gospel troubles.

Ignoring Hell does not keep people from Hell—it increases the number who will perish. Ignoring sin in media, music and entertainment must stop—the church is devouring the vomit of Satan in media and is unconcerned about the effects because of an unbiblical view of an indifferent God.

We as Christians have NO OPTION but to shine the light on works of darkness, of unholiness—especially within the camp of the church!

There is a growing resistance by shepherds to the idea that judgment of God is in force today, and that somehow the better approach to the issue unholiness is to minimize its potency.

Romans 1:18 (ESV) ¹⁸For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

Strong delusion has hit the church—and many in Spirit-filled environments are on a path to Hell, and they have no idea.

Christians are watching R and PG-13 rated movies like The Wolverine and Paranoia , TV shows like How I Met Your Mother and Two and Half Men and listening to music by Beyonce, Jay-Z and others.

YES, being entertained by sin, watching and listening to such media ABSOLUTLEY PUTS PEOPLE AT RISK OF HELL—Christian or not.

This is why the prayer movement is so critical! You cannot be fervent in prayer and be fervent in sin at the same time.

A lifestyle of fervent, burning prayer and legitimate salvation are more closely related than today's religious teachings reveal.

FEAR OF MAN

God is raising up a people who have the boldness of the Holy Spirit, and who will, in humility, stare the enemy in the face and renounce him and his strategies! It’s time to tear down our father’s altars!

You will lose friends! Family will shun you! Are you OK with that?

Judges 6:30 (ESV) ³⁰Then the men of the town said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it.”

It’s time we stop using Facebook to post pictures of kittens and start using it as a platform to expose darkness and to declare the word of the Lord!

The evidence of declaring truth is not a growing sphere of friends, but a growing revolt by those who want you shut down. I’m talking about other Christians. Truth presents a clear and present threat to the lukewarm, casual lifestyles of the majority in the church today.

Fear of man will keep you silent with a sleeping prophetic spirit as you embrace false-humility and false-love in the hopes of maintaining friendships.

I refuse to honor immorality. I will not respect darkness. I won’t befriend the lukewarm and rebellious. I will love them instead.

WILL YOU REJECT THE FEAR OF MAN AND HELP ME SOUND THE ALARM? Use Facebook, Twitter and other outlets daily to shake and provoke the sleeping church! Here’s the message:

Enjoying media and participating in activities that approve of sin will result in a delusion that puts even seasoned ministers and other Christians at clear risk of going to Hell. This is not a rare situation in the American church, but, rather is the norm! Many will be shocked to find themselves in Hell one day!

“There is reason to think, that there are many in this congregation now hearing this discourse, that will actually be the subjects of this very misery to all eternity.” ~Jonathan Edwards speaking on Hell

Jonathan Edwards had no fear of man, none that we could see anyway. Read on:

“It is everlasting wrath. It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity. There will be no end to this exquisite horrible misery. When you look forward, you shall see a long for ever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul; and you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all. You will know certainly that you must wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages, in wrestling and conflicting with this almighty merciless vengeance; and then when you have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains. So that your punishment will indeed be infinite. Oh, who can express what the state of a soul in such circumstances is! All that we can possibly say about it, gives but a very feeble, faint representation of it; it is inexpressible and inconceivable: For “who knows the power of God's anger?”

“How dreadful is the state of those that are daily and hourly in the danger of this great wrath and infinite misery! But this is the dismal case of every soul in this congregation that has not been born again, however moral and strict, sober and religious, they may otherwise be. Oh that you would consider it, whether you be young or old! There is reason to think, that there are many in this congregation now hearing this discourse, that will actually be the subjects of this very misery to all eternity. We know not who they are, or in what seats they sit, or what thoughts they now have. It may be they are now at ease, and hear all these things without much disturbance, and are now flattering themselves that they are not the persons, promising themselves that they shall escape. If we knew that there was one person, and but one, in the whole congregation, that was to be the subject of this misery, what an awful thing would it be to think of! If we knew who it was, what an awful sight would it be to see such a person! How might all the rest of the congregation lift up a lamentable and bitter cry over him! But, alas! instead of one, how many is it likely will remember this discourse in hell?”

“Therefore, let every one that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over a great part of this congregation. Let every one fly out of Sodom: “Haste and escape for your lives, look not behind you, escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed.””

And the reaction of the people that day? It is what we must see in today’s church!

“Before the sermon was done there was a great moaning and crying out throughout the whole house, “What shall I do to be saved?! Oh, I am going to Hell! Oh, what shall I do for Christ?!” etc. etc. So that the minister was obliged to desist. Shrieks and cries were piercing and amazing. After some time of waiting, the congregation were still so that a prayer was made, and after that we descended from the pulpit and discoursed with the people, some in one place and some in another, and–amazing and astonishing!–the power of God was seen, and several souls were hopefully wrought upon that night, and oh, the pleasantness of their countenances that received comfort.”

Lest one believe that Jonathan Edwards was dour and sad, here is the text of his sermon, Heaven, A World Of Love:

“…But heaven is his dwelling-place above all other places in the universe; and all those places in which he was said to dwell of old, were but types of this. Heaven is a part of creation that God has built for this end, to be the place of his glorious presence, and it is his abode forever; and here will he dwell, and gloriously manifest himself to all eternity. And this renders heaven a world of love; for God is the fountain of love, as the sun is the fountain of light. And therefore the glorious presence of God in heaven, fills heaven with love, as the sun, placed in the midst of the visible heavens in a clear day, fills the world with light. The apostle tells us that “God is love;” and therefore, seeing he is an infinite being, it follows that he is an infinite fountain of love. Seeing he is an all-sufficient being, it follows that he is a full and over-flowing, and inexhaustible fountain of love.”

(from http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2013/07/sinners-in-hands-of-angry-god-not-so.html)

THE CHURCH’S DIMINISHED AUTHORITY

Hosea 4:1-3 (ESV) ¹Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel, for the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land; ²there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. ³Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish…

We have a controversy in the land!

Swearing, lying, murder, adultery, bloodshed! It results in the Earth crying out!

The Earth is waiting for a holy army of sons of God to emerge!

Romans 8:19-22 (ESV) ¹⁹For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. ²⁰For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope ²¹that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. ²²For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

I know that I will have no authority to preach in the anointing of the Holy Spirit on holiness if I enjoy anything that is unholy. The Spirit is holy, and for him to minister through us requires that we too are holy.

Revelation 22:11-15 (ESV) ¹¹Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.” ¹²“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. ¹³I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” ¹⁴Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. ¹⁵Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

Be holy!

1 Peter 1:14-15 (ESV) ¹⁴As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, ¹⁵but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,

Again, my authority to speak on holiness relies on my agreement with holiness!

If I watch a sitcom that has homosexuality as a theme, whether overt or subtle, I simply need to know that I will not be able to speak to that with anointing in my ministry. Why do you think it was so important for the homosexual agenda to overwhelm media with homosexual characters and situations? So the church would become entertained by that spirit, and, in turn, become sympathetic to it.

Did you know that a popular Disney show is introducing a lesbian couple? Good Luck Charlie has been extremely popular, and now, when hooked, Disney knows they won’t lose viewers when they introduce immorality into the storyline. http://www.christianpost.com/news/disney-channels-popular-sitcom-good-luck-charlie-to-feature-married-lesbian-parents-100704/

Do you wonder why the church has near zero impact on the increase of violence in the world? Pastors and their flocks are playing first person shooter video games, watching violence in movies and ignoring calls to holiness.

The church is deceived! People are being given up by God to a debased mind! A falling away has begun in the church!

Romans 1:28-32 (ESV) ²⁸And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. ²⁹They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, ³⁰slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, ³¹foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. ³²Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Every time we are entertained by a sin that required the death of Jesus, we are approving of those sins, and our future is terrifying.

Ephesians 5:10-12 (ESV) ¹⁰and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. ¹¹Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. ¹²For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.

If even talking about sin is shameful, how can we presume God is indifferent to us being entertained by it in media?

To approve of being entertained by sin in media, and to communicate that there is no fear of punishment, no repercussions, is to function as an end-time false prophet.

What about legalism? The moment we start preaching against something that we are participating in, we are devoid of power. But, we can preach the same message from a place of holiness, brokenness and Holy Spirit anointing and it will explode in power out of us! It’s not legalistic to call people to holiness. It is legalistic to call people to human works.

Sin hardens hearts, and deception and darkness will overwhelm us if we entertain sin.

2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 (ESV) ⁹The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, ¹⁰and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. ¹¹Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, ¹²in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Pleasure in unrighteousness will result in great apostasy and falling away—in the church!

Telling people only about the love of God without also discussing the fierce judgment of God not only won’t work, IT’S NOT BIBLICAL.

We see warnings from cover to cover, Old Testament and New Testament.

Check out this video. It’s simple, basic, scriptural preaching—and it actually made the www.rightwingwatch.org website. What?

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/georgia-pastor-day-tony-byrd-compromise-leads-catastrophe

WAKE UP CHURCH!

At the Detroit Prayer Furnace we are calling together those who are ready to be trained as loved-fueled prophetic messengers.

I want to invite you to participate in a movement of fire and holiness in Detroit. We are calling together awakeners!

Contact us TODAY: [email protected].

Here is the info about how you can become equipped and ready to move in boldness and fire that I posted yesterday:

Give leadership to the prayer movement in Detroit • The Detroit Prayer Furnace is a contending house of prayer for revival.

Habakkuk 2:2 (ESV) And the LORD answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it.

The staff at Revival Church, theLab and the Detroit Prayer Furnace are focused on two numbers:

40 core leaders at the Detroit Prayer Furnace and 1000 intercessors for Detroit

the40

You are invited to join our team of revival minded core leaders at the Detroit Prayer Furnace. (Check out our NEW website here: www.detroitprayerfurnace.com.)

The process is simple and you are encouraged to start into it today!

There are three designations at the Detroit Prayer Furnace: theField, theLab & theCore

theField

Simply gather together with us and grow through prayer, teaching and by enjoying our community.

A variety of opportunities to grow are available to you including:

Saturday Prep Room Prayer & Primary Weekly Service
Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday Prayer & Teaching
Friday Prayer Events
Prayer Watch Teams (coming soon!)
Life with John and Amy (monthly small group)

theLab

We strongly encourage everybody in our community to enroll in theLab University. This is a focused, intense training environment that will unlock your destiny and set you ablaze!

Everybody interested in joining theCore, a team of 40+ leaders in the Detroit Prayer Furnace, must successfully complete one three-month session of theLab.

You can learn more about theLab University here: www.thelabuniversity.com

theCore

A team of 40+ leaders will head up the Detroit Prayer Furnace revival movement.

Opportunities for those on theCore include leading prayer watch teams, teaching, developing ministries and advancing the prayer movement with a family of burning men and women of God.

theCore team is devoted to consecration and modeling the lifestyle of an end-time forerunner.

This commitment includes:

Three prayer & ministry events per week
A high standard of holiness
Traveling locally (and further if available) for ministry events
Financial partnership (tithe)
Continuing education

If you are ready to start your process toward leadership as a part of theCore at the Detroit Prayer Furnace, talk to us at an upcoming Saturday service. We can’t wait to help you get started!

the1000

theCore are automatically a part of the1000 intercessors for revival in Detroit.

That leaves an additional 960 people who are needed to respond to this prophetic assignment!

The commitment is simple but significant:

Sign up for a weekly prayer watch through www.hiddenonesmi.com (Transformation Michigan’s prayer effort)
Sign up for our email alerts so we can communicate with you
Attend a monthly prayer event at the Detroit Prayer Furnace OR another connected prayer ministry
Communicate monthly by filling out an online form

This enables us to stay connected and locked in while serving in our various local ministries.

If you want to join the1000, we want to hear from you! Please email us at [email protected] TODAY! We will give you info on how to get started.

Posted in The Church and tagged america, authority, church, crisis, detroit prayer furnace, facebook, fear of man, fervent, Gospel, hateful, hell, holiness, jonathan edwards, judgment, prayer, prayer movement, prophetic, rightwingwatch, sin, sleeping, Twitter

New Teaching: Witchcraft, judgment, conflict and eradicating a victim mentality

By John Burton | January 28, 2013

This is a MUST listen teaching! I share remarkable stories that make it clear that we must embrace conflict and judgment!

A shocking shift hit us last night at Revival Church!

I’ll include my notes from the entire series below.

Here some bullet points from last night’s teaching:

You have to know that ministry that is born of God and prophetic in nature is designed to bring friction!
People will love you until you don’t give them what they want and do give them what they don’t want!
Since ministry is all about change, friction should be expected, and if you are adverse to friction, you are not ready for ministry!
So many are content with just learning more and more who they are and what they get as Christians, and their goal is to attempt to live in this happy, positive realm.
Teaching that attempts to reveal who we are in Christ without resulting in a revelation of what we do for Christ has miserably failed.
When the world was crying out for relief, Jesus brought conflict! Friction! What greater friction could there be when Jesus was on the cross? The nails as they were driven through his flesh-friction! The hatred and mocking-friction! His closest friend, his Father, turning his head—friction!
Nehemiah was fervent and he initiated friction…and the fire returned.

Fire: Fervency & Friction

I. A call to provoke

a. A goal is to be the most fiery, fervent, passionate body of Believers in Detroit—not because we are trying to build the Revival Church brand, but because we want to simply live according to the Biblical norm!

i. We want 1000 people who are burning, on fire… praying non-stop, moving against resistance, taking dominion!

ii. A remnant is rising up, bold prophetic messengers who will fear God, preach the cross, call to repentance & emphasize the reality of Hell.

iii. This will result in a great provocation!

iv. A key problem with communicating reform in the church is that most presume it will enhance the familiar, not eradicate it.

1. What this means is that our comfort and what we like is at risk of demolition!

2. We are the initiators of this great reform!

b. When we have a great understanding of who we are in Christ, we will not only stop fearing conflict, but we will joyfully seek to initiate it.

c. There’s simply no way we will be able to stay silent! Carriers of fire are constantly provoked!

i. With a spirit of great love and deep concern for those in darkness, our confidence in the power in our lives will result in action!

ii. That provocation, that friction, that fervent spirit will result in an atmosphere of fire, of awakening in our generation!

iii. Our goal as a prophetic people is not primarily to make people feel good! It’s to bring the trouble that’s hidden under the surface, to the surface for the sake of freedom.

1. The great counterfeit won't come to you as a counterfeit. He'll come to you as the Holy Spirit. Howard Pittman

iv. A spirit of religion doesn't restrict personal freedom, it emphasizes it…and violently reacts against anything that would threaten it.

1. A spirit of truth will cut, prune, trouble…before it liberates.

2. That’s why it’s so resisted… until someone hits rock bottom! That’s why calamity has to come to a nation before repentance is shouted!

3. It’s time to violently shake the sleepers, and warn the wicked, and trouble the church!

4. Ephesians 5:8-14 (ESV) ⁸ for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light ⁹ (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), ¹⁰ and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. ¹¹ Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. ¹² For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. ¹³ But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, ¹⁴ for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

5. In a spirit of great humility and love, we must expose darkness, and that requires that we are OK with friction.

6. Though many of you are entertained by my Facebook posts, I really do have a mission in mind.

a. As a prophetic messenger, my intent is to provoke people by the Spirit of God to a fresh level of discernment.

b. On Facebook, Twitter, on my blog, in these audio teachings, on XPmedia, etc. my only goal is to fervently create friction that results in fire in people’s lives.

d. Now, clearly, we talk a lot about fire around here, and that’s by design.

i. To create a fire you need the right conditions. I’m going to talk about two of them:

1. Fervency

2. Friction

e. When you rub two sticks together, you have to get the sawdust that is created heated up to 800 degrees before it will start glowing.

i. Below 800 degrees it will give off a little smoke, but little else.

ii. We cannot afford to be a ministry of smoke.

iii. Anything that prevents the sawdust from reaching 800 degrees will interfere with fire making.

iv. Interestingly, the finer the sawdust is, the lower the temperature necessary for it to ignite. Fervency + friction = fire.

v. Problems:

1. If you don't have enough muscle power then you won't be able to raise the temperature high enough. Remedy: teamwork. Have someone else help you.

2. If the structure of the wood is such that it disintegrates before it reaches 800 degrees then it is a wood that should not be used.

3. Volatile substances such as water or resin in the wood. Evaporative cooling will prevent the sawdust from reaching the critical temperature.

4. Someone said: What makes me feel even better is getting a group of people to contribute towards the starting of a fire. I can think of no better way to bond a group of people.

5. Someone else said: Starting a fire is a sacrament.

II. Fervency

a. Don't let the best you have ever done be the standard for the rest of your life.

i. It’s time to urgently go after the dream!

ii. Emerson said, “Nothing great was ever accomplished without enthusiasm.” “Every great movement in the annals of history,” said Emerson, “is the triumph of enthusiasm.” Hegel propounded the same truth. He said, “We affirm absolutely that nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.”

1. We can’t be so focused on personal experience that it’s to the detriment of personal accomplishment.

iii. Romans 12:11 (ESV) ¹¹ Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.

iv. Ephesians 5:15-17 (ESV) ¹⁵ Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, ¹⁶ making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. ¹⁷ Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

1. Make the best use of our time!

2. 24/7 church of urgent, fervent fire!

v. Isaiah 59:17 (ESV) ¹⁷ He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak.

1. Jesus put on zeal!

2. There is a reason to burn! To be fervent! To have an urgent spirit!

b. Nehemiah 1:1-3 (ESV) ¹ .. one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem. ³ And they said to me, “The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.”

i. What should the response be??!

ii. Nehemiah 1:4 (ESV) ⁴ As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

iii. Nehemiah hit his face and cried out and repented.

iv. If we are looking for personal comfort, we will actually resist the brokenness and grieving that will result in a fervent response!

v. “The desire for comfort can be your enemy. If the source of your comfort is not The Comforter, false comfort will eventually destroy you.”

vi. If moving in the spirit doesn't include a yearning for holiness, it's not the Holy Spirit we are moving in. We must strive for holiness!

vii. Hebrews 12:14 (ESV) ¹⁴ Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

c. We must be always on…always alert. Fervent. Striving. Rending our hearts.

i. The word “strive” in the Greek literally means to fight, to contend, to labor fervently.

ii. We must strive, be fervent! Urgent!

iii. “God has called us to be the sworn enemies of sin. We are to wage war against it and strive to give it no opportunity in our lives.” ~ William Wilberforce, Real Christianity

iv. There is a fervent, striving spirit that we must get used to in our lives.

v. The culture is a sinful, destructive culture, and we have to fight against it!

vi. No more simply seeking out comfort and relaxation! We must go hard!

1. The code word for ‘pursuing Jesus hard' is “legalism!” Don't be intimidated by these false arguments. ~Mike Bickle

2. A false grace message will result in a lack of motivation to respond in wholeheartedness. ~Mike Bickle

3. Charles F. Kettering of General Motors once said that he didn't want any fellow “who has a job working for me.” Kettering wanted a fellow whom a job has. The job must get the fellow, not the fellow get the job. That job should get hold of this young man so hard that no matter where he is the job has got him for keeps. That job should have him in its clutches when he goes to bed at night. In the morning, that same job should be sitting on the foot of his bed telling him it's time to get up and go to work. When a job gets a fellow that way, he'll amount to something. —Donald Grey Barnhouse

4. Even entering rest requires fervent striving! Hebrews 4:11-13 (ESV) ¹¹ Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. ¹² For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. ¹³ And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

5. Rest only come as we allow the breaking, refining process to hit us.

6. Deliverance story… the man manifesting, both me and him striving, warring… until he was free. Daniel for hours until freedom came.

vii. We also have to be fervent regarding our salvation!

1. Luke 13:24 (ESV) ²⁴ “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.

viii. Our missions require striving.

ix. We so often hear the expression “the voice of an angel” that I got to wondering what an angel would sound like. So I did some research, and discovered that an angel's voice sounds remarkably like a person saying, “Hurry up!” Until the time I took over, research had been blocked because it was based on the delusion that the voice of an angel would always be beautiful. The words “Get up” are rarely beautiful, never less so than at 7 a.m. Yet that is what the angels always say when they talk to men, as reported in the Bible. I can't think of anything an angel ever said but “Get up and hurry!” An angel comes to Peter in jail and says, “Rise quickly.” An angel says to Gideon, “Arise and go in this thy might.” An angel says to Elijah, “Arise and eat.” An angel appears to Joseph in a dream, when Herod is slaughtering the infants, and says, “Go quickly.” An angel appears to Philip and says, “Arise and go.” Really, the angels are monotonous talkers! They always say the same thing—”Arise, hurry!” But so is a fire bell monotonous. It might be a good idea to allow an angel to occupy the pulpit on Sunday. —The Christian Century

d. Cover to cover in scripture we see stories of fervency, of war, of battle, of advance.

i. To know God requires that you know him as a fervent, aggressive God!

ii. If our understanding of God is limited to knowing him as “Daddy,” we are missing the wonder of his fearful shock and awe.

iii. When the people cried out Hosanna for Jesus to save them, to comfort them, he gave them a crisis—the cross.

iv. He was fervent in his perfect expression of love!

v. This is why a foundation of our strategy includes deep groans of intercession!

1. There’s an urgency in the spirit that will awaken as we allow God to groan through us!

e. 1 Timothy 4:6-10 (ESV) ⁶ If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. ⁷ Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; ⁸ for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. ⁹ The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. ¹⁰ For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.

1. Wesley: Train thyself up in holiness of heart and life, with the utmost labor, vigor, and diligence.

2. Life Application: “Training” emphasizes the point that spiritual development does not happen by chance. An athlete is focused and committed, constantly training, refusing to let up, always striving.

a. I’m fervent for many reasons…one of which is that I know I am not guaranteed Heaven. I can’t even imagine not being with the one I’ve fallen in love with! We need to fervently exhort, to call each other higher!

3. Hebrews 3:12-13 (ESV) ¹² Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. ¹³ But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

III. Friction

a. When you go hard for God, when you fix what others don’t see as broken, when you threaten other’s comfort zones, there will be friction!

i. You have to know that ministry that is born of God and prophetic in nature is designed to bring friction!

ii. People will love you until you don’t give them what they want and do give them what they don’t want!

iii. Since ministry is all about change, friction should be expected, and if you are adverse to friction, you are not ready for ministry!

b. The gospel means conflict and confrontation, and all who stand for righteousness will be resisted. DR Michael Brown

i. If a key motivation for you is to be liked and for resistance and friction to be at a minimum, it will require disobedience to God to accomplish that.

c. Mission Manitou

i. Friction will find you if you advance against the enemy, if you advance the Kingdom of God.

ii. Mission Manitou: God called us to transition from ministering to people to ministering to God.

1. This was resisted like you will never know!

2. The people who expected to be the center of our attention rose up against us and brought some serious wounding to Amy and myself… God bless them!!!

3. But, most revealing was how the enemy reacted!!!

I’m sending this to a few men and women of God who walk in great authority. We are undergoing a significant attack, and I’m doing my best to draw as much attention from churches and intercessors to this city as possible.

A pastor actually told me, “Manitou Springs is a God forsaken city.”

Not so… but, it has been greatly forsaken and forgotten and feared by so many believers in this region. We are standing strong here, but are in desperate need of reinforcements. The mission is both at great jeopardy AND at the brink of unbelievable advance.

Since we’ve moved into our new Mission Base, and have begun 24/7 intercession, the enemy has reacted harshly and quickly. I have received many emails over the last 3 weeks from people in Manitou Springs and as far away as Egypt. Everyone from the “worshipful master” of the Masons to the earth spirit pagans to the twelve tribe cult has contacted me. A city council member visited us as well. It’s been prophesied many times that a huge season of demonic resistance would hit us. We’re in the beginnings of that season, and we are vulnerable. We need much help and intercession.

Here are some snips of emails I’ve gotten lately:

Today I am inspired by you to organize people myself. You have wakened the giant. May Lilith find a way to show the way.- Child of Lilith
If it's a “spiritual war” you want, you'll get one, as we WILL defend our home. You begun a battle you cannot possibly hope to win. I look forward to crushing your little assault beneath our collective, spiritual boots.
I do not want your prayers, and neither do any of the other people. Yes, you have the freedom to do so, but it is not wanted.

These emails are just the beginning, and they are the result of nothing more than 24/7 prayer.

4. Are you ready to take Detroit! Are you ready for the fight? 24/7 prayer must happen now! We need a property now!

d. Story of “I’m going to get one more senior than her.” (a witch for 22 years)

i. Many opposed the vent including a witch and a satanic priest.

ii. A spiritual conflict was about to cause problems, and freedom!!!!

iii. During prayer- God is going to visit people in the city.

iv. At the vent, someone came to me and shared a strange word that “heads are going to roll.”

v. Right after that, someone else had a word that was shared publicly “God wants the heads, specifically in the local ranks of witches.”

vi. A senior witch of 50 years had a visitation of Jesus!

1. I’m writing my next book, The Coming Church, and one of the key changes to the church is a loss of the fear of man and apostolic teaching that causes as much trouble as help.

vii. So many are content with just learning more and more who they are and what they get as Christians, and their goal is to attempt to live in this happy, positive realm.

1. A revelation of God will always result in a revelation of our own wretched condition—and this is good news!

a. We want this conflict!

b. After Isaiah sees God, he sees himself!

2. Isaiah 6:1-4 (ESV) ¹ In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.

3. Isaiah 6:5 (ESV) ⁵ And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

a. If you want to see God, get ready for conflict!

b. Get ready to be commissioned!

c. Get ready to receive your assignment!

viii. Teaching that attempts to reveal who we are in Christ without resulting in a revelation of what we do for Christ has miserably failed.

1. Titus 2:11-15 (ESV) ¹¹ For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, ¹² training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, ¹³ waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, ¹⁴ who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. ¹⁵ Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.

a. Renounce! Zealous for good works! Declare! Exhort! Rebuke!

2. And, what we do for Christ will cause great trouble!

3. We are called to be peace makers, not peace keepers!

4. That requires conflict and friction.

5. What you are called to do will threaten what others are trying to do.

6. This is the spirit of religion. This is what causes churches to resist one another! This is what causes jealousy!

e. Nehemiah 4:1-3 (ESV) ¹ Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews. ² And he said in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, and burned ones at that?” ³ Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, “Yes, what they are building—if a fox goes up on it he will break down their stone wall!”

i. Resistance! Mocking! Anger! Rage!

ii. How did Nehemiah respond? He prayed for friction!

iii. Nehemiah 4:4-5 (ESV) ⁴ Hear, O our God, for we are despised. Turn back their taunt on their own heads and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives. ⁵ Do not cover their guilt, and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders.

1. Jameison-Fausset-Brown: The imprecations invoked here may seem harsh, cruel, and vindictive; but it must be remembered that Nehemiah and his friends regarded those Samaritan leaders as enemies to the cause of God and His people, and therefore as deserving to be visited with heavy judgments. The prayer, therefore, is to be considered as emanating from hearts in which neither hatred, revenge, nor any inferior passion, but a pious and patriotic zeal for the glory of God and the success of His cause, held the ascendant sway.

f. The next five words are brilliant: Nehemiah 4:6 (ESV) ⁶ So we built the wall.

i. Nehemiah 4:16-17 (ESV) ¹⁶ From that day on, half of my servants worked on construction, and half held the spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail. And the leaders stood behind the whole house of Judah, ¹⁷ who were building on the wall. Those who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other.

g. We must be in conflict and building!

h. The greater you advance in God, the more threatened the religious will become!

i. Nehemiah 6:1-3 (ESV) ¹ Now when Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall and that there was no breach left in it (although up to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates), ² Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, “Come and let us meet together at Hakkephirim in the plain of Ono.” But they intended to do me harm. ³ And I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?”

1. I talked with one of Sid Roth’s guests and he said the greatest and most fierce demonic resistance explodes out of people when he deals with the false grace message. The walls we are called to build, to restore the biblical church, will result in a ferocious demonic assault.

ii. It happened with Jesus too!

1. When the world was crying out for relief, Jesus brought conflict!

iii. Friction! What greater friction could there be when Jesus was on the cross? The nails as they were driven through his flesh-friction! The hatred and mocking-friction! His closest friend, his Father, turning his head—friction!

iv. I teach in my book Covens in the Church on resisting spirits against the move of God.

1. One of the steps, under the direction of God, is to pray for judgment.

2. Shaking! Building in Manitou! Fiery prayer revealed the dissenter. His motives were soon revealed.

3. A pure spirit of love will agree with judgment and friction… if I would have done nothing, people under my care would have been poisoned!

IV. Conclusion

a. Now get this… here’s the goal: The fervency and the friction will result in a fire.

i. Nehemiah 7:1 (ESV) ¹ Now when the wall had been built and I had set up the doors, and the gatekeepers, the singers, and the Levites had been appointed…

ii. Leviticus 6:12-13 (ESV) ¹² The fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it; it shall not go out. The priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and he shall arrange the burnt offering on it and shall burn on it the fat of the peace offerings. ¹³ Fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; it shall not go out.

b. Nehemiah was fervent and he initiated friction…and the fire returned.

Posted in The Church and tagged audio, conflict, fire, friction, judgment, leadership, ministry, nehemiah, prayer, provoke, revival church, teaching, thelab

James Dobson & Judgment: Our country is in complete disarray

By John Burton | December 19, 2012

The church in America is like the frog in the kettle. We don’t understand how far we have fallen.

James Dobson:

Our country really does seem in complete disarray. I'm not talking politically, I'm not talking about the result of the November sixth election; I am saying that something has gone wrong in America and that we have turned our back on God.

I mean millions of people have decided that God doesn't exist, or he's irrelevant to me and we have killed fifty-four million babies and the institution of marriage is right on the verge of a complete redefinition. Believe me, that is going to have consequences too.

And a lot of these things are happening around us, and somebody is going to get mad at me for saying what I am about to say right now, but I am going to give you my honest opinion: I think we have turned our back on the Scripture and on God Almighty and I think he has allowed judgment to fall upon us. I think that's what's going on.

James is right—we have no clue how far we have fallen from righteousness and morality. There are entire unbiblical theologies that are skyrocketing in popularity right now that communicate a minimal impact of sin on us personally and corporately.

I actually heard someone say last night, “In the New Covenant God doesn’t convict of sin. As Christians we cannot sin.” What?!

In a must read article, Steve Hill says:

One spiritual leaders said the other day: “You guys are old-fashioned ‘holiness,' we are modern day ‘grace.' You live in bondage while we can do anything we want.

The false-grace message is truly wiping out masses of people who have been lulled into a state of false-comfort and false-peace. In the end there will be a great falling away, and we are in the beginnings of those troubles.

We must repent with brokenness and tears. We must stop calling good evil and evil good. We can no longer do what is right in our own eyes. The Bible says there is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. That death is all around us.

I’d strongly encourage you to watch a Sid Roth episode on counterfeit grace. He and his guest Tony Kemp feel strongly that multiple messages about this dangerous movement must be broadcast. Watch it here: http://www.sidroth.org/site/News2?abbr=tv_&page=NewsArticle&id=12311

I personally don’t believe there is an option to become comfy and casual in regard to our salvation. There are end time false theologies that truly put many Christians at great risk of falling away.

ENTERTAINED BY THE SIN THAT RESULTED IN THE DEATH OF JESUS

“That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thessalonians 2:12)

Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils” (1 Corinthians 10:21)

I believe an “old time religion” style holiness movement must visit the church immediately.

It’s shocking to me, and I know this sounds old fashioned and legalistic, how many Christians allow themselves to be entertained by the very things that required the torture and brutal murder of the One we love!

Allow the Holy Spirit to bring wonderful conviction!

Allow the deadly numbness to dissipate!

We as Christians should be cut to the heart when light hearted jokes about sinful lifestyles are heard. When foul language is heard. When the private and God given gift of sexuality becomes pubic.

How is it that this has become rare to hear? Just a generation ago television wouldn’t even depict married couples laying in the same bed together!

Do we not know that we as Christians cannot lust? We can’t even think those thoughts, much less hear impure discussion or see it played out on the screen.

Steve Hill also says:

Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers must be willing to drop spiritual bombs, fire anti-heresy missiles, and even drive into the danger zones armed with explosive truth to confront this potential avalanche. The generals of this generation must leave the war room and put their years of experience on the front lines.

We are truly deceived if we believe we will participate in any measure of revival if we take holiness lightly, are entertained by sin and are apathetic in the call to take up our cross?

We cannot reform a culture we are so invested in.

GREAT FALLING AWAY

If you haven’t heard the epic and heart wrenching clip from David Wilkerson titled A Call to Anguish, you must take seven minutes of your day and listen. You will be ripped to the core. Watch and listen here: http://youtu.be/lGMG_PVaJoI

In 1995 David Wilkerson wrote:

The apostle Paul speaks of two frightful things that will strike the church just prior to Jesus' return. Indeed, the Lord will not come back until these two awful things happen. And I want to show you that both things are taking place right now – before our very eyes!

First, Paul tells us that in the last days there will be a great falling away. And second, he warns that an evil spirit of antichrist will overtake many believers who are turning aside!

The antichrist spirit is invading the hearts of many apostate Christians even now. They are being absolutely possessed of evil. “But how?” you ask. “Why would certain apostate Christians ever turn to the Antichrist?”

It is because they are like-minded with him! John writes:

“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world….

“Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time” (1 John 2:15-18).

John is warning us that those who still love the things of this world have opened themselves to the spirit of antichrist. He's saying, “You know these are the last days – because so many are full of the covetous antichrist spirit!”

Beloved, if you are serving Jesus only 50 percent – or even 90 percent – then you are denying His full salvation. You aren't serving Him with all your heart, mind, soul and body. And you have opened up an inroad for the antichrist spirit to come in!

I agree with David. Many in the church will be shocked one day to find themselves in Hell. Is that offensive? It should be! It must be!

David Wilkerson writes further:

I am totally convinced that the antichrist spirit's most effective means of preparing hearts are cable TV and filthy movies. He knows that the eye is the gateway to the heart. And he marches straight through the corrupted, jaded eye of a Christian and takes over the throne of his heart!

This is why the antichrist spirit has taken control of the secular media – TV networks, movie production, Broadway theater, the press. Who but the antichrist spirit could so bias the media that abortion is now considered a right rather than a sin? Who but this spirit could justify euthanasia, the killing off of the elderly or infirm?

Who but the spirit of antichrist could mock everything that is sacred and holy, through wicked movies and vile TV programs? I believe the antichrist spirit is actually producing the programs on MTV and the Fox Network. From what I read of their shows, it's all absolute filth. Who but the antichrist spirit could be responsible for it?

The spirit of lawlessness is growing bolder and bolder, and our society is on the brink of becoming a raging hell. The antichrist spirit now pervades our schools, our courts, our streets, our businesses, even our homes. And, sadly, this evil is rapidly moving into the church.

I believe the spirit of antichrist is establishing churches all over the United States. This spirit is the motivating force behind “outsider friendly” churches. Who but the antichrist spirit would call for the ungodly to set the spiritual agenda – sending church founders door to door, surveying people: “What would you prefer church to be like? We want to tailor it so that you'll come.”

These megachurches are being built on skits and dramas, because people don't want to hear reproof. They want no conviction – so they hear a gospel that is almost totally devoid of repentance, judgment, the Cross. They are told all about God's grace and mercy, how to cope with problems – but nothing of God's judgment and hell. They're being lulled to sleep in their sinful lifestyle.

“But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils” (1 Corinthians 10:20-21).

NOBODY IS IMMUNE TO FALLING AWAY

We must humbly admit that we are at risk of being the frog in the kettle. We can be desensitized. We can slowly move from being horrified by sin to entertained by sin. We can go from being consecrated to being defiled.

The defense that I hear all too often is, “There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus! Talking about sin invites condemnation!”

Let me say it very plainly: That defense is ridiculous!

First, if we are in Christ Jesus, we will invite his deep and continual inspection into our hearts so that any sin can be eradicated! We won’t resist that process! We won’t want to harbor any sin whatsoever!
Second, we are often too casual and quick to presume that we are in Christ Jesus! If teaching on sin and holiness results in resistance in our spirits, we have to wonder if we are actually in Christ Jesus! Are we saved? Have we bought into a false teaching that’s not biblically sound? If we are not in Christ Jesus, any condemnation we may be feeling is accurate! We will die in our sins and will go to Hell.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9)

I know that’s hard to swallow, but truth is often wonderfully troubling. We have to deal with this now before it’s to late at the end of our lives.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24)

It’s time for a prayer-fueled movement of repentance and holiness in the church. Many will resist this message, but we have to be OK with that. Eternity is a very long time.

Posted in The Church and tagged a call to anguish, church, church in america, condemnation, conviction, counterfeit grace, country, david wilkerson, disarray, false grace, frog in the kettle, holiness, holy spirit, james dobson, judgment, sin, steve hill, tony kemp

A sobering yet clarified end-time vision for the church

By John Burton | November 7, 2012 |

Our role has become much clearer after the troubling end of the Presidential election.

My focus in this article is to bring clarity of our vision to the Revival Church staff and team, yet it’s something that any Christian will appreciate.

I am simply confounded. No matter how I try, I cannot even come close to understanding how a Christian would support a candidate that has so clearly, boldly and methodically renounced biblical truths. I’m beside myself.

2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 (ESV) ¹¹ Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, ¹² in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

That is a verse specifically dealing with the antichrist, but the principle remains. There is a strong delusion in the world today as the antichrist spirit gains momentum.

For example, consider abortion. If you understand biblical history, you know that it is a violent antichrist spirit. Just as with Herod during the arrival of Jesus on the Earth, there is an antichrist, God killing spirit in America. To stand with anybody who promotes this spirit is beyond nonsensical.

Yes, it’s true that one day after the election that Jesus is still the King. However, I’m trembling as I believe the King is closer to executing desperately needed judgment on America than he has ever been.

Franklin Graham, regarding the election of President Obama to another term: “…I think it will be to our peril and to the destruction of this nation.”

Have you ever considered the nation we love ceasing to exist? It’s possible. Many think it’s probable.

I’ve asked the following question several times yet it’s almost always dodged without an answer:

If a candidate were to support the murder of any child under the age of two, for any reason, would you vote for him? If it was OK to take your toddler, who was becoming an inconvenience to you, or if you couldn’t afford to take care of him, down to the clinic to have him dismembered and disposed of, would that be acceptable? If not, why is it OK to stand with a candidate who supports the murder of children who are younger?

Another even more provocative question is this:

If a two year old child was the result of rape, should it be OK to kill them? If not, then why is it OK to kill them at an earlier age?

The other issues that I consider most troubling are the destruction of the traditional family through the promotion of gay marriage, and the resistance to stand with Israel.

For me, the economy is a near non-issue for the Christian as our needs were already guaranteed to be supplied. My vote was not at all driven by questions about our economy.

A LUCIFERIAN SPIRIT

It’s shocking how deeply a Luciferian spirit has infiltrated the church and our nation. There is a deeper teaching that this article can’t give justice to, but allow me to share some of the key issues that we must be aware of so we can best understand our vision of reformation.

Simply stated, Lucifer was in the very presence of God, witnessing and experiencing all of his love, power and glory. The radiance of God’s presence and his unlimited and immeasurable power was before Lucifer continually. So, what happened?

With God in the room, Lucifer was focused on self.

It’s crazy! Yet, we see this every week in churches from coast to coast.

We see this troubling spirit in the story of the money changers in the temple. Jesus violently reacted as he picked up on this self-centered, Luciferian and religious spirit that resulted in people using God’s holy place for their own personal gain. The temple wasn’t about worshiping God that day, it was about worshiping self just as Lucifer did.

Today’s church, and today’s America is largely about the pursuit of happiness. God’s presence is not enough, and, an even more troubling reality is that, with God in the room, if he is blocking what we really want we will forsake him and spiritualize our own endeavors. That’s what happened with Eve in the garden. Satan appealed to her desire for godliness, for personal gain. So, she rebelled all while spiritualizing her decision.

It’s a Luciferian spirit that is driving so many in the church to focus on personal gain. It shockingly results in some Christians actually supporting abortion if it will result in a better life for the mother. It’s such a high level demonic deception that it has put our entire nation, not to mention the church, at great risk.

The Lucifiarian tradition usually reveres Lucifer, not as the Devil, but as a rescuer or guiding spirit. This philosophy is based on carnal fulfillment with consideration for the preservation of self.

How interesting.

This spirit must be dealt with from the opposing direction. Check out the story in Revelation:

Revelation 12:11 (ESV) 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.

The blood of Jesus, the declaration of our surrender to him and focusing not on personal happiness but on embracing the call to martyrdom is the answer.

Our churches and our American lives can no longer be about personal gain, storing up blessings, self-centered happiness or loving our lives.

It’s so sad to me as a leader that the church at large is not satisfied with the fact that Jesus died for them. Is that not enough for us to lay down our own lives for him?

We see most every Christian conference today focusing on our blessings, our identity, our rights. Of course, there is biblical precedence for such topics when handled rightly, however the concern is that self-focus is what draws the crowds instead of the call to die daily and surrender all.

We also see this issue manifesting in the realm of finances. The greatest offerings are received when the greatest teaching on financial return is delivered.

It’s a Luciferian spirit that drives abortion as well. When focused on our own happiness, our delusion results in a willingness to to remove any hindrance to that pursuit—including unwanted children. That self-centered spirit is what drove Pharaoh when he tried to annihilate the Hebrews and what drove Herod when he tried to eliminate Jesus by killing children. It’s the same spirit that fueled the Holocaust. That spirit is powerfully active in America today.

The current abortion crisis in America is significantly worse than the horrific tragedy of the Holocaust. 17 million vs. 55 million dead.

Now, let me say this very, very clearly. I don’t believe the primary reason abortion is freely available in America today is our elected officials. It’s because the same Luciferian spirit that drives the abortion agenda drives so many in the church. Those seeking abortion are on the hunt for personal happiness and the elimination of any threat to it. In the church, the focus has become the same—personal benefit, happiness and freedom. The tickling ear messages and the focus on personal gain is rampant in the church today. Instead of calling the church to lay down their lives, the messages are nearly always about finding themselves and having the best life they can. As I’ve said before, I don’t believe it’s time to “become a better you,” it’s time to “become a deader you.” Dead to self, alive in Christ.

This is the current state of the church.

Charles Finney brought this strong charge back in 1873:

“The error that lies at the foundation of this decay of individual and public conscience originates, no doubt, in the pulpit. … Brethren, our preaching will bear its legitimate fruits. If immorality prevails in the land, the fault is ours in a great degree.

“If there is a decay of conscience, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the public press lacks moral discrimination, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the church is degenerate and worldly, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the world loses its interest in religion, the pulpit is responsible for it.

“If Satan rules in our halls of legislation, the pulpit is responsible for it. If our politics become so corrupt that the very foundations of our government are ready to fall away, the pulpit is responsible for it.

“Let us not ignore this fact, my dear brethren; but let us lay it to heart, and be thoroughly awake to our responsibility in respect to the morals of this nation.”

So, that’s our setup. Now, what should our response be?

THE VISION

Revival Church team, it’s imperative that we all understand what the vision is and what it is not so we can fulfill the very finely focused mission God has given us.

Further, we must understand if a function of our ministry is a key component of the core vision, or if it’s a supplemental support to the core, or even if it’s contrary to the core. This will help ensure that the main things remain the main things.

Our call is to deal directly with a sleeping and dying church. It’s our prophetic mandate. The alarms must be sounded and repentance must be the result. There is a holy grief and a spirit of mourning that must be upon us, even as we are driven by a deep, abiding joy as God moves through us. Remember, Revival Church is a prophetic ministry that is focused on reformation and calling the greater church into a revival ready model. Many of the messages that come out of this ministry are not only for those in our church but are for those throughout the Detroit region and beyond.

The two chapters in the Bible that must be continually opened at Revival Church are Joshua 3 and Acts 2. Those are our blueprints. Study them. Memorize them. Pray through them. Continually.

Our key verse is Joshua 3:5: Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.

My book 20 Elements of Revival is our practical guidebook as it gives us a step by step process of city-wide revival. If it’s in there, it’s in our DNA.

Again, as we look at the vision, keep in mind the state of the church and the state of the nation. There is much calibration to be done.

WHAT IT IS AND WHAT IT ISN’T

Revival Church is prayer-fueled and aggressive. We are calling people into an urgent lifestyle of holy striving and zealous prayer as we press toward the goal together. There is a literal groan of intercession that we must discover and release night and day.
Revival Church is a movement of holiness, repentance, excellence and radical discipleship. Joshua 3:5 reveals that we are to consecrate ourselves and prepare for a life of wonders.
Revival Church is an apostolic and prophetic church. As an apostle/prophet with a regional and national focus, we are leading from that edge. The constant focus around here is reformation, revival and regional impact which means we are always shifting and redirecting in our methods as we pursue the ultimate goal. Following a prophetic leader is a challenge to say the least. The vision is always expanding and the methodology is always changing which requires that everybody involved is ‘instant in season and instant out of season’. New projects are often initiated well before old projects are completed.
Revival Church’s message isn’t locally limited. I say often that I’m a one string banjo. We are all about revival on a regional and national level. So, what this means is that those in our church will be hearing the same revival thread in our messages over and over again. We are intentionally focused and limited instead of diverse in our teachings. I understand that the messages I deliver are mostly for the region and nation, and the primary vehicle we are using is the Sunday evening Revival Church service. I’m certainly preaching to those in attendance, but I’m equally targeting those who will be hearing the message online. If I have to say the same thing over and over until those in attendance have it memorized word for word, that’s OK as long as the message is impacting those who are listening in our target areas around the world.
Revival Church, by design, does not give all five of the offices equal attention. This is not to say that we don’t value all of the offices, but it does say that we know who we are and who we are not. In the current church structure the presumption is that all five offices must be active in every local church. That’s not true. First of all, that’s not realistic for smaller churches. Second, in scripture we know the church is identified by the city, not by the local expression. The five-fold offices must be in effect in the city church, which will require that we as leaders are OK with people in our church participating in other local churches that are anointed in another office.
Revival Church, again by design, is not a Pastor led church. The current Pastor led church system in our nation has resulted in a lot of false expectations that are placed on leadership. This is one of our greatest challenges. Again, it’s not that we don’t value the Pastoral office, we do. However, our focus, time, energy and resources are not to be used to focus at a significant level on developing pastoral ministry. Interestingly, the presumption might be that without a strong pastoral focus that people can’t easily grow. It’s quite the contrary around here. We are raising up people who are growing at a faster pace than I’ve ever witnessed—and these people are self-motivated. When they notice a struggle in their lives, they proactively take steps to resolve it. False expectations can lead people to presume I as the Senior Leader will be fulfilling the role of pastor in their lives when, in reality, I’m not a pastor at all. This is a challenge to communicate and it can often feel like rejection to those who want close and constant access to me. However, it’s not rejection at all. It’s simply that a prophet/apostle interacts very differently with people than a pastor does.
Revival Church has an unapologetically high bar of commitment. We believe the 24/7 church is coming, and the call around here is to start modeling this emerging church structure. Additionally, we are launching 50 new churches in this region alone, and we are asking everybody to consider how they will participate in this mission. Everybody here has the goal of changing the Detroit region and working toward revival. We are an “all hands on deck” ministry and are calling everybody to gather every time the doors are opened and the alarm is sounded.
Revival Church has a vision that demands we expand and look outward. There is much that feels undone in our local church due to our focus to continue expanding in the region. We refuse to wait until everything is perfectly in place and mature before we move out and launch other ministries and projects.
Revival Church’s core vision is extremely limited. If I had to narrow it down to just a few focuses I would have to include: Prayer, regional revival, church planting, groans of intercession, holiness, equipping carriers of fire and releasing regional and national prophetic alerts. Other focuses and ministries may or may not fit within the scope of our vision. Some are supplemental and greatly needed while others are beneficial, but not in our setting.
Revival Church is less about the experience and more about raising up sober, broken prophetic messengers. We are preparing people who will prepare regions for coming moves and judgments of God. While having a happy heart, we will also carry the weight of the cross as we call people to surrender and awaken a sleeping church. Our services and ministries will reflect this, and while often joyful, the extreme nature of the burden and mission demands that we gather together, go low and allow God to use us to carry some of the most challenging burdens we’ve ever known.
theLab is our primary equipping center. We are aggressively encouraging every person in Revival Church to permanently call theLab their home. It is where our core DNA is best experienced and where the team will discover their cohesion and receive their assignments. The limited focus of the church is mirrored at theLab as we raise up an army of people who carry the DNA of revival. (You can apply to theLab School of Fire here: www.revivallab.com.)

LAST THOUGHTS

To confront the spirit of this age that has made significant advances even in the last 24 hours, and to promote the spirit of revival, we must all be signed up, locked in and carrying the message of freedom in our nation.

This means a de-emphasis on personal enjoyment in the church must come as we make way for the remnant to take position, lay down their lives and advance the Kingdom of God in America.

That’s not to say that we aren’t joyful in the house of prayer. We must be. But it must be unto something. The joy of our salvation must explode as we carry the vision of salvation for a sleeping church and a lost society.

Posted in The Church and tagged abortion, antichrist, apostolic, biblical, carriers, christian, church, delusion, election, end time, equipping, fire, five fold, Franklin Graham, Jesus, judgment, King, Kingdom, luciferian, murder, office, pastor led church, prayer, President Obama, presidential, prophetic, rape, revival church, school of fire, sobering, spirit, thelab, truths, vision

Ready to be challenged into revival? Listen to this sharp message from Sunday night!

By John Burton | October 30, 2012

It’s time. Judgment is coming. Crisis is continual in our nation. It’s time to take action and launch revival.

Sunday night at Revival Church Julia Palermo shared for about ten minutes on the call to revival, and I followed with a sharp and challenging message of extreme action.

We started the service by watching a heavily anointed video from the Brownsville Revival. You can see it here… it’s one of my all time favorites: http://youtu.be/4aix9SlcLrE

This is the next teaching in the series Ten Threats to Revival.

Here’s my personal notes so you can follow along!

Threat 2. A Belief in Fate

1. As long as we are content to live without revival, we will! Leonard Ravenhill

1. If we refuse to live without revival, we will shock everybody we know with our zeal and fervent, strategic work.

2. We must break the go to work on Monday, go to church on Sunday pattern. It’s not enough!

2. Let me start by saying this: If Noah had not picked up a saw and a hammer and labored for upwards of 100 years, we would not be here.

1. Genesis 6:13-14 (ESV) ¹³ And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. ¹⁴ Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch.

2. Genesis 6:22 (ESV) ²² Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.

1. Jesus is coming soon!

2. Matthew 24:36-44 (ESV) ³⁶ “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. ³⁷ For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. ³⁸ For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark,
³⁹ and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. ⁴⁰ Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. ⁴¹ Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. ⁴²Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. ⁴³ But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁴ Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

3. It’s time to get to work!!!! Crisis is coming! Jesus is coming!

3. First, we have to understand what the goal is.

1. The goal is not to live a better life.

2. The goal is not to have increased happiness.

3. The goal is not to convince God to love us.

4. The goal is not to convince ourselves that God does love us.

1. Do we not know this? The Bible is clear!

2. Romans 5:8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

1. We have to simply know that and get to work!

2. Don’t let your feelings drive you!

1. If you don’t feel loved, you feelings are lying to you!

2. Take your emotions captive! Demand they respond to truth!

5. So, what is our goal? Full blown Revival!

1. Just look at what’s happening in the world! Earthquakes, a freak storm… the world is growing darker… the witchcraft highest holy day this year is the same day as the presidential election. Our goal is revival! We must work!

6. None of us in the room has the goal to simply attend church, worship and grow personally.

1. It is unto something! There is MUCH more! Loads more! The hours of our day are to be stuffed full of revival focused activities.

1. I mean, read revival books, study the Word, pray with fire, write revival articles, stir yourself up, get the word out, gather people together, lead the charge!!! You!!!! Plant a Revival Tribe!!!!!! Go!!!! Jesus is coming again and time is running out!

2. This is why it’s shocking to me when the church of Detroit says they are hungry for revival, but they don’t respond to the corporate gatherings, to the prophetic calls to pray.

1. What kind of work am I talking about?

1. Be in the church every time the doors are open.

2. Be at prayer at 5pm.

3. Refuse to ever be casual, refuse to lose your fiery edge!!!

4. Go to the critical regional revival events.

5. Give financially, fund churches, finance the prayer movement.

6. Be at every corporate prayer event. (The Awakening Conference, Nathan Morris, etc.)

7. Step aggressively into your calling, into your ministry.

8. Pray like a freak moment by moment! Have dreams and visions! Pray in the Spirit!

9. Live by faith… I mean, crazy wild faith.

3. Colossians 3:23-24 (ESV) ²³ Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, ²⁴ knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

4. Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me.

5. Philippians 3:14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

6. Colossians 1:28-29 (NIV) ²⁸ We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.
²⁹ To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.

4. A revival is nothing else than a new beginning of obedience to God.~ Charles Finney, Lectuires on Revivals of Religion

1. Revival requires obedience.

2. “Today's church wants to be raptured from responsibility.” Leonard Ravenhill

5. Fate:

1. Something that unavoidably befalls a person; fortune; lot

6. Destiny:

1. A predetermined course of events considered as something beyond human power or control

2. An event (or a course of events) that will inevitably happen in the future

7. Many people tend to believe that they have little effect on whether revival breaks out or not.

1. They may say things like, “Nothing will stop God if he wants to pour out in a region,” or “If God wants to bring revival, he will.”

1. Wrong!!

2. The chance for revival if we live life as usual must be under 5%.

3. If we respond, it’s 100%.

4. We are apostolic people… Jesus left, his work is done… we can’t gaze into heaven waiting for Jesus to return!

5. Now we are ‘sent ones’… people with a mandate to aggressively impact the world.

6. You cannot sit in this church and avoid the inconvenient challenge to get the work done.

2. A belief in fate minimizes the radical importance of our disciplined participation.

1. 1 Corinthians 9:26-27 (ESV) ²⁶ So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. ²⁷ But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

3. Additionally, the many prophecies that have been revealing God’s plans for an outpouring in Detroit are conditional.

1. In order to see them come to pass, we must involve ourselves in the process.

2. As Mike Bickle says, “Prophecy isn’t a guarantee, it’s an invitation.”

1. The Great Commission!

2. We must do the work!

3. There is a fervent, holy striving that must return to the church.

4. Luke 13:23 Then one said to Him, “Lord, are there few who are saved?”
And He said to them, 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able.

1. If being saved is hard and requires striving, we have to know that our part in revival will require even more.

2. Strive–The word signifies to “contend” as for the mastery, to “struggle,” expressive of the difficulty of being saved, as if one would have to force his way in.

3. Matt 28:18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

1. From cover to cover in scripture, man had to do it!

2. We are commissioned and empowered by God to do it!

1. Noah had to build the boat.

2. Moses had to confront Pharaoh.

3. Paul had to start churches.

4. Peter had to preach.

5. Jesus had to die! And, we do too.

1. We have to pray, serve, feed the hungry, win the lost, do the work.

2. If you are called to translate the Bible like Brian Simmons, you can't just sit back on the couch and wait for the biblical knowledge to overtake you!

3. You study!

Posted in Revival and tagged action, brownsville, crisis, detroit, fate, judgment, julia palermo, nation, revival, Sunday, threats, zeal

God’s judgment, a flaky prophetic movement & the problem of the local church

By John Burton | October 22, 2012

Ten Threats to Revival: Listen to parts one and two online now and get ready to get rocked!

Yesterday’s teaching was part two in the series, and it will provoke you to prepare for judgment and to align yourself for revival.

Go to http://media.johnburton.net and listen right now.

You can follow along with my personal notes here. I hit on the first threat to revival—the local church.

TEN THREATS TO REVIVAL

I. Revival

1. We have to understand what revival is.

1. The simplest definition is wide scale calibration to biblical normalcy.

2. The stuff you read in the Bible will regularly manifest and be a part of our identity.

1. Acts 2:17 17 v“ ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,
wthat I will pour out my Spirit xon all flesh,
and your sons and yyour daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams;

2. Acts 5:16 Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed.

3. Acts 5:19 19 But during the night tan angel of the Lord uopened the prison doors and brought them out, and said,

4. Acts 2:41 So those who received his word were baptized, and zthere were added that day about three thousand souls.

5. Acts 4:31 31 And when they had prayed, hthe place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and ithey were all filled with the Holy Spirit and jcontinued to speak the word of God with boldness.

3. Arthur Wallis defines revival this way: It is God revealing Himself to man in awful holiness and irresistible power. It is such a manifest working of God that human personalities are overshadowed, and human programmes abandoned. It is man retiring into the background because God has taken the field. It is the Lord making bare His holy arm, and working in extraordinary power on saint and sinner.

1. Does it not bother anybody that we are at great risk of living our entire lives outside of the normalcy of irresistible power?

1. We live in a day where most Christians have not be blown away by the supernatural force of the Holy Spirit!

1. Brownsville!

2. Toronto!

3. Lakeland!

4. An invisible God was encountered!

5. The spirit of revival will awaken an entire nation!

2. One day when you Google “Detroit revival” the results won't be about the economic revitalization. It will be about the dead being raised.

1. Douglas Shields wrote in 1905 ‘There is a theory that all social and moral advance may be traced to religious revivals. If these comments are true then seeking continuous ‘revival’ should be the major aim of every Christian, in every church and in every age. Revival should be at the top of our prayer lists and preaching programmes. It is how God works.

3. This breakthrough has been prophesied! However, we must handle prophecy correctly.

4. Julia Palermo: “Prophetic words are not automatic guarantees but invitations from the Lord. Faith and obedience bring the manifestation of the promise.”

1. We must go after God and surrender all!

2. Our current calendar, our current focus is insufficient!

3. We can't just hope to show up at an event and see revival break out!

4. Michael Brown: You can no more “hold a revival” than you can hold a hurricane, and that you can no more “schedule a revival” than you can schedule an earthquake.

5. First, consider this quote by Evan Roberts, the hero of the Welsh Revival, as he shares the simple formula for revival: “Congregate the people who are willing to make a total surrender. Pray and wait. Believe God’s promises. Hold daily meetings.”

1. We must give our entire lives to revival!

2. That's what theLab is doing—calling the remnant, the revival hungry people who will make a total surrender!

3. We have come to believe that we can squeeze the hope of revival into our busy lives. We cannot.

4. Revival will reform calendars. The remnant will initiate this reformation by forcibly changing now.

5. Acts 1:4 And while staying1 with them ghe ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5 for hJohn baptized with water, hbut you will be baptized iwith1 the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

6. Everything changed not by the power of the Holy Spirit at that point, but by intentional and sudden change of life.

7. It's worth it!

5. Brian Edwards-A true Holy Spirit revival is a remarkable increase in the spiritual life of a large number of God’s people, accompanied by an awesome awareness of the presence of God, intensity of prayer and praise, a deep conviction of sin with a passionate longing for holiness and unusual effectiveness in evangelism, leading to the salvation of many unbelievers. Revival is remarkable, large, effective and, above all, it is something that God brings about.’

II. Threat 1. The Local Church

1. This first threat is a bit provocative.

1. I love the local church!

1. I love pastors and honor their missions!

2. And, we must have an extreme level of devotion to our local church missions!

2. However, the alarm must be sounded. We must be on the ready to lead people throughout the city to tend to the various fires of revival that will star sparking.

1. This is one reason theLab will be moving from Tribe to Tribe each week… we'll be fanning the flames of revival all over the city!

3. The leadership of Revival Church has their radars on, and we will be leading you into the fire, no matter where or when it is!

1. 40 days of fire! We were there every night! I took only one night off! I was disturbed when I heard rumblings of resistance against what God was doing there through Brian Simmons, who is emerging as an apostle to our city.

2. Keep in mind, in scripture the church, when mentioned, referred to the church of the city. We must be city minded always.

3. Acts 5:11 Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.

1. That wasn't a local church, it was the church in the city.

2. Acts 9:31 Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened; and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord.

3. We also see the seven churches in Revelation.

1. To the church at Ephesus

2. To the church in Smyrna

3. To the church in Pergamum

4. Not to first Baptist church, to Revival Church, etc.

4. Since we are the church of Detroit, we must understand our role on a city level.

5. the fear driven competition between so many churches in Detroit is an embarrassment to this city. And we think revival is near? Not until repentance is deep and unity is strong.

1. I believe its time that we are willing to lose our people, lose our salaries, lose our reputations, lose it all for the sake of blessing other churches and ministries in Detroit.

2. We must stop building our own kingdoms.

3. Brian Ming wrote a chilling worship song that included these words: God forgive us for building kingdoms of man on doctrines of demons in your name.

III. Threat 2. A Belief in Fate

1. Many people tend to believe that they have little effect on whether revival breaks out or not.

1. They may say things like, “Nothing will stop God if he wants to pour out in a region,” or “If God wants to bring revival, he will.”

2. A belief in fate minimizes the radical importance of our participation.

3. Additionally, the many prophecies that have been revealing God’s plans for an outpouring in Detroit are conditional.

1. In order to see them come to pass, we must involve ourselves in the process.

2. As Mike Bickle says, “Prophecy isn’t a guarantee, it’s an invitation.”

3. The Great Commission!

4. Matt 28:18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

1. From cover to cover in scripture, man had to do it!

2. We are commissioned and empowered by God to do it!

1. Noah had to build the boat.

2. Moses had to confront Pharaoh.

3. Paul had to start churches.

4. Peter had to preach.

5. The churches of Revelation were indited because of their lack of works.

1. We have to pray, serve, feed the hungry, win the lost, do the work.

2. If you are called to translate the Bible like Brian Simmons, you can't just sit back on the couch and wait for the biblical knowledge to overtake you!

3. You study!

IV. Threat 3. Taking a “Wait and See” Approach

1. Many are sitting back waiting to see if this current outpouring in Detroit is in fact a move of God. The problem? God’s moving is largely dependent on you and me! We have been instructed to tend to the fire, and in our unwitting arrogance we have reassigned that job back to God!

1. We believe God is to do our job of keeping the fire burning when he explicitly requires us to do it. If we don’t build the fire, the fire will go out—even though God’s prophesied plans are to bring the fires of reformation to Detroit.

2. Are you so sleepy that you aren’t active and vibrant enough in the spirit to hear the alarms? Wake up! Wake up!

3. Never again treat the call to battle casually. Never again participate in your local church casually. It’s time to awaken and advance with an alert and ready spirit! If you don’t know how to connect, ask! Ask again! Show up! Be a warrior! Serve!

4. Acts 1:4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with[a] water, but in a few days you will be baptized with[b] the Holy Spirit.” 6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. 10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

1. No more waiting! No more gazing! Go!

V. Threat 4. The Scattering Movement

1. We are in the end-times, and it’s clear in scripture that we must gather together even more during this historic season.

2. Satan’s plans to overthrow God were well on track as the greatest movement of unity in history was advancing.

3. Gen 11:4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” 5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.” 8 So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused[a] the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.

1. That unity gave strength to the building of a tower that would reach the heavens.

2. God realized the threat and initiated ‘operation scattering’.

3. The language was confused and they scattered all over the Earth.

4. Now, Satan is using God’s own strategy against the most powerful governmental system on the planet—the Church.

5. Instead of gathering in unity that would be strong enough to overthrow Satan’s kingdom, we are being scattered. We are not together.

6. This is why stadiums will be critical in this next season. We must have the city church literally together, in the same place, consistently.

7. Remember, a key element of revival, which is emphasized by Evan Roberts, is daily meetings. Yes, it will be normal for people to be in church, together, under apostolic leadership most every day of the week.

VI. Threat 5. The Seeker Sensitive Movement

1. I’ve often told the people in my church that I will never tone down the activity of the Holy Spirit out of respect of those less hungry.

2. We need burning churches that result in people falling to their faces and crying “Holy!” when they walk through the door.

3. 2 Chron 7:7 As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and 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, for his steadfast love endures forever.”

4. It’s arrogance to presume that our human strategies are more potent than the supernatural capabilities of the Holy Spirit.

5. When people are in desperate need they don’t look for Clark Kent, they are don’t want someone who looks just like them to come to their rescue. They need to experience the superpowers of the Burning Holy Spirit.

VII. Threat 6. A Lack of Intercession

1. Evan Roberts declared that revival hinges on our obedience to pray and wait.

2. The call in Detroit is for 1000 intercessors to gather together in the same place every Friday night as we release fire and cover this great mission. If we don’t respond, we probably don’t want the consuming fire of revival to come. We won’t be prepared for such a fearful burning.

3. The Tribes are being formed in response to this mandate.

1. We need YOU to start a Tribe!!!!

2. After the 2 Chron 7 fire that hit the temple, we have the famous passage in 2 Chron 7:11-14:

1. 2 Chron 7:11 Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king's house. All that Solomon had planned to do in the house of the Lord and in his own house he successfully accomplished. 12 Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. 13 When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, 14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

3. We must pray!

VIII. Threat 7. Fear of Loss

1. A key reason pastors don’t advance their churches into the experiential realm of encounter with God is that the risk of losing people, money and their reputation is high.

1. It’s clear that a instituting a marginalized church culture is a much less risky option to develop a growing church in America. However, it’s also clear that such a culture is void of power and miracles.

2. The world isn’t looking for another man-made system to join. In fact, the world does a much better job of building humanistic kingdoms than the church does.

3. We’ll only see revival when we have the guts to call people into the wilderness of extreme encounter where the Fire and the Cloud leads them into a supercharged adventure.

1. Fear of loss must be replaced by an expectation of loss!

2. I surrender all! It's not, “I hope I don't have to surrender all!”

3. I die daily! It's not, “I hope I can avoid the death part of the program!”

4. I take up my cross! It's not, “I take up my blessing!”

IX. Threat 8. Unbelief

1. Evan Roberts reveals one of the elements of revival is simply to believe God’s promises.

2. It’s stunning how little the church believes in the supernatural. Healing, freedom, power and abundant life are tragically rare.

1. A barometer of our position in Christ has to be whether we can hear or not!

1. John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

2. This is the only way we can believe!

3. Rom 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

4. The only way to be united with Christ in the pursuit of revival is to hear and believe!

5. Heb 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

6. We can't just wait around in doubt, it's time to move!

3. Its no wonder that people are avoiding the church today. We are a people who are living on the wrong side of the Ascension.

4. In Acts 1, the disciples were waiting for Jesus to snap his fingers and work more wonders. They wanted him to establish his Kingdom. But Jesus gave them clear instructions that would shock them to their core. They weren’t to wait and hope for something to happen (hope deferred makes the heart sick)—they were to do it themselves!

5. They transitioned from disciples on one side of the Ascension to apostles on the other. Now, they, as ‘sent ones’, were to believe and act.

6. They were to be the answer to people’s impossible situations. They waited for the necessary power to change the world, and when they received the Holy Spirit, they went everywhere in fiery belief healing, delivering and preaching the Kingdom.

X. Threat 9. Seeking an Enhanced Life

1. People generally want God to make their current lives better. They want an enhancement, an upgrade.

2. However, the demands of revival include the willingness to embrace a fire that won’t warm your flesh—it will consume your flesh.

3. Evan Roberts called for people to gather—but not all people—only those who were willing to make a total surrender.

1. Revival doesn’t enhance lives, it crushes them. If we attempt to advance with a semi-surrendered people, the fire simply will not fall.

4. Since I’ve been in Detroit I’ve heard a lot about revival. It seems the whole region is crying out for it. However, this is where the root of the disturbance in my spirit exists.

1. Most every time revival is mentioned, the intent of that desire is to experience some sort of breakthrough, blessing or restitution.

2. It’s time we STOP crying out for God to revive the economy, for resolved issues, for racial tensions to subside, for a fixed city… and START crying out for God and God alone!

3. God is jealous and he won’t allow Detroit to be satisfied by money, security or anything else until we are satisfied in Him and no one or nothing else!

5. DO NOT expect revival until we return to our first love. It WILL NOT COME! In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if the situation in this region got dramatically worse. The choice is ours, however.

6. It’s absolutely shocking to me that so much emphasis is placed on the pursuit of breakthrough yet the call to breakthrough into a pursuit of God falls on deaf ears.

7. Will we only gather and pray if we have a hope of personal blessing?

1. Where are all of the hungry people in Detroit? The stadiums should be filled with zealous, praying people every night of the week! Have the cares of life and entertainment so bewitched us that we have become convinced that being with God is not worth it?

8. I propose starting a movement of encounter which only has one goal—to be fully satisfied in enjoying and responding to the Lover of our souls. Nothing else matters. If we all have to live in a cardboard box on the streets of Detroit to encounter God, so be it! Our goal is not financial! It’s not selfish! It’s to be with God! That is all!

XI. Threat 10. A Lack of Immediate Response

1. Joel 1:14 Consecrate a fast;
    call a solemn assembly.
Gather the elders
    and all the inhabitants of the land
to the house of the Lord your God,
    and cry out to the Lord.

1. We live in a day where there's Twitter, email, Facebook, video and more… in every house in the city!!! We have phones that are many times smarter than the computer that took a rocket to the moon!

2. There is no excuse to not hear and respond to the prophetic decrees moment by moment!

3. We must be alert and ready! Alarms are being sounded, yet are any hearing?

4. The call a couple of years ago was for every church to gather at Fire in February. Few responded. The same thing with The Call. Few responded. The prophets are calling the church of Detroit to respond, and immediately!

2. This is one reason why church schedules must be flexible.

3. It’s also a reason why daily meetings are critical.

4. When prophetic instruction is received, the entire region must know about it right away, and the people must respond.

1. We have to learn to do two things:

1. Embrace key prophets in the region

2. Stay tuned in, stay in your email, stay ready for an urgent message that just may require you respond in hours time!

5. In Joshua 3, the instructions were clear, and everybody responded in unison.

6. There’s no way to fulfill this mighty mission if we are only together one day a week (actually 2 hours a week!).

1. There’s way too much work to be done!

2. As an example, Mike Bickle recently called an urgent meeting. Most of the departments at IHOP in Kansas City were immediately closed and the people all gathered together to receive an urgent prophetic message.

3. In Detroit, we must promote extreme alertness and flexibility so we can respond moment by moment to the demands of regional revival.

If we are mostly focused on our local, personal ventures, we’ll stay disconnected from the greater, regional mission.

Posted in Revival and tagged audio, biblical, detroit, judgment, listen, notes, revival, series, teaching, threats

Teaching and notes- Order in the Church- Preparation for Revival

By John Burton | September 7, 2010 |

Revival might come.

We all know that it should come, but there is a lot that must come together if we hope to have a foundation strong enough to sustain it.

If we understand that revival isn’t defined by a powerful church service, or by life getting suddenly better, but rather that it’s a calibration—judgment—as God brings order to chaos.

This calibration to biblical normalcy will give a massive opportunity for offense and complaining to erupt as God, in love, begins to touch what’s sacred to us but a hindrance to him.

The church is God’s governmental structure to initiate, facilitate and give structure to the wild fire that revival will bring.

Simply, we must be together, connected to apostolic leadership, deeply organized and ready to advance. The church must be on the same page, must be ready to deal with the people that are going to be flooding to the altars, and simply must be unoffendable, teachable and full of the Holy Spirit.

This teaching addresses all of these issues. You can listen by going to www.detroitrevivalchurch.com/teaching.

Here’s the notes so you can follow along:

Order in the Church- Preparation for Revival

I. Order and government is critical

a. 1 Corinthians 14:12 (ESV) ¹²So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.

b. Titus 1:5 (ESV) ⁵This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you—

i. People who handle the spiritual duties of the church

ii. 1 Tim 4:14 “Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you”

iii. 2 Timothy 1:6-7 (ESV) ⁶For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, ⁷for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

iv. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ must not settle for anything short of godly leadership. Where can we find such people? Jesus said: "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest" (Matt 9:37-38).

II. Demands of revival

a. In the midst of revival we will have every opportunity to succumb to the pressure.

i. To understand this, we must have a clear picture of what revival is.

ii. It’s not simply an outpouring, but rather it’s a recalibration.

1. The challenge, the pressure, the rebukes, the refining will be constant.

iii. Those who are mostly looking for the refreshing (99% of the people) will very possibly find themselves bruised, discouraged and disenchanted.

1. Wow, revival can actually bring people to a worse place!

b. Moses went through this.

i. He was the deliverer, the OT savior of the Hebrews.

ii. He laid down his life, he risked everything to liberate people, to bring revival.

iii. But, there wasn’t the order necessary to handle it.

iv. In fact, Moses, the heroic leader, got so depressed that he wanted to die.

III. Numbers 11

a. Moses engaged in communication with God such as no man had ever before experienced.

i. He talked with God face to face.

ii. All 27 chapters of Leviticus and the first 9 chapters of Numbers record God’s words to Israel through Moses while the people were encamped at Sinai.

iii. The statement, “The Lord said to Moses” (or similar) appears nearly 60 times in these chapters.

iv. The day then came for Israel to move on, to leave Sinai and travel on towards the Promised Land.

v. The cloud that hovered over the Tabernacle suddenly began to move, and Moses and all Israel knew it was time to break camp and follow the Lord.

vi. Moses was optimistic when they broke camp and was highly motivated after his personal communication with God over the past 12 months.

vii. Numbers 10:35 says, “Rise up, O LORD! May your enemies be scattered; may your foes flee before you.”

viii. Moses was pumped!

b. But, it lasted all but three days.

i. The complaining began.

ii. Even though they were better off now then they were when they left Egypt, they complained.

iii. Numbers 11:1 (ESV) ¹And 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.

1. In the OT and the NT when there is a move of God, there are also casualties among those who respond wrongly.

2. Acts 5:4-6 (ESV) …Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” ⁵When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. ⁶The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him.

3. Take note, if we are crying out for the fire of God, we must understand just what we are asking for.

a. It’s both a refining fire and a consuming fire.

4. Numbers 11:2-3 (ESV) ²Then the people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the LORD, and the fire died down. ³So the name of that place was called Taberah, because the fire of the LORD burned among them.

a. People died, yet the complaining continued.

5. Numbers 11:4-6 (ESV) ⁴Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat! ⁵We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. ⁶But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”

6. Numbers 11:10 (ESV) ¹⁰Moses heard the people weeping throughout their clans, everyone at the door of his tent. And the anger of the LORD blazed hotly, and Moses was displeased.

a. Weeping and despair when life isn’t going as planned is not the right response.

b. Later in this story we see that God gave them what they wanted—more meat than they could eat, and a plague landed on them as they ate.

c. Numbers 11:33-34 (ESV) ³³While the meat was yet between their teeth, before it was consumed, the anger of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD struck down the people with a very great plague. ³⁴Therefore the name of that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had the craving.

d. They buried the people who had the craving!

c. The pressure of the people got to Moses.

i. He actually asked God to kill him.

ii. The revival was in process, the miracles were happening literally every day.

iii. But, the immaturity of the people resulted in a negative response to God’s move.

iv. These negative responses, the complaining will result in many people being impacted negatively right in the midst of revival if we don’t prepare for it.

v. These responses will land right in the lap of the leaders of revival.

vi. God has a plan to deal with this issue.

d. Numbers 11:16-17 (ESV) ¹⁶Then the LORD said to Moses, “Gather for me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you. ¹⁷And I will come down and talk with you there. And I will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you may not bear it yourself alone.

i. He will take some of the Spirit on Moses and put it on them.

ii. They shall bear the burden of the people.

iii. Mike Bickle- “I don’t do anything!”

iv. This is both an OT and a NT plan of action.

v. Acts 6:1-4 (ESV) ¹Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. ²And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. ³Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. ⁴But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

IV. Conclusion

a. So, we are in the gathering phase at Revival Church.

i. Many must be in position and ready to handle the needs of the people.

ii. My primary role is to hear from God, apostolically advance and raise up leaders… to pray and be in the Word.

iii. The rest will be handled by those who respond to the call.

iv. Most megachurch leaders don’t know what the day-to-day operations look like in any of the church’s ministries. He delegates authority.

v. This is where we are at now.

Technorati Tags: revival,order in the church,government,judgment,offense,Holy Spirit

Posted in The Church and tagged government, holy spirit, judgment, offense, order in the church, revival

Are we are forming a culturally acceptable version of God?

Sixteen dangers of the positive Christianity movement

Conclusion

No more excuses: Don’t let an orphan spirit keep you from fulfilling your destiny!

What’s an orphan to do?

A lonely venture

The Gideon Strategy

Mighty Man of Valor

Confusion

Growing Close

Two Altars

Identity!

Conclusion

A civil war in the church is drawing near—and it will be centered around the fear of the Lord.

A Coming Civil War

North vs. South

The Fear of the Lord

Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.

Acts 9:31 So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.

Psalm 25:14 The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant.

1 Peter 1:17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile

2 Corinthians 7:1 Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

Vision of a Chess Board

A Concentration of Government

Acts 10:35 But in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.

A Dividing Line

The world is getting better and better?

Now what?

When did it become hateful to warn people of the reality of Hell? Most go there and we have to get that message out.

FEAR OF MAN

THE CHURCH’S DIMINISHED AUTHORITY

WAKE UP CHURCH!

Contact us TODAY: [email protected].

Give leadership to the prayer movement in Detroit • The Detroit Prayer Furnace is a contending house of prayer for revival.

the40

theField

theLab

theCore

the1000

This is a MUST listen teaching! I share remarkable stories that make it clear that we must embrace conflict and judgment!

Here some bullet points from last night’s teaching:

Fire: Fervency & Friction

The church in America is like the frog in the kettle. We don’t understand how far we have fallen.

James Dobson:

ENTERTAINED BY THE SIN THAT RESULTED IN THE DEATH OF JESUS

GREAT FALLING AWAY

NOBODY IS IMMUNE TO FALLING AWAY

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9)

Our role has become much clearer after the troubling end of the Presidential election.

A LUCIFERIAN SPIRIT

THE VISION

WHAT IT IS AND WHAT IT ISN’T

LAST THOUGHTS

It’s time. Judgment is coming. Crisis is continual in our nation. It’s time to take action and launch revival.

Ten Threats to Revival: Listen to parts one and two online now and get ready to get rocked!

TEN THREATS TO REVIVAL

Revival might come.

THE COMING CHURCH

ARTICLES