THE REVIVAL - Part 2

2 Chronicles 20:20, “… Believe in the Lord your God and you shall be established; believe and remain steadfast to His prophets and you shall prosper”

     On the morning of the 6th day of September 2023, I had a dream: I was on  a swivel seat in the middle of a road just moving it round, with my hands up shaking my palm and fingers. I began to interprate my action directing the interpretation to someone else when one of a prophet in the Prophetic School interrupted me, “no, it means you are taking the fire to the lest of the earth”. In the waking life, the Spirit of Jesus said that the fire will start at Kasarani. This Fire will also bring healing Revival to every nations. 

     The Scriptures record several great revivals where people in great numbers turned to God and gave up sinful ways of living. Each revival was characterized by a leader who recognized his nation’s spiritual dryness and took action. They sacrificed their comfort for the comfort of others and raised an altar to God. Here are some of those leaders who were not afraid to make their desires known to the people: Moses accepted God’s law and built the Tabernacle… Exodus 32–33; Samuel rebuked the people who then promised to make God first in their lives by destroying idols… 1 Samuel 7:2-13; David brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem… 2 Samuel 6; Jehoshaphat… 2 Chronicles 20; Hezekiah… 2 Chronicles 29-31; Josiah… 2 Chronicles 34-35; Ezra… Ezra 9-10; Haggai 1; Nehemiah with Ezra… Ezra 8-10 to say the least.

Like I said in the previous blog - Part 1, revival starts with a vision. Spiritual Renewal is the Holy Spirit’s work and begins with one person’s vision given by God. Vision is your purpose in pictures. God will give you the big picture, and then He bucks up and starts the process. Purpose [the end] is the source of vision [when He shows it to you]. Often, God uses one person to express the vision [Nehemiah 1:3] and others to turn it into reality. Only the Holy Spirit can give spiritual life – without Him, the Son and the Father are not there also. 

He, the Holy Spirit, not Jesus, convicts of sin. Then, when you recognize your condition, the Holy Spirit takes you to Jesus for cleaning by use of His Blood. It is only at this time you are ready for forgiving. Jesus will take you to the Father so that the Father can forgive you. Religion teaches you that Jesus will forgive you. No, Jesus does not forgive, the Father forgives us. When Jesus taught His Disciples how to pray, He directed the prayer to the Father and said, “Our Father, … forgive us our sins… “…Matthew 6:12, 15; Luke 11:4; Mark 11:26, “But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your failings and shortcomings”. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is the Bringer, Jesus is the Cleanser and the Father is the Forgiver. The Holy Trinity is involved in the regeneration and revival. 

In order for the Holy Spirit to do the renewal or revival, we, the saints have got some work to do. The reason the Church is powerless is because of walking out of love. In the confines of the Church is the most loveless place on the earth… Revelation 2:4. Truth be told, there is more love in clubs than in the Church. One time, as I sort to see the Head of State, a certain sister in Christ known to him was recommend. As I prayed for this meeting, the Spirit of Jesus gave me a vision: this sister came out shooting at me with an AK47. I had already written to her in this connection – to see her. When she contacted me the following day, she wanted to know the reason for our meeting. I was jenelous enough to tell her the reason. And in deed, ‘she drew her gun’ and began to shoot at me. I regretted for contacting her. A simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ would have been enough. This is only one of the many examples I can give. 

Forgiving others is tough work – so much so that many people would rather do something totally distasteful than offer forgiveness. For a person to pray while bearing a grudge, however, is like a tree sprouting leaves and bearing no fruit… Mark 11:13. True faith changes the heart. Real prayer dismantle pride and vengeance, filling the holes with love. Real faith seeks peace. For our churches to have power again, there must be harmony or unity and forgiveness evident. Let go of hurts, abandon grudges and forgive others. Then the Holy Spirit will reside amongst you. People who reject Jesus’ claims have a greater problem than intellectual doubt: they are rebelling against Christ’s control of their lives. Our  attitudes towards others reflect our relationship with God… 1 John 4:20, “If anyone says, I love God, and hates (detests, abominates) his brother [in Christ], he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, Whom he has not seen”. Did you know that without love, your faith and hope will never work… 1 Corinthians 13:13? 

King David stated that harmony or unity is pleasant and precious – it is like the anointing oil [oil in Scriptures symbolizes the Holy Spirit] and the Holy Spirit brings unity. Unfortunately, unity is not always in the Church as it should be. Believers disagree and cause division over unimportant issues. Others delight in causing tension by discrediting others. Unity that is brought by the Holy Spirit in important because: it makes the Church a positive example to the watching world and helps draw them to the Kingdom of God; it helps cooperate as a body of believers as God meant us to, giving us a foretaste of the Kingdom of Heaven; it renews and revitalizes ministry because there is less tension to sap our energy… Psalms 133. Living in harmony does not mean that we will agree on everything; there will be many opinions just as there are many notes in a music cord. But we must agree on our purpose/vision at this time towards the end. Our outward expression of harmony will reflect our inward harmony of purpose by the Holy Spirit. He is our Leader, better still, He is the Governor of the Kingdom of God on the earth. 

Where do we start then? Nine years ago, the Lord Jesus promised me that He will come wherever I raise or build an altar for Him. God smells honor! Wherever, you build an altar, He will come.  Altars are often built for spiritual renewal/revival. Abram built an altar to the Lord often… Genesis 12:7. As of old, altars are used in many religions, but for God’s people, altars are more than places for sacrifices. For us, altars symbolize His presence, communion with God and commemorate notable encounters with Him. Built of rough stones and earth, altars often remained in place for years as a continued reminder of God’s protection and promises. 

God’s character and standards are so high. So, while we may enjoy God’s mercy and acceptance, we dare not take for granted that our God is awesome and holy. King David learned this the hard way. He was judged for taking a census against God’s will, “satan [an adversary] stood up against Israel and stirred up David to number Israel”… 1 Chronicles 21:1  After he repented of his pride, God asked him to raise an altar on the hill of the threshing floor of Ornan to the Lord, “Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David that David should go up and set up an altar to the Lord in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite… 1 Chronicles 21:18. Threshing floors were mainly built on a hill for easy cleaning by the wind – the evil which king David had committed would be winnowed on this threshing floor out of Israel, at a cost. Thus hill was Mount Moriah where Abraham nearly sacrificed his son Isaac [Genesis 22. After David’s death, his son Solomon later built a magnificent Temple on the spot [2 Chronicles 3]. Centuries later, Jesus would teach and Preach here. 

A leader’s sin is a leading sin. This is why more than 70, 000 people died as a result of the king’s pride. So, King David raised an altar to God… verse 22, “Then David said to Ornan, Grant me the site of this threshing floor, that I may build an altar on it to the Lord. You shall charge me the full price for it, that the plague may be averted from the people”. It costs to raise an altar for the Lord… 1 Chronicles 21:24, “And King David said to Ornan, No, but I will pay the full price. I will not take what is yours for the Lord, nor offer burnt offerings which cost me nothing. If the revival - the fire - will remain burning, something must continually burn at the altar. As the vision carrier, I sacrifice my entire life to be this altar so that the fire may continually burn unto the whole earth. Lord, I choose to be that sacrifice so that your fire may never go out. Jesus took on flesh on the cross to satisfy God’s wrath on sinful man. He became the ultimate sacrifice for the human race to restore the Holy Spirit, the Governor of the believers life.

A sacrifice or offering should cost you in terms of self, time or money. To give sacrificially requires more than a token effort or gift. The Lord wants us to give voluntarily, but He also wants it to mean something. Giving to God what costs you nothing does not demonstrate commitment. When the king built the altar for God, he prayed and God answered him by sending fire from Heaven to burn up the offering on the altar… verse 26. It is only at this time the Lord spoke to the angel carrying out the judgment on the land, and he put the sword back into its sheath. This is how powerful altars are… they speak for us. Fire symbolizes the validity of the Holy Spirit’s Ministry. So, as the revival by the Holy Spirit continues, something must also be burning at the altar to keep the fire. 

What is the proper use of an altar? In Exodus, God gave specific instructions about where sacrifices were to be carried out and how to build altars [Exodus 20:22ff] because He wanted to control the way sacrifices were offered. To prevent idolatry from creeping into worship, God did not allow the altar stone to be cut or shaped into any form. Nor did He let the people build an altar anywhere. This was designed to prevent the people from starting their own religion or making changes in the way God wanted things done. God is not against creativity, but He is against us creating our own religion. 

This is exactly what we have done with Jesus. We have made Him our leader and we are now pushing everybody to believe in Him. Jesus did not bring us religion, He brought us His Government… Isaiah 9:6, 7. He came to restore a Kingdom that was originally ours as it had been stolen by an unemployed chelub. This is what the Kingdom of God is all about. Dear saints, stop recruiting people promising them heaven – the Kingdom of God is not a fire inssurane policy. It is a Kingdom we must live on the earth by influencing it with the King of kings’ mind - culture, morals, language etc. What the King thinks becomes law. If you want to know what the King thinks about you, search the Scriptures – the Constitution of the Kingdom of God. 

Solomon loved God, but his act of sacrificing at Gibeon [1 Kings 33, 4] and raising an altar and sacrificing a thousand burnt offerings was sin. His act took the offering out of the watchful care of priests royal and dedicated to God. This opened the way for false teaching to be tied to the sacrifice. We can see that God appeared to Solomon to Grant him wisdom, not during the sacrifice, but at night… 1 Kings 3:5. The Scriptures  are silent to tell us if God send fire or not. God honored his prayer but did not condone the sacrifices.You see, David had already moved the Ark from Kirjath-Jearim to the tent he had prepared for it in Jerusalem. But a bronze altar made by Bezarel was still there in Gibeon. May be he had been misled after seeing his father David sacrifice forgetting that his father was a priest, prophet, psalmist and king. 

Our hearts and bodies today are those altars. The Bible says that our bodies are built from the dust of the earth and as members of God’s household, we are the stones, being build together on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets… Ephesians 2:20-21, “You are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus Himself the chief Cornerstone”. The Lord begins a holy fire in our hearts when we are born again, of which should never be put out. Backsliding is a form of putting out the fire. In the Old Covenant, the fire of sacrifices was never to go out… Leviticus 6:9-13 - it was a holy fire. The fire is holy because God started it. The fire represents God continued presence in the sacrifice – ourselves. Only by God’s gracious favor can we be accepted. 

From the beginning, man is in the habit of either putting out the fire God starts or sourcing the fire from someplace else. The profane fire of Nadab and Abihu tells the story in Leviticus Chapter Ten. God had just instructed on how to burn incense by starting the fire in the previous chapter, the last verse of Leviticus 9:24, “Then there came a fire out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar”. It is of importance that God repeated three times in Leviticus Chapter Six verses nine, twelve and thirteen, while giving instructions about the fire, “The fire shall be burning continually upon the altar; it shall not go out”. When the Lord repeats something in Scriptures,it it becomes a decree – it is fully prepared and established by God . Thus, the severe judgment for the two priests, Aaron’s sons. 

God started the fire, so no other source should be sought. Flagrant sin towards God has dire consequences. These two sons of Aaron and nephews of apostle Moses demonstrate the consequences very well, with their own lives. Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord meant when He said, “I and My will, not their own, will be acknowledged as hallowed by those who come near Me, and before all the people I will be honored”… Leviticus 10:3. And Aaron said nothing. God is both LORD and KING. Prayer, worship, studying the Word of God and obeying it keeps the fire burning.

To rekindle the fire again in your personal life, you must remove any ‘pagan’ altars from your life. When taking over the Promised Land, the Israelites were supposed to destroy every pagan altar and idol in the land. God knew it would be easy for them to change their beliefs if they started using those altars. So, nothing was to remain that might tempt them to worship idols. We too should ruthlessly find and remove any centers of false worship in our lives. These may be activities, attitudes, possessions, places or habits – anything that tempts us to turn our hearts from God and do wrong. We should never flatter ourselves by thinking that we are too strong to be tempted. Israel learned that lesson the hard way. 

Rebuilding the broken altars is a priority for the individual believer and for the Church as a whole before we can experience the Holy Spirit’s revival. The exiles built the altar as one of their first official acts. After many years in captivity, they had learned their lesson – they knew God does not offer special protection to people who continue to ignore Him. They realized the importance of obeying God from the heart and not merely out of habit. Staying close to God for us, the saints is a top priority at this time. The altars for the returning exiles symbolized God’s presence and protection. It also demonstrated their purpose/vision as a nation and their commitment to serve God alone. For us, it means that we are seeking the Holy Spirit’s guidance continually. Choosing the revival now is choosing to be guided by the Holy Spirit until He withdraws us from the earth when Jesus is revealed. 

The Lord never gives up on us. In Acts Chapter Two, He started another fire… Acts 2:1ff, “And there appeared to them tongues resembling fire, which were separated and distributed and which settled on each one of them. This fire birthed the first Church and continued to burn for quite some time. But in the last few centuries, the Church has cooled it. Others put it out and sourced from other sources. When we turn to other medium, JHVH [Jehovah or the ‘LORD’] is displeased with us. But now, the fire that has been revived shall never go out until the Lord Jesus harvests His firstfruit at Rapture – withdrawing the Church from the earth. The Holy Spirit is Governor of this territory earth, submit to Him now! 

So, what should burn on the altar? God wants us, His ‘holy priests’, the royal generation, to offer ourselves as the living and spiritual sacrifices, daily laying aside our own desires following the Governor of the Kingdom of God, putting our energy and resources at His disposal and trusting Him to guide us. This is Kingdom stuff! But, I have one problem with living sacrifices, they often crawl out of the altar when it gets really hot. Believers move ahead with God longing at sin, like Lot’s wife. This is why, our salt no longer brings flavor to the world. If the Bride does not change the way she thinks, from slave to the king she is, she will definitely be left behind. 

Come Lord Jesus!