I believe God has purposely woven a passionate desire for revival and breakthrough into every fiber of my being. It started early in my walk with Him. In January 2004, He pierced me with conviction as He broke my hard heart open with the needle of conviction. He wounded me with His love and has ruined me for anything less.
I’ve contended for Revival & Breakthrough for years. Always first in me, then out. That’s never changed.
I’ve received, cherished, and held fast to specific prophetic words about how He would use me for His glory. I know that these words came straight from Truth Himself: I would be a house of prayer and one of those chosen to lead worship in a great end-time revival. (Keyword: “one of” because it’s never about me.)
My identity in Christ is hidden in Him with the desire to see Him move on and in the people around me with Revival and Breakthrough. As I’ve grown and matured throughout the seasons, R&B has progressed from acquaintances I occasionally see and shake hands with to dear friends I fully embrace. They are tied to my calling to live a holy and broken life.
I used to believe that when I saw Revival and Breakthrough finally released, God would move in specific ways I expected Him to. I assumed this because He told me I would tap into the same wells the Asbury and Azusa Street Revivals accessed. He spoke these things to my heart before I even knew what Asbury or Azusa Street was. I assumed His glory would fill buildings so much that people would fall under the weight of His Presence with repentant hearts and fill every church altar in our region.
I used to believe that when I saw God finally release Revival & Breakthrough, the music wouldn’t stop, the doors of our churches would always be open, & the broken would be made whole again.
My assumptions of what R&B would look like in my community continued to guide my prayer focus for the longest time. While still contending for them in prayer, I went through several seasons of devastation and disappointment. While I continued to follow Christ by the grace of God, I saw others who shared similar altar experiences with me fall away.
They fell to temptation and pride. I couldn’t understand how someone—anyone—could walk away from the beauty of my Christ. “Did they even know Him in the first place?” I often wondered. I saw more than one church split apart in indifference. Some were left shattered, divided, and divorced from fellowship after the court of man’s opinion ruled. I witnessed neglect, abuse, and failure.
Little by little, my understanding of what R&B would truly look like has changed. I realize now I wasn’t necessarily wrong in my assumption that nobody would be able to stand when His glory fell. When I first felt Him drawing me in, I couldn’t. There were times (before I surrendered to His truth and gave my life to Him) when He would stop me in my tracks, and I would weep, unable to move, burdened by the weight of His glory. Not knowing what was happening was strange, but I knew it was authentic. I felt His weighty presence and glory, drawing me to something other than what I already had. A few of these times later, I finally found someone brave enough to share the gospel with me. I was 20 years old in America. Let that sink in. 20 years old. In a country with the most abundant supply of Christian resources on the planet.
I wasn’t wrong about altars filled, either. I just didn’t know what that would look like. When He opened my eyes, I confessed everything I’d ever done wrong to the man across the table before I even knew what “repentance” was. My life became an altar the moment I surrendered to his Lordship. God didn’t just help me change my mind; He gave me a new one, His.
I wasn’t wrong that the music wouldn’t stop because my heart continually overflows with praise and worship songs. I can even hear them with my Spirit as they ring out in the heavens. Heaven’s songs are beautiful! Sometimes, He even lets me reach up and catch them! Pulling them down from heaven and transforming those sounds into notes, melodies, and words is exciting.
I wasn’t wrong that the doors of His Church would always be open since He calls people His church. He has kept the doors of my heart open to all kinds of people. I love the honor He gives me by allowing me to speak to them. It is an honor and privilege to lead them to a place where they realize there’s so much more to live for than just themselves.
I was wrong to assume it would happen all around me before it penetrated the depths of my heart. We can always go deeper. I can’t help but wonder if the reason so many fall is that they think they’ve arrived at all God has for them.
Always searching and ever learning, yet never inwardly applying, some people only seek the face of God for worldly comfort, never letting the Holy Spirit- Comforter lead them out of their comfort zones. Some people seek the face of God, wanting their schools and neighborhoods to become “safe places” without ever becoming safe places for other people. Could it be that these fallen never found the worldly comforts they were seeking, so they just stopped seeking altogether? Could it be that they positioned themselves for failure by demanding others change in their prayer closets, all while they refused to allow anything to change in them?
I don’t know if I’ll ever truly understand how people can hear the same gospel message, be in the same physical place as Jesus, & see the same amazing miracles, and have totally different experiences. How can one reach for the hem of His garment, discover, and surrender to transformation while, at the same time, another bumps up against Him in the crowd and still allows his heart to grow hard in indifference, settling into his familiar, lukewarm, complacent transgression?
People describe revival in their churches as people react in great excitement when guest speakers come in. For a while, the altars are filled with highly esteemed, hotshot, highly paid celebrity preachers riding in on the red carpet of our Western church culture’s fanfare praises. Pride-filled exalted pedestals lift men up higher than the Man Jesus Christ. All this occurs as the quiet, still, small voice is hushed, ignored, & disregarded for the newest, loudest, most exciting voice demanding an audience.
Too often, we neglect and forget our faithful, quiet ministers who consistently emphasize humble service, godly character, and the importance of daily devotion to God’s Holy Word. I’ve seen Western church culture settle for man-made idols. Itching ears seek out “new revelation,” which claims to go deeper than the blood. In case you didn’t know, any teaching proclaiming “Jesus and…” does this.
Contrary to the voice of wisdom, false teachings’ adulterous flare glistens in its counterfeit light and appeals to sin-seared consciouses, one stray thought at a time. Every step away constructs their new God. It’s as if their new shiny penny thoughts create a modern-day golden calf they eventually call Yahweh.
You can call your big church parties revival all day, but if you leave the altar and it doesn’t go WITH you, I call your bluff. I plead with you, go back. Go back to the altar and stay there until you die. That’s what altars are for, anyway. God doesn’t call you to the altar to feel better about yourself. Stay there at the altar until every part of your hard heart is shattered to pieces. Quit getting up from the altar. Quit walking away.
Pray for inward revival. Let it saturate the very makeup of your DNA. Let God’s holy fire consume every dark, hidden crevice of your being. Let lustful thoughts burn up, let pride bow its knee, and use your authority to stop entertaining thoughts that excuse your unrighteous, filthy jealousy. It is a SIN when your sinful patterns of comparison manifest as gossip because you are diminishing the value of people made in the image of God, the people Christ died to save.
Repent and remove every obstacle & stumbling block causing traffic jams that prevent others from reaching Christ. Clear the pathway of your heart. The road is already narrow; don’t make it inaccessible. The plumb line falls first in the house of God. He wants to make YOU his House of Prayer. Let it drop. Revival begins with YOUR repentance.
And let’s talk about my friend, breakthrough. It’s evolved into a term people cling to when they want their circumstances to change. It’s a word thrown around in “prophetic” horoscope-type articles. For many, these have replaced genuine study of the Scripture. Yes, I went there. And I love the prophetic gifting! I earnestly desire an increase in prophetic anointing to effectively minister to others. But too many have come to know articles and authors better than they see the word and the Man it reveals.
Y’all, that’s inconceivable! I don’t think that word (breakthrough) means what you think it means. Breakthrough isn’t an escape route. It can’t just be today’s new buzzword, unlocked by some secret key from someone’s brand-new revelation. Wake up! It comes in your surrender. It comes by way of offering an unrelenting yes to the will of God. It is through perseverance. It comes after the pressing. It comes when our brokenness shares in the crushing of Christ’s sinless, all-sufficient, poured-out, emptied sacrifice. It’s poured out from heaven into our empty jars when we receive the anointed oil from true intimacy with the Lord. God doesn’t allow your life circumstances to crush you as He was, but you will be pressed.
Can I also tell you God isn’t interested in playing games with your theology? Jesus didn’t entertain the Pharisee’s self-righteous debates, and He won’t play into yours either. People who are genuine seekers don’t expect a prize for answering a question correctly; they realize Christianity isn’t won like jeopardy. True DISCIPLES seek a better treasure- an eternal weight of glory, a crown they don’t keep on their heads, but one they throw back at His feet as they cry out holy and worthy!
Breakthrough isn’t found in the fruit of mere zealousness. It isn’t reserved for pumped-up weekend revival church parties (as much as I love those.) It’s found in a SUDDENLY following A LONG DRAWN OUT STEADY. You won’t see your breakthrough if you choose to remain double-minded and tossed around like waves, up one moment and down the next.
I have found breakthrough is a type of piercing. It becomes evident when a sacrifice of praise rises out of brokenness and desperation. It rises above your circumstances and wars in the heavens for deliverance. In its arsenal, it has the ability to shatter the chains holding you in bondage to the things of this world. Breakthrough serves a purpose directed by God’s will for you to make it faithfully to the very end. Trust me, your breakthrough is available. It’s waiting to impart supernatural strength to strengthen you to experience contentment even in the darkest night.
Its fruit is of the Spirit who held you through the struggle. It doesn’t just come with shouting. Sometimes it comes in laughter. Sometimes it comes in tears. It’s always at hand because it’s a Kingdom reality. It’s accessible to us through the authority Christ gave us. Because He overcame all He did, we can overcome everything we are called to overcome. His piercing breakthrough paved the way for us. His nail-scarred hands are stretched out to us with an invitation, inviting us to access heaven’s realities and bring them to earth. Breakthrough molds dirt, ash, and branches into mindsets that exercise patience, goodness, kindness, and love.
If your R&B isn’t transforming you first, it won’t transform your community. Now hear me out: WHAT you are will absolutely impact your community. WHO you are is what you’ll reproduce.
What does your world look like? Are you walking on the other side of the road to avoid dying men bleeding in the ditch, you Pharisee? Have you been too busy with your man-made “ministry” to lift up the broken right before you? Is the goodness of God not seen in the Samaritan’s surrendered service to the broken? Would you let God use the brokenness of this world to break your heart, or will you cling to a false “breakthrough” that reeks of avoidance? Christ has shown us that faithful ministry won’t leave people alone dying in the ditch. He has shown us that true religion is actually found in the emptying of one’s self for another.
How are you contending for Revival and Breakthrough? You don’t need a microphone, a building, or a published book. Simply love the person God puts in front of you.
Let revival first and continually have its way in you, then release it. Holding God’s word in will weary you, but rest is found in letting His Word burn everything out of His house that’s not meant to be there. Heaven to earth is coming from the inside out.
The Builder has dropped His plumb line. If we choose to build on the Rock of True Salvation, we need to stop measuring our goodness with anything less than Christ.
Press in for a personal revival. Press in for your breakthrough.
Don’t give up now, press in!
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