Fire On Your Head

“The LORD reigns, let the peoples tremble;
He is enthroned above the cherubim, let the earth shake!
The LORD is great in Zion,
And He is exalted above all the peoples.
Let them praise Your great and awesome name;
Holy is He.” -Ps. 99.1-3

How delightful and awe-striking that we should be invited to commune with the God who shook Sinai, and whose presence causes the heavens and the earth to tremble!

Psalm 99 sounds the note of a most happy contradiction, that God is utterly holy, that creation itself cannot bear His presence, but that He calls us to press in, not only to a slight experience of His presence, but into a living communion with Him. He wants us to be “among His priests,” and to “call on His name.” He will purge and purify the sin from our lives, and enable us to walk on the heights of worship and true praise. All of this catapults the Psalmist (and those who hear him rightly) into an outburst of joyous declaration, “The LORD reigns!” Are we being gripped and thrilled along with the Psalmist?

Hear Spurgeon:

Let the chosen people feel a solemn yet joyful awe, which shall thrill their whole manhood. Saints quiver with devout emotion, and sinners quiver with terror when the rule of Jehovah is fully perceived and felt. It is not a light or trifling matter, it is a truth which, above all others, should stir the depths of our nature.

(The Treasury of David: Vol. 4, Charles Spurgeon: Funk & Wagnalls Co., 1881, p. 385)

The Psalmist uses language that resurrects thoughts of the Sinai theophany (when the Lord actually appeared on the mount), but gloriously engages all the saints with a call to the same kind of worship that Moses himself experienced.

The portrayal of the divine epiphany exhibits the features of the Sinai theophany. When God appears in his majestic power a tremor runs through the whole world; the nations tremble and the earth quakes- an involuntary indication of the terrible and sublime power of the God of Mount Zion over the whole world. The poet discerns the holiness of his God in this pre-eminent and comprehensive power which causes everything that is created to tremble. And the involuntary witness which the trembling nations and the quaking earth bear in the presence of the holy God constrains the poet, too, to call upon all men to praise the holy name of God, the revelation of which had taken place in the course of the theophany and which is therefore present in the poet’s mind in all its greatness and terrifying power. Fear and trembling and respectful joy here jointly represent the spiritual atmostphere which is created in the congregation by the advent of God.

(The Psalms: The OT Library, by Artur Weiser; Westminster Press, 1962; pp. 641-642)

Whatever induced this burst of joyous praise and reverent worship in the psalmist, it brought to him the same sense of awe that he imagined to have been the experience of Moses and the ancient Israelites at Sinai. He was gripped with the fear of the Lord, gasping over the glory of God’s goodness, and he called out for the saints to tremble, praise, and worship. He was seized by a “fear and trembling and respectful joy” as his heart was jolted by the holiness and mercy of the Lord.

I think it’s fair to say that the common boredom, dullness of heart, moral compromises, addictions to entertainment, paralyzing depressions, and other ailments in the Body of Christ can all be attributed to the fact that we are not setting aside ample time to behold the God of Sinai, the God of the Psalmists, the God of the prophets and the apostles, the God of creation.

Oh, friends! He reigns! Clear the debris and clutter from your schedules. Plow through the blockades that keep you from the secret place. Shut off the computer if need be. Unplug the T.V. Take the phone off of the hook. Nothing else is more crucial than this: That we, as the people of God, would come into the vital revelation of the greatness of God in His holiness and love. Broken cisterns are easy to come by, but the fountain of Life can only be experienced when we forsake all the other diluted waters. God will meet you in the secret place, the reward will be beyond description, and your joy will be full. He waits for you, even now.

“Exalt the LORD our God
And worship at His holy hill,
For holy is the LORD our God.” (v. 9)

As some Fire On Your Head readers may have noticed by the direction of my recent postings here–a blog site intended to motivate readers towards revival–I’ve been focusing a lot in my own contributions to the site on intimacy with God, and His love.  I’ve personally been having a paradigm shift where I’m realizing unless we individually have a personal revival, there’s not much point in seeking global or national revival.

The reason and my motivation for taking so much time to do so is important.  If we’re going to see the fires of revival spread, then we need to understand what the fuel for that fire is: intimacy with God. And statistically and anecdotally speaking, many of us struggle in that one area of our lives.  Many Christians skip books like the Song of Solomon in their Bible because of not understanding Scriptures through a Bridal paradigm.  Or many of us have struggled in our relationships with our earthly fathers, and have a hard time viewing God as a loving Father.

At any rate, for whatever the specific reason, it’s not uncommon for many Christians to struggle with their intimate relationship with Christ.  I personally used to struggle with approaching my prayer and quiet time from a place of enjoyment, but instead out of duty and obligation, or out of the desire to find something to study so as to have good material to blog or preach about.  It took a long time for my stubborn heart to be open to the idea God was pursuing me; that God delights in me and wants to have a relationship with me just because He’d like to, not just because He wants to ‘use me’ to fulfill a purpose.

That all being said, one of the greatest revivalists in Christendom knew this secret to intimacy with God: Charles Finney, a man credited with being responsible for the Second Great Awakening.  He had a deep intimacy with God that most people don’t know about, which also is why He was so effective in ministry and revival.  I’ve been re-reading a favorite book of mine I got years ago called “Finney On Revival” by V. Raymond Edman.

Check out what Finney says of  his conversion experience:

…I returned to the front office and found that the fire I had made of large wood was nearly burned out.  But as I turned and was about to take a seat by the embers, I received a mighty baptism of the Holy Spirit.  Without any expectation of it or ever having a thought in my mind that there were such a thing for me, and without any recollection that I had ever heard of it mentioned by anyone before, the Holy Spirit descended upon me in a manner that seemed to go right through my body and soul like a wave of electricity.  Indeed, it seemed to come in waves and waves of liquid love, for I could not express it in any other way.  It seemed like the very breath of God.  I can recall distinctly that it seemed to fan me like immense wings.

No words can express the wonderful love that was shed abroad in my heart.  I wept aloud with joy and love, and literally bellowed out the unutterable fullness of my heart.  These waves came over me and over me, one after the other, until I cried out, “I shall die if these waves continue to pass over me!”  I said “Lord, I cannot bear any more”; yet I had no fear of death.  (p.34)

“At home, I soon fell asleep, but almost as soon awoke again on account of the great flow of the love of God that was in my heart.  Then I fell asleep again, and awoke in the same manner. Thus I continued till late into the night, when I obtained some sound repose. “(p.35)

One thing that interests me about the account of Finney’s conversion experience, is how much it underscores the God who was pursuing him.  God was after Him before He realized it to be so.  Just like Adam in the Garden, Abraham, Gideon, the Apostle Paul, and scores of other Biblical and historical men of God, the Lord was the one who initiated the relationship.  How much more so we could each look at our own salvation experiences and see God at work in the same manner!

He goes on to continue to describe a new baptism that he experienced again the following morning when he awoke, stating:

“In this state I was taught the doctrine of justification by faith as a present experience.  I could now see and understand what was meant by the passage  “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  I could see in the moment I believed all sense of condemnation had entirely dropped out of my mind, and that from that moment I could not feel sense of guilt or condemnation by any effort I could make.  My sense of guilt was gone; my sins were gone and I do not think I felt any more sense of guilt than if I had never sinned.

This was just the revelation that I needed.  I felt myself justified by faith…my heart was so full of love that it overflowed.  My cup ran over with blessing and with love…I could not recover the least sense of guilt for my past sins.  Of this experience I said nothing at the time to anybody.” (p.35, emphasis mine)

Later in his life:

In those days there came a profound desire to search out his heart and test his consecration to all the will of God. It was at that time that Finney had the soul-searching struggle of a deeper consecration than ever before, which included his dear wife and family. With utter and unreserved yielding to all that the will of God might be, he came to a perfect resting in that will as he had never known before:

“At this time it seemed as if my soul was wedded to Christ in a sense in which I had never had any thought or concept before. The language of the Song of Solomon was as natural to me as my breath. I thought I could understand well the state of mind he was in when he wrote that song; and concluded then, as I have ever thought since, that that song was written after he had been reclaimed from his great backsliding. I not only had all the freshness of my first love, but a vast increase to it. Indeed, the Lord lifted me so far above anything that I had ever experienced before and taught me so much of the meaning of the Bible of Christ’s power and faithfulness, that I often found myself saying to Him, “I had not known or conceived that any such thing was true.” I then realized what is meant by the saying, “He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.” He did at that time teach me infinitely above all that I had ever asked or thought. I had had no concept of the length and breath, and height and depth and efficiency of his grace.”

After that meeting with his Master, there never came to Finney the great struggles and protracted agonizing prayer over the will of God; rather he had come to a calmness and perfect confidence in the fulfillment of the divine will, and to say,

“He enables me now to rest in Him and let everything sink into His perfect will, with much more readiness than ever before the experience of that winter. I have felt since then a religious freedom, a religious buoyancy and delight in God and in His Word, a steadiness of faith, a Christian liberty and overflowing love that I had only experienced, I may say, occasionally before…It seems to me that I can find God within me in such a sense that I can rest upon Him and be quiet, lay my heart in His hands, nestle down in His perfect will, and have no worry or anxiety. (p. 54-55, bold emphasis mine)

Finney learned that only a few seem to understand the experience of rest in God:

“But in preaching, I have found that nowhere can I preach those truths on which my own soul delights to live, and be understood, except it be by very small number. I have never found that more than a very few, even of my own people, appreciate and receive those views of God and Christ, and the fullness of His free salvation, upon which my own soul still delights to feed. (p.55)

Father, don’t let us become a people who seek to mimic methods and styles of evangelists and revivalists of the past, but without an intimacy with You.  Grant us this understanding and revelation of rest that so few seem to understand and know about You.  Draw us into that deeper place, for only there will we have any efficacy in our labors for You–if they’re born of love and from the secret place alone with You.  Make of us a people who delight to feed on You and Your Word

Draw us in Father, for we desire to have it said of us that we are first and foremost a people who delight ourselves in You!

Amen

“…. judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!” -James 2.13

At the end of our lives, we will see that the most crucial component of our character in God, is whether or not we have become a people of mercy. When the smoke and fire of Jacob’s trouble has cleared, and judgment has been enacted in an ultimate way, the revelation of God in relation to Israel will be a revelation of indescribable mercy. The revelation of God that comes to us in Hosea and elsewhere in the prophets, is that judgment and wrath are not the end, but rather a means to the end; namely, the disclosure of God’s great character and desire, which is mercy.

Men who use “discernment” as a term for their self-righteous judgments and the spread of gossip have totally lost sight of the Spirit of the Gospel itself. If we look upon others- even those with false doctrine- from a humanly contrived foundation, rather than through the lens of mercy, we have removed ourselves from the wisdom of God. We are all recipients of mercy, and if we have anything at all in God, it’s only because it has been given from above.

One of the clear signs that our “discernment” of others is born from below is that it moves us to expose and insult the ones who we are purportedly examining. If the Lord gives us sight of another brother’s error, it is first for the purpose of intercession, and if we haven’t given ourselves in that place first, it most always becomes sin to speak of that erring brother.

There is a need for examination and discernment in this hour, maybe more than ever. I can’t think of time when there were more false gospels being propounded in the earth and paraded as authentic. I can’t think of time when there were more self-appointed apostles, popularized half-gospels, and strange emphases in the Church. True discernment is of paramount importance in our day. Yet there is no true discernment unless it comes from the Spirit of God, and if it comes from Him it will invariably lead us into humility, brokenness and hope for the ones who are deceived. If it leads to a superiority complex, a release of gossip, or any such thing, it has come from below rather than from above. Hear Wigglesworth on this:

Most people seem to have discernment, or think they have, and if they would turn it on themselves for twelve months they would never want to discern again. The gift of discernment is not criticism. I am satisfied that our paramount need is more perfect love.

Lord, in this hour, when the cross has been neglected, and the need for discernment is so crucial, mark us with the Spirit of Christ Himself. We don’t want to be a gullible people, tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, nor do we want to be a people who think themselves superior or correct, and who have lost the primacy of merciful intercession, and love towards the brethren. Increase the reality of truth and love in our lives, Lord. We need You more than ever.

“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world.  The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.” 1 John 2:15-17

This passage of scripture uses strong language. It leaves no room for error. It states its case plainly, pointedly and concisely.

In the Church, we all have three primary enemies: 1). The flesh; 2). The Devil; and 3). The world.

We see this referred to also in the Parable of the Sower: the world is represented as seed sown among thorns. They grow up and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. Not that it bears no fruit at all, but that perhaps it bears no lasting fruit. It BECOMES unfruitful.

What do these thorns represent, specifically? The cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, the desire for other things, pleasures of this life, etc… Obviously, the love of the world.

We all naturally gravitate to that which we love most. We enjoy talking of those things that are most dear to us. We crave any new information or available knowledge of our favorite object of affection with great interest and excitement. We never think to complain of any cost or sacrifice that is necessary to pursue this object of our affection, but instead feel that it is well worth it.

Now, please bear with me here while I put some pointed questions to your own conscience, for the purpose of helping you to discover your own true spiritual condition, whether “the love of the Father” is in you or “the love of the world”.

The passage above states that,”if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him…“.

1). Has serving God become a boring routine to you?  Do you find yourself indulging more and more in worldly entertainment–even in some things with questionable content and/or subject matter–without first asking yourself, “will this glorify God? Will this set a good example in favor of holiness and will this be a positive influence to others of godliness? Will doing this demonstrate and exemplify “the love of the Father”, or “the love of the world?”

If these questions are unimportant to you , and instead, you presumptuously indulge your worldly lusts, you can be sure that you love the world and the things in it, and that the love of the Father is not in you.

2). What kind of things do you most enjoy talking about? Do you find your greatest pleasure discussing deeply spiritual subjects such as holiness, self-denial, prevailing prayer, healing the sick, driving our demons, the love of God, etc…? Or do you prefer discussing the latest worldly music, movies, entertainment and amusements? Remember, Jesus Christ Himself laid it down as a rule of our nature, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks”.

3). When you do read God’s Word, is it hard to put it down because you are so hungry for God, or do you find its pages uninteresting and even boring? Do you love to spend time in prayer because you enjoy being with the father, or do you avoid prayer or feel inclined to keep it short so that you can get past it and on to something more enjoyable to you?

4). When you perform what you consider to be your Christian duties, do you feel relieved, and free once again to pursue your worldly enjoyments, as though you had fulfilled an obligation, or do you consider yourself a love-slave to Jesus Christ, and that everything you do,–whether you eat or drink or whatever you do–that it should be done for the glory of God?

My beloved brother, sister, whoever you are, remember that while you read these questions, God’s eye is pouring a searching blaze of light into your inmost heart.

Now, I won’t take it upon myself to accuse you or to decide the answer to these questions for you. I encourage you to examine yourself, listen to your conscience and allow the Spirit of God to search you and show you your true character, and show you whether you are “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God”.

If you no longer find pleasure in serving God or if you find MORE pleasure in worldly amusements, then you have left your first love and are a backslider in heart who is “filled with his own ways”.

If this is the case with you, I urge you, at once, to stop what you are doing, fall on you knees and repent, and do your first works. Your first work is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus Christ. Otherwise, you CANNOT be His disciple.

Perhaps some of you are thinking, “this is legalism! this is bondage!”.
To whom is it legalism? If you PREFERRED God and loved Him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, you would find your greatest pleasure in pursuing Him, and anything that cooled off your zeal or took up time you could be spending in His fellowship, service or conversation would be repulsive to you. Legalism and bondage is when you perform your Christian duties out of a sense of obligation rather than out of love and because you prefer it. If you loved Him as you ought to, wouldn’t you want to talk of Him, His word and His great love?  Wouldn’t you find your greatest pleasure in pursuing Him and bringing sinners for whom He died into His family, so that “the Lamb that was slain may receive the reward of His suffering?

Remember the sad words of the Apostle Paul, “Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world”.

Your servant-brother,

Joel Crumpton

http://joelcrumpton.blogspot.com

“…. the Jerusalem which is above is free….” -Gal. 4.26a

“For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his own works….” -Heb. 4.10

There is a sabbath rest which has been opened up to God’s people through the cross, and we need to resist all religious activity that flows from any other place. Even prayer itself is subject to lesser and unheavenly influences, for if our intercessions spring from our own emotions or minds, or are robotic and contrived, we are not likely touching the heart of God or pushing back the powers of darkness. We need to come into the prayers of Jesus Himself, not by striving, but by a radical surrender to His heart, and harmony with His mind. This is where the authority lies, which we shall see from a man who knew this reality in real life experience.

Thomas Haire was one of a remnant in history who was acquainted with the rarefied air of the heavenly Jerusalem, and his prayers moved things in spiritual places and shifted things on the earth in a manner that we know far too little of as the Church of modern America. We would do well to hear from this remarkable man.

He was a friend and co-intercessor with Leonard Ravenhill, and travelled with him in a manner much like Father Nash, who was Charles Finney’s “Epaphras” (Col. 4.12-14) during the great seasons of revival and awakening in the 19th century. Haire and Nash were both less known than the men they travelled with, but their labors were no less impactful, and only the Day of the Lord will tell how profoundly their obedience and love invaded history with the light of eternity.

A.W. Tozer was so impressed with Haire’s character and prayer life, that he wrote a booklet about his life even before Brother Haire went on to be with the Lord. I want to leave you with a few thoughts from this life-long intercessor, who happened also to be a professional plumber from Ireland. We can learn something from a man who spent over 50 years praying 4 hours a day, decades of which he went sleepless for 3 nights a week, giving himself over to Spirit-endued intercession on behalf of the Church, and a dying world that he loved so fervently.

I haven’t the time or space to note all of the elements of his devotion, which would challenge and encourage any open-hearted believer. You can find Tozer’s full account online if you search for it.

What hits my heart presently is that Thomas Haire, according to Tozer, was the kindest and most tranquil man that he had ever known, and though his devotion to prayer and intercession was marked with awesome intensity and depth, he was not a tense personality, as many who pursue revival seem to be. This marks him out as unique, I believe, for his sabbath peace was also combined with a remarkable authority and dominion in prayer that we have rarely seen in our day. Souls passed from darkness to light, many were healed physically, and God was glorified wonderfully on the wings of Thomas Haire’s prayers. Through all of the remarkable answers to prayer, revivals, and movings of God, he was also a very gentle and kind man, who could move from a ground-breaking season of intercession to making a child laugh through a humorous remark. He was rare indeed.

Tozer writes of Haire:

…. always he is relaxed and free from strain. He will not allow himself to get righteously upset about anything. ‘I lie near to the heart of God,’ he says, ‘and I fear nothing in the world.’

That he lies near to God’s heart is more than a passing notion to Tom. It is all very real and practical. ‘God opens His heart,’ he says, ‘and takes us in. In God all things are beneath our feet. All power is given to us and we share God’s almightiness.’ He has no confidence at all in mankind, but believes that God must be all in all. Not even our loftiest human desires or holiest prayers are acceptable to God. ‘The river flows from beneath the throne,’ he explains, ‘and its source is not of this world. So the source of our prayers must be Christ Himself hidden in our hearts.’

‘Too many of God’s people are straining for faith,’ says Tom, ‘and holding on hard trying to exercise it. This will never do at all. The flesh cannot believe no matter how hard it tries, and we only wear ourselves out with our human efforts. True faith is the gift of God to an obedient soul and comes of itself without effort. The source of faith is Christ in us. It is a fruit of the Spirit.’

(A.W. Tozer, Thomas Haire: The Praying Plumber of Lisburn; Rare Christian Books)

Of prayer, Tozer gives us more of Haire’s thoughts:

According to Tom, there is such a thing as strategic prayer, that is, prayer that takes into account what the devil is trying to accomplish and where he is working, and attacks him at that strategic point. ‘Don’t waste your time praying around the edges,’ he says. ‘Go for the devil direct. Pray him loose from souls. Weaken his hold on people by direct attack. Then your prayers will count and the work of God will get done.’

Tom makes much of the believer’s authority in Christ. Over the protests of the cautious expositor, he appropriates Scripture that might be proved to belong to a future age. ‘God says we are kings and priests,’ he declares, ‘and what is a king without a kingdom? There is a sphere where we can have full dominion in prayer. Complete authority is ours. We only need to ask and we shall receive.’ If this were mere theory we might dismiss it as being simply an error in interpretation, but is has been proved in the fires of practical living. God has given to His praying servant great power to command, to demand, and the results have been and are many and unusual.

I dare say the kind of authority and dominion Mr. Haire spoke of is something scarcely touched in our generation. There have been many boasts of dominion, shouts of authority, and we have cranked up the music loud enough to move every soul in the building, but the heavens are not moved by sweat and noise. The depth of Christ’s character and the profound union with God that Tom Haire had come into were the foundations of his great authority in prayer.

Before Tozer convinced Haire that his story needed to be told for the sake of the Body, the old praying plumber resisted the idea. Not wanting to be popularized or tempted with fame, he replied in his own Irish way, “I don’t want to lose me power with God.” His secret life with God, formed through decades of engaging in prayer, was more precious to him than anything else in his life or ministry.

Do our self-promoting ministries know anything of such “power with God”? Are we guarding a deep and holy union with Christ that has been formed through years of concentrated prayer and worship, or are we being tossed to and fro by the latest teaching or movement? Have we neglected the primacy of secret prayer and leaned too hard into public efforts, expending energy, burning time, and building works that are mostly “wood, hay, and stubble”? Are we rooted and grounded in the love of Christ, or barely keeping our heads afloat, drinking in the spirit of the world and following Christian fads? Thomas Haire’s “power with God” is a quickening reminder of the possibilities of grace, the glories of communion with God, and the remarkable sabbath rest and authority that the Lord places upon a man when he is in harmony with Christ through the Spirit of prayer.

May the Lord raise up tender-hearted, fervent, holy, and hidden laborers again in our day. May we cast off any pursuit that causes us to lose our power with God. May we shake off all that stifles the Spirit of prayer. May we put first things first once and for all. May the same Spirit that rested on Thomas Haire, make His habitation amidst the Church at large, for the glory of Jesus!

“Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.” -Ps. 51.1

The man who comes to the truest consciousness of his own depravity will be the one to cry out from the deepest place for a total cleansing from God. David the King and psalmist of Judah, after a massive moral collapse, was faced with the word of the prophet Nathan, and the depth of conviction was such that it resulted in a cry for mercy that brought down a speedy answer from heaven. Isn’t the grit of David remarkable? Isn’t it noteworthy how he responds and returns so wholeheartedly?

We tend to fall into one of two traps when our faults are pointed out. On the one hand, we are overcome with embarrassment and shame, and go through extended cycles of remorse and condemnation, wondering how sorry we must feel before the Lord will actually extend mercy to us. On the other hand, we stick our chests out in denial or defense, accusing the bringer of the word of some fault of his own in hopes of shirking our own responsibility before God.

David had a remarkable gift. He had a positive audacity, a repentant grit, and I’m convinced that it had to do with his own deep-seated consciousness that as a man, he could produce nothing without heavenly aid.

Spurgeon writes of David in this event:

My revolts, my excesses, are all recorded against me; but, Lord erase the lines. Draw thy pen through the register. Obliterate the record, though now it seems engraven in the rock for ever; many strokes of thy mercy may be needed, to cut out the deep inscription, but then thou hast a multitude of mercies, and therefore, I beseech thee, erase my sins.

…. The hypocrite is content if his garments be washed; but the true suppliant cries, “wash me.” The careless soul is content with a nominal cleansing, but the truly-awakened conscience desires a real and practical washing, and that of a most complete and efficient kind. “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity.”

(Charles Spurgeon, A Treasury of David; on Ch. 51, p. 450; Funk & Wagnalls Co., 1881)

David was deceived and in grave error in the committing of particular sins, and there was a haze over his heart. The prophet came and seared the veil with a burning sword, declaring “You are the man!” (2 Sam. 12)

David heard the convicting word about his sins, but he heard something further and deeper than that. We could say that in his inner-ear he heard the prophet declare, “You are man.” In other words, not only are you the one who has committed offenses against God, but you are dust, your life is a vapor, and unless you cry out from that place, you may have your reputation restored among men, but you will not know the joy of My salvation.

Rather than tucking tail and running in light of this revelation, he faced the One he had sinned against. “Against You and You only have I sinned…” Rather than looking for prosperity in his political career or hoping for a restored reputation, he cried out for a cleansing of the deepest kind.

The guilt is intolerable; it must not only be softened and diminished but must be eliminated completely: blotted out, washed away, made to disappear from the sight of God. The petitioner knows “that the removal of this intolerable thing cannot be his own work but only God’s: a divine blotting out, cleansing, and washing away…” (K. Barth, CD 4/1, 579)

(PSALMS 1-59: A Continental Commentary, Hans Joachim-Kraus; Fortress Press, p. 502)

David was not content with a surface brushing. He cried out for a new heart, his spirit had been broken, and he knew that from that place of true contrition, God would not despise Him.

David experienced the Gospel before the apostles ever declared it. David experienced the cross before it had been preached. His was not a desire to have embarrassment removed or his name held high, it was a gut-cry for redemption, and he knew that he would be met with mercy in that cry, for the God to whom he turned is the One who desires ultimate restoration.

One of my friends once said, “If you haven’t cried out about being a man, you’ve yet to cry out.”

May we come into this Davidic grit, this grace to turn quickly to the God of mercy, to lean entirely into His heart, and to be transformed and made true “in the innermost parts.”

The secret of fasting is denying yourself something you need to survive in this realm to partake of something you need to survive in the spiritual realm. Eating of that realm gives you the substance of that realm. Then you will be able to dish out here, what you have tasted of there. If you are able to resist eating, something that is essential to life; then you will be able to resist anything that the enemy temps you with.

Genesis 1:26-27 Then God said, “Let Us  make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creepy thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Here we see the creation and the call of man. Man was created in a supernatural state, and from this supernatural state of being man was to subdue the earth. Read verses 28-30 and you will see further that all creation was given by God to the authority of man, the only one created in His image.

Genesis 2:15-17 Then the Lord took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. Then the Lord commanded the man, saying “From any tree in the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

They were created in God’s presence, and  already in a supernatural state. They were called to fast the knowledge of the world. They were to live entirely off the words of God, the knowledge that comes from Him of how to cultivate the garden they were given to keep.

In verses 3:1-6 we see their reaction to His commandment.  The serpent came and tempted them to disobey God by simply eating of the knowledge of this life. They gave in to the desire for food…

Genesis 3:6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

This was the beginning, the first age of man. And for Adam and Eve, this is all they knew. The wisdom of God was to retain the state in which they were created, living from God alone. The goal of the enemy was to get them to taste of the wisdom of the age, causing them to fall into a state of spiritual death and relinquishing their authority on the earth to the evil one. He tricked them into looking away from God and at themselves. (ref. Matthew 16:23) The temptations here are often repeated throughout Scripture and commonly referred to as: “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” When we respond as they did, looking to ourselves–our own understanding-to try to accomplish something–then it is a work of the flesh. It corrupts our perspective of living off the words of God–the supernatural state of being–to acting in accordance with the age.

Genesis 3:7-10 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. Then they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called out to him “Where are you?” He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked so I hid myself.”

After they tasted they could see just how devastating it was. They no longer saw themselves in a supernatural state, covered in the presence of God. They now saw themselves with merely natural eyes, realizing they were naked. Their scenario is remarkably opposite of ours. They were initially supernatural, and we natural. They forsook the command of God to eat to the world. We are to forsake to the world to eat of the command of God. Now they were naked and their sins were exposed. The knowledge of the world had entered their hearts. Suddenly, they had to be sought out by God. The entire state of being, their entire world had been flipped up-side-down!

Genesis 3:21-22 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them. Then the Lord God said. “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he may stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”-

No longer can man enter into God’s presence without a sacrifice being made.  In verses 23-24, God kicks man out of the garden of Eden. Why? Because God did not want man to be stuck in this state forever. He wanted to restore Him to his original state so he could fulfill what he was called to do. (ref. Eph 3:9-12) The discipline of expulsion from the garden was mercy so man would not give in again and eat of the tree of life, living forever in a fallen state.

Man forsook God, eating from a tree the knowledge of this life. He hid himself because he was naked, exposed in his sin. What did Jesus do? He forsook the world, eating only the words of the Father, hanging on a tree He sacrificed Himself so man could again come freely into God’s presence. And, just as man hid from God, God hid from Jesus, which caused Jesus to declare “My God, My God, ‘Why have You forsaken me?’ “ (ref. Mt 27:45) Jesus undid everything that was lost in the garden, understading this will shed more light on His life and ministry.

Luke 4:1 Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. In one sense; the garden was the condition of man before the fall and the wilderness was the condition of man after the fall. So here we go; satan comes to tempt Jesus in the wilderness the same way he tempted man in the garden.

Luke 4:2b-4 …And He ate nothing in those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry. And the devil said to Him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written. ‘Man shall not live on bread alone [but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God  (Mt 4:4b).]‘

Satan shows up and tries to interrupt Jesus, who is fasting-eating of heaven. He tempts Him to eat of this life. Jesus declared that man lives on the word of God. He chose the better way. When God was speaking to man in the garden, those “words” were the very food given to sustain his spiritual life.

Luke 4:5-13 The devil continued to tempt Him, but Jesus was able to resist the “lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (as some say). His obedience and denial of the wisdom of the age caused Him to overcome the age. (ref. Phil 2:5-7) We must resist the food-the wisdom of this world, and live off the Word of God.

Luke 4:14 And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread throughout all the surrounding district.

Now we see the emergence of someone who is able to fulfill the call of God in the earth! The earth subdued Adam with its temptations. Now Jesus fufills Adam’s call and subdues the earth with God’s Word.

Jesus went into the desert full of the Spirit, and He came out in the power of the Spirit. It is one thing to be full of the Spirit, and it is another to walk in the power of the Spirit. The secret is to desire something more; to eat of the things of heaven, not just the things of this life. Jesus, in John 4:32, told His disciples that He had“Food to eat they did not know about.” This is the food we must want. To eat anything that comes from the Father’s mouth, even the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table. (ref. Matthew 15:27)

What is with the manna in the wilderness? God was teaching a nation to rely on Him and break their mental bondage to Egypt.

Revelation 2:17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.

Overcoming-eating of the hidden manna. It’s not just being in the Church, but the point is to hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church. Hearing what God is saying in this life will reap the reward of overcoming and make us able to eat of the hidden manna.

Luke 4:16-21 Jesus went into a synagogue and read from Isaiah this famous passage…

The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed, To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.

Jesus had eaten of heaven which brought actuality to His statement. Its is one thing to teach the word and it is another thing to be the word, to show that it is alive in you. He was not just teaching Scripture, He was fulfilling it. This is when the Spirit moves, when we eat of heaven we become living fulfillments of the word. Start eating of heaven and living for eternity here and now, and that hidden manna will become His Word fufilled in your mouth.

To listen to a sermon of this message, click here.   Scroll down to the sermon player and select; The Hidden Manna.

Revival……another definition would be to recover, repair or restore. Hosea 10:12 says: “Sow to yourself in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek the Lord till He come and reign righteousness upon you.”

What is fallow ground? Fallow ground is ground that has been fruitful, and then it has been plowed over, and no seed has been sown in it, and therefore it has become unproductive.
Notice, there is a human emphasis here — it says that we are to break up — you break up your fallow ground.

Now take another aspect of it here in Psalm 85:6 “Would Thou not revive us again: that Thy people may rejoice in Thee.” So, there is an absence of joy, of vitality — there is an absence of ecstasy.

The very word “revive” presupposes life. You can only revive what has already had vitality — life that has become sick, weak, or apathetic. I think the nearest analogy I can give you is a recent case of a man who apparently drowned. He had been under the water for an incredible amount of time. Then somebody pulled him out and worked and worked on him, and eventually life came again. This is actually what it means to revive,
It means to revitalize.
It means to restore lost power.
It means to recover lost energy.

In the Acts of the Apostles 3:19 we read, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.” Whatever else we say about revival we have to recognize this, that revival is an act of mercy in the sovereignty of God.

There is a vast difference between revival and evangelism. When we speak of revival in America we think of church advertising, “Our revival will begin next Sunday night at a certain time and it is going to finish the next Sunday night at a certain time.” Obviously this is something purely mechanical, it is something which men have engineered.

I think that one of the offenses of revival, in the historic sense, is that it cannot be organized. As Doctor Tozer said, “When revival comes it changes the moral climate of a community.”
You can have revival that covers a church — Spurgeon had that.
You can have a revival that covers a city.
You can have a revival that covers the whole nation — and I am thinking in this context more than in the other contexts (though sometimes revival spreads from here to there — like fire spreads.)

Revival cannot be organized — evangelism can be organized.
Revival cannot be subsidized — evangelism can and usually it must be.
Revival cannot be advertised — evangelism can.

It may cost millions of dollars, as it often does, to have one of our huge,modern, so called revivals. You have to pay vast sums of money for time on TV, for example — perhaps a million dollars a night.  That’s incredible, that’s unthinkable to me in the context of Biblical revival, or even historical revival.

Why doesn’t revival need to be advertised? For the simple reason, that fire is the most self advertising thing that there is, whether it is a physical fire or a revival fire. It draws people like a magnet.

To bring this down to modern technology — revival cannot be computerized. There is information that you can put in computer and presto, you get the answer predicting an outcome according to the facts that were put in. But you cannot computerize or predict revival. There are periods in which one thing predominates.

Sometimes revival is totally taken over by sorrow.
Sometimes revival is totally taken over by joy, ecstasy ’till you don’t know whether you are in the flesh or whether you’ve gone out of the earth.
Sometimes revival is taken over by stillness.

Revival cannot be rationalized. Again, one of the offensive things about revival is you can’t put your finger on the spot, usually, as to how or why or where it began. It is supremely an act of God.
You find a man would go with a series of messages to a community and before long that community is alive, it’s throbbing. He goes to another town with exactly the same group of men, the same type of prayer is poured out, the same sweat and soul travail and there is no response.

You can’t predict and you can’t organize revival. Why? Because you can’t organize where the wind is coming from. The Spirit, the wind, bloweth where it listeth. If you say it’s going to come this way, it comes that way. If you say God’s going to use that man, very often He doesn’t even bother with that man. Revival so often comes through unknown characters.

I don’t think the world has ever been in a greater sense of turmoil than it is in this moment. I don’t think our nation has. Whatever we shall say about revival we have to recognize this: There are three things about natural life: conception, gestation, and birth. You can’t alter the program. There has never been revival, that I can trace, that has not been preceded by agonizing prayer. You might say, “I haven’t got to that stage yet of agonizing prayer. How does is come?” Well, it comes through VISION.

If we are really going to get a concept of revival we have to get a vision of God’s sorrow over sin. We have to get a concept of how, day by day, we offend God. As a nation we offend God in millions of ways.

When I was praying in the Bahamas one day, I saw a great column of smoke, which happened to be coming from tires that were being burned. It was as black as could be, and over there I saw a wisp of smoke going up from the ground. I didn’t think much of it until about a year after, I was praying and the Lord said, “That volume of black, thick smoke is like the volume of sin that goes up every day.” All the blasphemy, all the unbelief, all the dirty stories, all the lying, all the deception, all sex-perversion, all drunkenness — this tremendous column of iniquity goes up in the sight of God. And here you have a little wisp — of what? That is the praise that God gets out of His people. If we are going to realize how much we need revival we need to recognize the dimension of sin. We have to recognize that sin offends God.

Psalm 85:4 says, “Turn us, O God of our salvation and cause Thine anger towards us to cease. Wilt Thou be angry with us forever?” Psalm 80 verse 3, “Turn us again, O God, and cause Thy face to shine.” Notice, it’s repeated again in verse 7 and in verse 19, “…cause Thy face to shine.” “…cause Thy face to shine.” You know, I think one of the awesome tragedies of our day is this: the people of Israel could not live if God turned His face away from them and seems now we cannot live if God turns His face on us!

The awesomeness of God’s presence… The awesomeness of God’s majesty…
We’ve had meetings, in the last month particularly, where I would sit down at the end of the meeting. I didn’t know what to do with it, and the pastor said, “Well, I can’t handle a meeting like this, what do you do?” The invasion of God’s power was so awesome that there was no way that you could handle it, so you just let the meeting ride itself out. We were having meetings five hours long, beginning at seven at night and finishing at midnight. College students came, and university people, and business people. When God comes, our social distinctions don’t matter, our intellectual distinctions don’t matter. There is an overwhelming sense that God is dealing, not with my intellect, not with my body, not with my emotions so much as with the inner man… the inner being… the inner temple which He wants to indwell.

Isn’t it amazing that with all the Iatola Khomeni has done, he has done some good things. He kicked liquor out of the country. Our president daren’t do that. Last week he called his whole nation to five days of prayer and fasting. Do you think we have anybody in Washington who has enough insight to do that? With all the talk of spirituality they don’t have enough sense to do that.

Joel speaks about the priests, the ministers of God. Look at Joel 1:13, “Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl ye ministers of the altar, come lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God.” Go over to verse 12 of the 2nd chapter, “Turn ye now even to Me with all your heart and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: and rend your heart, and not your garments.” Come down to verse 17, “Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare Thy people, O Lord, and give not Thine heritage to reproach.”

Now, how do you get to that state? There is no way you can jump to that level in ten minutes.
It is an operation.
It’s a process.
It’s a preparation.
There has to be an individual breaking up of fallow ground in me. What is there in my individual life that obstructs the flow of the Spirit?
If you are going to break up fallow ground you have to get your own life into a state of discipline — and we are the most undisciplined generation of believers ever. There is no way of getting to revival unless previously there comes brokenness.

What God wants is not to fill up empty pews.
He is not concerned about filling empty churches,
He is concerned about filling empty hearts.
And empty lives, and empty eyes that have no vision;
Empty hearts that have no passion,
And empty wills that have no purpose.

Have you ever thought about the enormity of the Jewish system? A great monolith of priests and Levites, and offerings and sacrifices, and new moons and Sabbaths, and Urim and Thumin. Then suddenly God puts one solitary individual there and he has one commission. “You go and prepare the way of the Lord.”

But he has all this against him:
At least 2000 priests, a senior priest and elaborate temple.
A system of buying and selling cattle and other things for sacrifice.
An outer court, where you could come to a priest and tell him of your sin and
your guilt and he would make an offering for you. And this fellow comes and he is saying that
The religious system is all obsolete
That God is going to manifest Himself independent of all of that.
And that there is Somebody Else!
They say, “You must be the man.” He says, “Oh, no, no, no! I am not the One. I am just coming to prepare the way of the Lord.”

Now think of the sorrow of God after Adam failed. Think of the sorrow of God after the whole system that He’d inaugurated failed. Think of something which may be even more awesome still:

Think of the fact that 2000 years have lapsed since Jesus came and did a full work of redemption… and the church is still dragging its feet today!

The human dilemma that we are in right now is that we have never been in a lower point. People say sometimes, “Don’t worry, we have got out of situations like this.” Oh, no! We haven’t. Don’t you fool yourself. We’ve never gotten out of situation like this. You know why? Because we have never been in a situation like this. That’s why!

We’ve never had difficulties like this. We’ve never had this plague of divorce. We’ve never had a million girls under 16 becoming pregnant, like last year. What did they say the night before last on the news, “Tonight 20,000 girls over the nation will get pregnant.” Sex is a sport. Immorality is an accepted way of life.
People say there are fewer divorces than last year. Well, how do you expect any more when they don’t get married? They did get married at one time and got divorced. They don’t even bother to get married now, just live together. Have a baby, so what? “We agree to part,” that’s it. So we are a broken nation. Never, never in our history did we need revival more than today, the day in which we live. But you don’t wish revival… there is no such thing.

People say to me all over the country, “I am interested in revival.” I say, “Yes, so are a million other Americans.”
I find all kinds of people interested in it. I don’t find many people burdened for it. People are very interested in revival, but we don’t start to break the fallow ground. We don’t prepare the way of the Lord.

I remember as a little boy I used to go to bed at night with a candle… you never had that joy, did you? I remember thinking how many other candles you could bring and light off that candle? I wonder and I wonder. I never found an answer, but I often used to wonder.

It was Charles Wesley who wrote the hymn, “See how great a flame aspires, kindled by a spark of grace.Jesus’ love the nations fires, sets the kingdoms all ablaze. To bring fire on earth He came, kindled in some hearts it is, Oh that all might catch the blaze, all partake the glorious bliss.”

Jesus said, “To bring fire on earth have I come.” Did you hear anybody preach on that text? What kind of fire? Well, surely not hell fire. Holy Ghost fire!
The most devastating fire of all is not the fire that consumes a building. It isn’t even the fire of hell.
The greatest, most devastating fire, is the fire of God.
We say, “God is love, God is love, God is love…”And yet our God is a consuming fire. “Who shall abide the day of His coming,”
Malachi says. “He is like a refiner’s fire.”
Mathew 3:16, “He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and Fire.” But you see, that aspect is not stressed in the day in which we live.

Everybody talks about the baptism. So what do you mean by the baptism? There is a baptism with the Holy Ghost and Fire. Not just with the Holy Ghost, but with Fire. When He comes He will “thoroughly purge His floor and burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire”. Which, again,
can happen individually,
or it can happen in a church,
or it can come and work through a whole community
or it can work through a whole nation.

There will be a thousand people who, if you get a heart and a vision, will say, “Oh, you’ve got tunnel vision.” Hmm? Well, I think the one reason why the Apostle Paul conquered… and triumphed… and out-smarted us… and out-suffered us… and out-prayed us… and out-sacrificed us… and out-preached us was because he settled for one thing: “This one thing I do.”
You’ve got to have one vision,
You’ve got to have one heart,
You’ve got to have one purpose,

“This one thing I do…” I sell out to God’s will totally.

Well, what does this become? Well, I believe this thing becomes an obsession, as I was saying to a brother this morning. For fifty years I’ve wept, and I’ve prayed, and I’ve groaned, and I’ve read, and I’ve fasted, and I’ve met with guys for nights of prayer, and days of prayer, and days and days of prayer, for revival. There isn’t much sign of it. Well, are you sure? You see, prayers never die.

“What are these under the altar? The prayer of saints.” You never pray a prayer that is born of God without it being on record with God. God never wastes anything. Do you think you and I have prayers born of grief, born of anguish, born of desire to see an overthrow of iniquity, (for after all that is what revival is) and you think God will let them die?

Now again, the shadow of darkness and death is over this generation like nothing we’ve ever had before. And yet, the greatest tragedy of all is this: a sick church in a dying world. We have neither the vision nor the passion, nor at this moment, the intention of setting our house in order — “to break the fallow ground” — to prepare the way of the Lord.

My hope is that as we go on here we are not just going to gather information and statistics about revival, but that we are going to individually seek personal revival.

Copyright © 1994 by Leonard Ravenhill – http://www.ravenhill.org

Books by Leonard Ravenhill:

Why Revival Tarries

Revival Praying: An Urgent and Powerful Message for The Family of Christ

Today is the 36th anniversary of Roe vs Wade (The court decision that legalized abortion in 1973 in America). I thought it would be appropriate to write a few of my thoughts on abortion.

Actually first of all I want to link to one of my favourite preachers and a dream that he had as well as some of his thoughts on abortion

What was it that brought Germany, one of the most civilized nations in Europe to commit the Holocaust? They convinced the people that the Jews were not people, they dehumanized them. Then they were able to do anything to them without harming their conscience.

What was it that brought America, and Great Britain and much of the known world to brutally enslave millions of Africans? They dehumanized them, taught that they were not humans, just animals. And then it was OK, it was socially acceptable.

How is it that we have let more than 4,300 babies die every single day and say not a word? We have dehumanized them, call them fetus (Which by the way is just the Latin word for “offspring”) and can do anything that we want to them?

This breaks my heart more than almost anything else in our country today. I believe it is an issue more pertinent today than even slavery was in the past. This is an issue of entire people group (the unborn) being silenced and ravaged.

I’m not here to condemn anyone, to shame any of the mothers who have had an abortion. To spread hate against the abortion doctors. I’m writing this to stir us up to do something, not with anger or aggression but out of a deep love and compassion for the unborn. Let’s let our voice be heard, and speak up.