Revival Fires in America - Where Will They Light
By Michael Bresciani (09/16/06)
When a church puts a banner out announcing that they are holding a revival
that usually means one thing. It means the evangelist is coming to fire up
the church. It is said that an expert is only a man from out of town with
a brief case. Can the church live in this cycle of inactivity followed by
forced fire. The answer is an unequivocal no, but even more so as we
approach the coming calamities of the “Last Days.”
The movie “Jesus Camp” was produced largely by democratic and liberal film
makers. It was used in part to show how kids are indoctrinated into what
is called a subculture offshoot from the conservative movement. The film
betrayed its makers in that some of the exuberance and genuineness of the
kids is undeniably exciting and creates a picture of kids realizing a
potential far beyond the path that pop culture and media now beckons youth
to tread. It may frighten some people to see what youth can look like if
they were to willfully reject the barrage of media garbage in films, games
and music they now endure daily.
The film first shown at the “SilverDocs” festival and released in 2006 is
directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady. Critics have tried to place the
picture in a category that depicts only a segment of America’s evangelical
subculture. It has wiggled far out of that slot because many Americans are
quite tired of the worn out cycle of church apathy and forced revivals and
are now looking for a genuine move of God’s Holy Spirit in our time…why
not youth?
In the late fifties and early sixties churches in America were in the
deepest lull since before World War Two. With the boys back home again and
the new materialism emerging attention was drawn away from the American
church like a magnet to the iron. The church seemed to be going the way of
all flesh along with the general public. During the late fifties church
attendance careened down to an all time low and participation in cake
sales and bizarres were the only detectable life signs left to the
whimpering body of believers. It became a joke among the preachers to say
“on Sunday morning the church gave up her dead.” Except for the emergence
of powerful ministers like Oral Roberts and Billy Graham the church was
all but stalled. Enter the Jesus People.
The Jesus movement or as some say the Jesus revolution of the sixties
crossed all cultural lines. Hippies, durggers, poor, black, white and a
thousand other classes were taking part in a return to the simple
preaching and living of the gospel. It was proof that God is always
calling people and not simply running a wake up service. A few churches
like the Calvary Chapel in California decided to open their doors to the
new breed of believer regardless of how they were dressed, how they talked
or their background. Those churches were blessed and expanded rapidly.
Other churches were started by the newcomers in store fronts and new
church plants and they witnessed phenomenal growth and showed a flux of
power unseen in America in several decades.
Following the Jesus movement of the sixties was the charismatic renewal of
the seventies and early eighties. Names like Kenneth Hagin, Don Basham,
Judson Cornwall, Derek Prince and Bob Mumford became well known to
millions of Americans who became more open to the work of the third person
of the trinity, the Holy Spirit. Like all widely accepted movements the
charismatic movement lost most of its momentum to its own success. The
Catholic charismatic movement bogged down in heavy Mariology, liturgies,
ceremonialism and restrictions from the Vatican. The protestant side had
the life squeezed out of it by growing formularism and traditionalism. God
it seems won’t be painted into a corner. No one can erect a building, sing
all the right songs and lay hands on the whole congregation and thus
expect the Holy Spirit to jump in and do what he always does. Thousands
began thinking that if they offered God the “sacrifice of praise” they
didn’t need to offer much more except to show up in church. What follows
is like the metals used in U.S. coinage it keeps going down in intrinsic
value. Forget gold coins; forget silver coins, hey, try to find ordinary
copper as in a penny…can’t be done.
Along comes the cultural church of the nineties and the present. Many
books have now been written on how to build a flourishing cultural church.
The idea is to go to a neighborhood where the median income is pretty high
and plant a church that will draw the race, income level and general
demeanor of that area into your church where only success can be expected,
taught and amplified in all speech, appearance and endeavor. Unknown to
many who are part of this new movement is the fact that even while they
are succeeding they may be miserably failing if held up to God’s
definition of success. The cultural church of today should take a warning
from the most well known cultural church of yesterday. In the book of
Revelation Jesus addresses that church with a scathing rebuke…Because thou
sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and
knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind,
and naked: Revelation 3:17 KJV
So what’s next? I share the belief with many today that what is next will
shake the very foundations of the church as we have always known it. It is
not a hidden or obscure idea but it is a promise made by God and it will
come on the strength of his purpose and nothing more. It is found and
outlined in the following verses of scripture.
And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon
all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men
shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the
servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.
And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire,
and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon
into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come. And it
shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD
shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be
deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall
call. Joel 2: 28-32 KJV
Men women and children will begin to speak and preach with more authority
and power than any mere evangelist. Children and young people will
willingly reject the media onslaught that is leveled at them daily and
will share their faith with others in a way that will make the movie
“Jesus Camp” look contrived. Older people will begin seeing visions and
sights that heretofore were only thought to happen among the “saints” of
the past and powerful biblical characters. It is God’s last thrust so it
will be his best.
By now some reading this article will view this as a very extreme view and
an altogether unlikely prognostication at best. Hold on there’s more.
After the Antichrist appears and begins his rule over the entire earth
there is yet to come two more prophet evangelists who break every mold
ever found or imagined. They will not only speak and give prophetic
utterance all over the world but they will possess power to remove by
force anyone who may come against them. See Revelation 11:1f. The final
frosting on the cake comes when before the entire world they are slain and
their bodies are bemused and ridiculed for days until every person on
earth will see them resurrected again and then ascend upward.
This will create no small stir and millions will be converted by these
events. Those who still scoff at the resurrection of Christ will have one
more chance to change their minds about the God who has complete authority
over life and death. The next heated revival in the church will be its
final and greatest fire not just another guy from out of town with a
briefcase trying to waken a sleeping congregation.
Rev Bresciani is the author of An American Prophet and His Message –
Questions and Answers on the Second Coming of Christ; Xulon Press. He is a
prolific writer whose articles are read in every continent around the
world. Please enjoy a visit to http://www.americanprophet.org
(Printer friendly version) Email: Michael Bresciani
