"It is more important to have revival in you than to just go to one." - Joyce Meyer
Because as Joyce elaborated; this revival only lasts for 10 days, so what will we do when the lights go out and the preaching stops and the music fades? If we have revival in us there is no test or trial that we can't handle with the joy and peace of the Lord. To be able to go home and even if our circumstances haven't changed, we can still be joyful, stable and have peace.
18 In the early dawn the next morning, as He was coming back to the city, He was hungry. 19 And as He saw one single leafy fig tree above the roadside, He went to it but He found nothing but leaves on it [seeing that in the fig tree the fruit appears at the same time as the leaves]. And He said to it, Never again shall fruit grow on you! And the fig tree withered up at once. - Matthew 21:18-19 (AMPC)Like the fig tree, a lot of Christians have lots of leaves, but no fruit. Our leaves being our outward appearance or expression of God. "I wear a cross", "I have an I love Jesus bumper sticker on my car", "Half of my bible is underlined & highlighted", "I got to church 4 times a week." But there is not substitute for experience and our experience is what develops our 'fruit'. The world around us is starving. They are hungry for hope, peace, love, acceptance, some are just hungry to stay alive. And they need us to have fruit. It's where the rubber meets the road of our faith, where they can see we are more than just talk and where they can truly encounter the life changing redeeming grace and power of Jesus Christ.
"We live life forward, but we understand it backward."
- Joyce Meyer
How many of you know that the longer we live, the wiser we're supposed to be? It is the value of experience, of the stuff that we have lived through and learned from, that gives us wisdom. We go through something, that at the time it feels like our world is falling apart, there is no light at the end of the tunnel, but when you look back at it with perspective 20 years later, you can see how it changed you, grew you, deepened your faith, brought you closer to God.
Happy (blessed, fortunate, enviable) is the man who finds skillful and Godly wisdom and the man who gets understanding [drawing it forth from God's words and life's experiences]. - Proverbs 3:13 (AMPC)How much experience do you have? Imagine what the world would be like if the younger generation with all of their talents and gifts and zeal and enthusiasm, came together with the wisdom and experience of the older generations. Talk about revival! Joyce suggested you should always ask 2 things whenever you meet anyone about 30+ years older than yourself:
1. Can you tell me one thing about life that will make me live mine better? and if they are a Christian,
2. Can you tell me one thing about ministry, one spiritual principle, that will make me a better believer?
I have been crucified with Chirst [in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ (The Mesiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (by adherance to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. - Galatians 2:20 (AMPC)The apostle Paul learned to be content; he learned. There is a lot of time and pain that went into that word, 'Learned'. When he wrote that scripture it wasn't 5 minutes after his conversion, it was 20 years. After 5 minutes, 2 days, a week, of being saved you could probably quote that scripture, but it takes time and experience to understand and truly mean it when you say it.
Choose wise, understanding, experienced, and respected men according to your tribes, and I will make them heads over you. - Deuteronomy 1:13 (AMPC)Moses didn't mention the most talented or most gifted, he said wise, understanding, experienced and respected. What do you do when God doesn't pick you? You trust God. You trust that His timing is always perfect and maybe it's not your time, maybe you're not quite ready. So what do you do in the meantime? Look at what lesson God is trying to teach you now, in this moment, in this season of life. What is He teaching you about waiting patiently? What is He trying to teach you about your attitude? What is He trying to teach you about servanthood? We spend a lot of the time asking God to Change our circumstances, or to change attitudes or the character of the people in our lives, but rarely do we think to ask God to change us, our thoughts, our attitudes towards the situation we are facing.
8 Although He was a Son, He learned [active, special] obedience through what He suffered 9 And, [His completed experience] making Him perfectly [equipped], He became the Author and Source of eternal salvation to all those who give heed and obey Him - Hebrews 5:8-9 (AMPC)You might have a calling on your life, but you need the experience to get you there and keep you there. So don't be in such a hurry. Take your time to learn. If you had a call on your life to be a musician, you can't expect to be able to go out on tour next week without ever having learned an instrument. Unless God is doing something miraculous, he gives us seasons to learn things, talents, life-lessons. Time to develop our giftings or our attitudes. So that when God decides to shine His light on you and bring you 'out of the shadows', you will be ready and able to glorify Him in what He has called you to do.
God will bring people into our lives to teach us lessons. Sometimes it's about patience, sometimes it's about truly learning to love someone just as Christ loves us, sometimes it's to stop blaming, sometimes it's about gratitude, sometimes it's about forgiveness, sometimes it's just about learning to be sincerely happy for someone else's joy, victory or blessing; without being jealous, angry or bitter.
When these tests come, and they will, it isn't nearly as important that we go through them, as it is how we go through them. If you keep a good attitude the devil cannot steal from you, and you won't have to keep retaking the TEST.
His feet they hurt with fetters; he was laid in chains of iron and his soul entered into the iron - Psalm 105:18 (AMPC)He hurt so bad, that those chains that were on him, became a part of his soul. The stuff that we go through is the iron that strengthens us. God doesn't put us in bad situations, but he promises that he will always bring us through them, even if it takes a little longer than we would like. He will sometimes allow us to go through something solely for the purpose of equipping us. Equipping us for a divine purpose, even if we don't yet know what that purpose is. And when you get a little more iron in your soul, the devil better watch out! Because people will talk about you, but it won't matter. Situations will come against you, but the devil won't be able to rob you of your joy.
WHAT YOU ARE GOING THROUGH DOESN'T DETERMINE THE OUTCOME, BUT HOW YOU GO THROUGH IT WILL.
I hope that you have found encouragement through this message, I know I did. The Test of revival is to value the experiences we go through in this life. I pray that whatever lessons you are learning produce mighty fruit - far beyond anything you ever thought God could do through you. And when it comes to taking tests - May we only ever have to take them once!
See you tomorrow night for night #5,
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