#CodeOrangeRevival Night #9 - The ROLE of REVIVAL

Saturday night, night nine of #CodeOrangeRevival, another great night of worship and preaching.  Dharius Daniels from Kingdom Church in New Jersey was the awesome speaker tonight, digging into the old testament, looking at the ROLE of revival.

"Great is the Lord, and most worthy of praise"  -  Psalm 48:1

My praise will be consistent with my revelation of God's greatness.  If I perceive Him to be an okay God, I will praise Him with okay enthusiasm.  If I perceive Him to be a good God, I will praise Him with good enthusiasm.  But if He's great, I will praise Him with great enthusiasm.

30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it."  31 But the men who had gone up with him said, "We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are."  32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored.  They said, "The land we explored devours those living in it.  All the people we saw there are of great size.  33 We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim).  We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."  -  Numbers 13:30-33

So what is the ROLE of revival?  Revival is not just a season and space of refreshing, renewal, and replenishing.  Revival is also a season and space of reintroductions.  It is a season and space where God reintroduces Himself to us. Moments where He pulls back the curtain to degrees and dimensions of His presence that we had not experienced before.  A lingering moment that awakens an appetite within us that passionately pursues the presence of God and once you have been exposed, you can't be unexposed.  Once you've had a unique encounter with His presence, your heart begins to beat for it, never to be the same again.

The second type of reintroduction God does is where He reintroduces us to ourselves.  There is a you that you haven't met yet; a stronger you, a wiser you, a more fortified you, a more resilient you, a peaceful you, one that stresses less and praises more, one that has untapped potential and capability.  God wants to grab the old you and pull you face to face with the new you.

Your perception of God impacts your perception of yourself.  He wants to reintroduce you to you, and this introduction isn't just to get you excited, it is for your assignment.  The course and the quality of our lives aren't determined only by how we see God, but also by how we see ourselves.  When you look in, what do you see?  Do you see a grasshopper or do you see a giant?  There are some battles that we will not fight, some opportunities that we will not pursue, some things that we will walk away from prematurely if we only see ourselves as grasshoppers.

God has great and amazing plans for our lives, but could it be that His plans are His preferences?  Could it be that His plans are His preferred future?  Could it be that His plans are what He wants to do, what He's willing to do, what He's willing to turn heaven upside down to make happen?  But could it also be that God will allow us to live on whatever level we settle for?  

Our God is the God of exits, that is literally what the word Exodus means.  Why should that matter?  Because if our God is the God of exits, it means that we are never trapped. I may feel trapped, it might look trapped, people may call me trapped, but because God is a God of exits, if He has to part the Red Sea to get me where I need to be, He will.  

The people of Israel were held in Egyptian captivity for over 400 years.  One day they cry out to God, God hears them but doesn't answer them, He does, however, provide the answer, through Moses.  Israel is sitting in a season feeling unheard, feeling abandoned, feeling rejected; having no idea that God is trying to convince the answer to accept the assignment.  

"Just because God isn't talking to me about the problem, doesn't mean He isn't working on the answer."  

- Dharius Daniels

Now Moses wasn't without his own set of issues.  Moses didn't feel qualified for the assignment, he seemed a little awkward, but his awkwardness wasn't awkwardness, it was uniqueness.  Sometimes we have to wait for our life to catch up to give us a revelation of why we felt awkward in a previous season.  Because maybe what made us feel awkward in one season, will make us relevant in the next.

So God is engaging in a conversation with Moses, telling him that He's got an assignment for him, and Moses responds with his inadequacy.  He thought his inadequacy should exempt him from the assignment, but what he saw as an exemption, God saw as insurance of Moses' reliability.  Moses basically turns around to God and says, "If you don't help me I can't do this" and God says "Exactly!  Because I know that you know that you can't do this without me and because you know that you can't do this without me, you'll never try to do this without me.  You'll always depend on me.  You'll consistently listen to me."  So Moses agrees and he attempts to lead Israel through the exodus.

Now the journey that they are on isn't exactly a walk in the park, but God is faithful, and He isn't just making them suffer for no reason.  God tells Moses that this season of suffering they have endured is going to add something to them.  Very often we celebrate what we have come out of, but the question we should ask is 

"What did I leave with?"  

Did I leave with wisdom, did I leave with strength that I didn't have before, did I leave with perspective that I didn't have before; because it's only when we leave with something that we can look back on it and say like David said, "It was good that I was afflicted that I might learn your statutes."  Some of our greatest lessons come in some of our most challenging seasons.  So if you are going to suffer, leave with something.  If you're going to play with the hand that life has dealt you, leave with something.

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land.  -  Exodus 14:21

So now the Israelites and Moses are standing at the Red Sea, pharaoh and his armies are on their trail because he's trying to bring them back into captivity, and God has told Moses to raise his hand.  The Red Sea parted, but it didn't happen immediately,  God sent a strong east wind and Moses stood there all that night while the water receded.  Because some miracles are not immediate, some miracles are incremental.  And even when the Red Sea hasn't parted, we've still got to pause and praise Him and thank Him that the wind is blowing.

After the seas have parted, it has turned to dry land.  If we got rid of all the water (in the natural), the seabed would not be bone dry, it's supposed to be wet, it's supposed to be muddy.  Then Pastor Daniels throws out a "Holy Hypothesis", could it be possible that the land was dry because mud leaves tracks.  And I can tell where you've been in the present by the tracks in the past.  Could it be because Paul says the passage through the Red Sea, was a metaphor for baptism, and baptism is a metaphor for the cleansing work that God does on the inside of us?  Could it be that it would be an inappropriate analogy if there were tracks because when God washes us, there is no evidence of our past.

"Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow."                                                                                                                     -  Isaiah 1:18 (NLT)

Israel walks through on dry ground.  Pharaoh and his army observe their activity and they attempt to do the same thing.  But the bible says that the sea collapses and they drown.  Because you drown when you try to follow a word that God didn't give you.  He told the Israelites to walk through, He didn't tell Pharaoh to walk through.  Just because it worked for them, doesn't mean it'll work for me because I may not have their word

So now we come back to the passage from Numbers 13.  They're in the wilderness, they posture there for a season, now they have an opportunity to occupy what was always promised to them, Canaan, God's best for them.  Moses sends over 12 spies to assess the land that they're supposed to occupy and 10 come back, they see giants, the other 2 see God and they talk the whole congregation into staying in a season that was better than their past, but not as good as their future.  Present challenges have a way of infecting us with spiritual amnesia.  After they had seen all the miracles, the parting of the Red Sea, God's provision for them, how could they stay stuck?  Their problem as it related to their progress, wasn't God, it wasn't how they saw God, it was how they saw themselves.

"We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim).  We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."  -  Numbers 13:33

The grasshopper in your mind is bigger than the giant out there.  They didn't reach their redemptive potential, not because of immorality but because of inadequacy.  Because some opportunities come wrapped in the wrapping paper of challenge.  They settled for less than God's best in their lives because they felt they were capable of leaving Egypt, they believed in themselves enough to leave Egypt, but not enough to enter Canaan.  

There is a reason that God talks to us frequently about who we are.  Because God knows that I am always going to behave in a way that is consistent with my revelation of myself.  So He tells me, I'm special, I'm chosen, I'm called, I am the salt of the earth and the light of the world.  If that is already true of me, why does He need to tell me?  It's not for Him, He already knows.  It's for me, I need to know.  

Do you believe you have enough?  Do you believe that greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world?  Do you believe that the God that's inside of you is bigger than the obstacles that are in front of you?  Do you believe that you are not a grasshopper, but in fact, you are a giant?

What a fantastic message!!  I can't believe it, only one more day of revival to go!  Hope to see you check back soon for the last 2 posts of this revival.  Carl Lentz and Steven Furtick.  What a way to go out with a bang.  See you tomorrow,

#CodeOrangeRevival Night #4 - The TEST of REVIVAL

Every night of this revival has gotten better and better, each message building upon the last.  Tonight the incomparable, Joyce Meyer spoke about the VALUE OF EXPERIENCE.  I love the no-nonsense, shoot from the hip, tell it like it is, uncompromised, honest, authentic and powerful way with which she speaks.  Her one desire, that all who hear understand, and all who understand grow in faith and into the fullness of their destiny.

"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,

#CodeOrangeRevival Night #3 - The TIME of REVIVAL is NOW!

Night 3 of #CodeOrangeRevival was another amazing night of worship, preaching and God showing up amidst his people!  Christine Caine, my Aussie sister from another mister, was at the pulpit tonight.  I cannot tell you how excited I was leading up to Sunday night's service because I knew, Chris was preaching and I love the style and tenacity with which she expresses the heart of God.

So we've had the Rhythm of revival, and then the Sound of revival, tonight's sermon was all about the TIME of revival, and that time is NOW!

1 Then the Lord said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and say to him, 'This is what the Lord says: let my people go, so that they may worship me.  2 If you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs.  3 The Nile will teem with frogs.  They will come up into your palace and your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and on your people, and into your ovens and kneading troughs.  4 The frogs will go up on you and your people and all your officials.' "  5 Then the Lord said to Moses, "Tell Aaron, 'stretch out your hand with your staff over the streams and canals and ponds, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt.' "  6 So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land.  7 But the magicians did the same things by their secret arts; they also made frogs come up on the land of Egypt.  8 Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "Pray to the Lord to take the frogs away from me and my people, and I will let your people go to offer sacrifices to the Lord."  9 Moses said to Pharaoh, "I leave to you the honor of setting the time for me to pray for you and your officials and your people that you and your houses may be rid of the frogs, except for those that remain in the Nile."  10 "Tomorrow," Pharaoh said.  Moses replied, "It will be as you say, so that you may know there is no one like the Lord our God.  11 The frogs will leave you and your houses, your officials, and your people; they will remain only in the Nile."  12 After Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh, Moses cried out to the Lord about the frogs he had brought on Pharaoh.  13 And the Lord did what Moses asked.  The frogs died in the houses, in the courtyards, and in the fields.  14 They were piled into heaps, and the land reeked of them.     -  Exodus 8:1-14 (NIV)

Okay, so we're talking the second plague of Egypt.  There are frogs everywhere and basically, Moses says to Pharaoh "My God will get rid of the plague of frogs, when would you like that to happen?"  And Pharaoh replies to Moses, "Tomorrow."

All too often we have our own frogs (figuratively speaking), whether it's stuff that we should be doing and we're not or stuff that we shouldn't be doing but we haven't stopped yet.  Our response is Tomorrow.  I'll stop or start that tomorrow, Lord.  And before we know it, 10 years have passed and nothing's changed and we are still saying, "Tomorrow, God."

But God is saying the time is here and the time is now; this day, this moment.  Yesterday is over and tomorrow is never promised, will you make the choice, Today?

Just as it was with Pharaoh, God was willing to get rid of the frogs today, God was able to get rid of the frogs today, God wanted to get rid of the frogs today, but like Pharaoh, we say Tomorrow.  Chris asked a great question,

"What are the frogs that are in you, on you, around you?   

What are the frogs keeping you trapped in bondage?"

Most of us live in yesterday, exist in today and never step into the fullness of the tomorrow God has for us.  We sincerely want break through.  We don't want to spend eternity stuck in a moment of mistake, heartbreak, shame, failure, fear, disappointment or regret from the past.  And so we go to church or a conference and hear a great message and think, "that's a great idea, I'm going to do that, I am going to make that change, implement that new thing/idea/habit in my life - but I'll do it tomorrow."  I am so guilty of that myself from time to time.

But the thing of it is, we will never fully step into the fullness of what God has for our tomorrow if we don't deal with our yesterday.  We need to make the conscious choice today to apply the teaching today, to forgive today, to heal today, to reconcile today, to fall on our knees before God with whatever it is that has kept us stuck and say "God, I am ready to deal with this today."
Isaiah 43:18-19 says,

18 "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  19 See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland."

Our greatest days are ahead of us because God is doing a new thing.  But in order to perceive the new, we need to deal with the past.  Because the enemy would like nothing more than to keep us there.  Being a Christian doesn't automatically give us amnesia when we get saved, even though our sins are washed clean and God has forgiven and forgotten them, why can't we seem to let go?  Just because we can't change the facts of the past, why do we let one moment in time, one mistake, one event ruin the rest of our tomorrows?
There is a life beyond our past.  There is freedom for our future.  

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."  -  Galatians 5:1 (NIV)

We could build up our life on the facts and stay there; wallow there. Believe what others say about us.  Believe we are what the medical reports say or the exam results say.  We can't deny the facts.  But there are another set of facts, written in black and white, and that is the truth of the Word of God.

Some of you may have heard Chris' testimony before, but if not I'll give you the cliff notes version.  She was born unnamed, unwanted, and abused. She could have chosen to stay stuck, ruled by the facts of her past, for the rest of her life.  But instead, she looked at what God said about her and chose to move forward, believing the truth of His word.
Her birth certificate said Unnamed, but the Word of God said:

"Before I was born the Lord called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name."  - Isaiah 49:1 (NIV)

The letter from the hospital said Unwanted, but the Word of God said

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb."  - Psalm 139:13 (NIV)

She was Abused for 12 years, and the Word of God said:

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose."  -  Romans 8:28 (NIV)

Does it mean that God does bad things? No.  But He promises to take all things and use them for good.  And now every day she makes the enemy wish he had never messed with her

"You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives."  - Genesis 50:20 (NIV)

by living an unashamed life, for the glory of and in the service of, God.  Preaching, teaching, rescuing people out of slavery and bondage from around the world through her A21 campaign.  Faithfully loving her husband of 20 years and raising their 2 beautiful daughters to love and serve the Lord with their whole heart.

So I will leave you with this final challenge/thought: Make the choice TODAY, not tomorrow, now, in this moment, to allow God to help you deal with or get rid of your 'frogs'.  Because the degree to which we allow God to go deep and do a work in us will determine what God can do through us. 

"YOUR DESTINY IS GREATER THAN YOUR HISTORY!"

- Christine Caine

P.S.  If you want to know more about the A21 campaign you can check out their website
and if you're interested in donating to Christine's 50th birthday fundraiser for freedom, you can click here.


See you tomorrow for night #4 - Joyce Meyer