You Are Revival

Your Keys to Living in Permanent Revival, p7

"The 100 Year Bloom - Your Keys to Living in Permanent Revival," by Mahesh and Bonnie Chavda

 

The believer's KEY to living in rewarding revival is SACRIFICE:  A corn of wheat must fall to the ground an die or else it remains alone.  Revival is not primarily for personal experience.  The reward of revival is seeing Christ formed in others.  Jesus gave everything for this.  King David made great sacrifice to bring revival in his generation.  "...I will surely buy it for the full price, for I will not take what is yours for the Lord, nor offer burnt offerings with that which costs me nothing." I Chronicles 21:24

The 5 W's of Revival

What -  What is true revival?  The answer to this question I hope is accurately explained in my book, "You Are Revival."  I don't disagree with many common definitions of true revival, however, I make a valiant effort to point out that this revival is not just sovereign but requires the Church's prayers and cooperation.

Where -  The "where" of revival is very much misunderstood in the body of Christ.  We think revival is relegated to a certain location if it is "anointed" enough or has a certain "blessing," or "Open portal in heaven" over the land.  Christians also many times think God can and only will move within the four walls of a church building.  All of these assumptions are greatly incomplete.  God's "where" is wherever you are!

When - Many people mess up the "when" of revival.  Many Christians honor the revivals of the past but fail to truly grasp that God wants revival NOW.  There's no formula you must follow and complete for you to finally obtain revival.  It is a gift that can be received whenever you're open to receiving it and committed to stewarding (taking care of) it.

Why -  Many believe why God would want to bring revival and why it's needed.  God's Church needs to repent of her sins and be washed clean and refreshed so she can reach a world with the purity of the power of the full gospel of Jesus Christ!  However, many still don't understand why He will do it today.  This isn't just for an endtime agenda of His for the harvest.  Revival completely aligns with His eternal will for a variety of things, including His desire to pour out His Spirit on all flesh, that none should perish, and that we come into the fullness of our blessings and inheritance in Christ Jesus.

Who - Most agree that the "who" when it comes to true revival is obviously God; The Father's will, the Son's prayers and commandments, and the Holy Spirit's power.  Plus His persona, presence, and perfection manifested on earth to give us a glimpse and taste of what we're in for in heaven.  However, most Christians don't realize the other extremely necessary and relevant "who" in revival... YOU!

Encouragement for your identity - "Revival Minute with Matt"

Your Keys to Living in Permanent Revival, p6

"The 100 Year Bloom - Your Keys to Living in Permanent Revival," by Mahesh and Bonnie Chavda

 

The believer's KEY to receiving the first responders in revival is RECOGNIZING THE ANOINTING:  When you welcome the Holy Spirit honor the vessel who brings Him, be they young or old, male or female, rich or poor.  Jesus wept over Jerusalem because her priests did not recognize that He was the one they had been waiting for.  "Your house will be desolate and you shall see Me no more until you say, 'Blessed is he, (or she) who comes in the name of the Lord.'"  Matthew 23:39

Your Keys to Living in Permanent Revival, p5

"The 100 Year Bloom - Your Keys to Living in Permanent Revival," by Mahesh and Bonnie Chavda

 

The believer's KEY to living in joyous revival is ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVE:  As the ancients pointed out, the happy heart draws down the presence of God.  Focus on the fruit.  Enter into the joy.  Take time to smell the flowers!  "So I looked for You in the sanctuary to see Your power and Your glory."  Psalm 63:2

The Greatest Advice I Could Ever Give Anybody

It's that time of year... graduation time!  

A recent slideshow on CNBC.com entitled "The 10 Best Graduation Speeches of All Time," inspired me to write my own mock graduation speech.  

Please forward to your graduate!
 

The greatest advice I could ever give anybody:
 

God's mercies are new every morning and so should yours be.  Don't stay tethered to the past.  Keep moving forward, doing the best you can.  That's all life asks of us.  

Stay authentic and passionate... childlike, if you will.  Do this, and no matter what you do people will end up appreciating it.  God's best anointing through your life comes from you just being who you are.  

Listen.  Listen to God, listen to nature, listen to traffic, listen to your spouse, listen to your kids sing.  You'd be surprised how much you'll learn when you listen.  It brings a great appreciation to the mundane.  

Life doesn't suck.  A sucky attitude sucks.  

If you stop learning and growing in effect you have already died as a person.  

Don't settle for status quo.  The world needs world changers not robots.  Change is inevitable so deal with it and be on the forefront of it and your life will truly be remarkable.  

Chaos is sometimes a welcomed break from the norm.  

Don't be afraid to go all in; big risks equal big reward.  When you do, even if your heart gets smushed, broken, or pops out of your chest, it will always grow back stronger if you let it.

Grow internally.  Don't worry about external results and influence.  Go deeper and reach higher and the wider will come.

Money isn't as important as love.

In all things try to have fun.  Be nice to people, everything eventually comes around.

Above all:  Know God.  He really does love you and want the best for you.  Don't wait to go to heaven, experience heaven now.  Don't just pray, be an answer to prayer.

In all things, keep going!  Perseverance is life's vehicle.

In life, you will have many graduations.  The irony is, as soon as you figure something out, you must graduate to something new.  

With love and a deep yearning to see you come alive and be everything God created you to be, I hereby have the pleasure and honor of introducing you to the next step on your journey...

Be blessed; now and eternally!

Your Big Brother,

Matt

A Lesson in Faith

This blog entry is about a testimony that should enlighten and encourage all of our faith.  It is about a woman who was miraculously healed three weeks ago and is better today than she has ever been!  She has shared the testimony of her healing at church and is a living, walking testimony of God's love.

It was my privilege and honor recently to minister at a great church in Nogales, MX.  Unfortunately I am not yet bilingual and the church is Spanish-only.  My brother-in-law interpreted as I tried to keep things simple in my message.  We ministers must remember that the Kingdom is often simple.  The Kingdom of God is received by the children.  I try to spend about half the time on a message and half of the time ministering to the needs of the people.  Sometimes the ministry/altar time goes way beyond that.  Anyhow, I've learned over the years to keep things simple... preach Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!  I've also learned that there's at least one guaranteed way to see the power of God manifest at the end of a service... preach the Gospel of Jesus.  In God's Word, God says He WILL accompany His Gospel with power.  With that said, you can now see the context in which I write about a miracle that God performed through the name of His Son, Jesus, on April 18, 2010, in Nogales, MX.

The miracle, one of a couple, I might add, has to do with a lady named Julie.  Julie had a debilitating back and spinal injury that made it very difficult for her to walk.  In fact, after church she would have to be carried and placed into her car.  She was also very exhausted all the time and rarely left her house for too long.  Without a wheelchair, she had lots of trouble getting around.  Unfortunately, like many, Julie had come up to the altar for prayer from many saints and ministers over the years.  Such effort had actually discouraged her faith not encouraged it.  Her problems persisted despite her faith and others' prayers of agreement that she would be healed.  She just wasn't getting any better.  Then came three weeks ago.  

This time would be different, her son and daughter encouraged her with, when I called people to the front to be prayed for.  She fought with them and was not interested in coming up to the front to be prayed for.  She had seen this before... so she thought.  Her son, Jesus, and daughter, Alejandra, just knew in their hearts that this time would be different!  They practically pulled her up to the front!  As I prayed for her, the power of God came on her so strong that she was literally falling and swaying backward, to the side, and to the front.  Surely I thought she would fall over, but there was a crowd of her loved ones around her agreeing in prayer with tears, literally holding her up so I could minister to her.  At that point the power of God was so strong, I also had tears streaming down my face.  Needless to say, she felt the power of God and this time things WERE different!  By the end of the service, to the amazement of the church people (even the Pastor's wife commented in shock to my wife) she was not only walking normally, but walking quickly and excitedly everywhere she was going.  She was a new woman!

This past week, almost three weeks later, she showed my brother-in-law, Ben, that she can literally bend all the way to the floor and do "moves" that 25 year olds can't do.  She takes her kids out to something fun almost every weekend and has a new appreciation for life.  Her serious back and spinal injury, HEALED!  Her pain and exhaustion, GONE!  Praise be to God!  The lesson here is that she didn't need the faith to be healed.  Her children had the faith for her healing!  So did this crazy white guy who believes in the power of God because I've experienced it way too much not to believe.  

Remember, it isn't your faith that you need to be healed anymore than it is your righteousness and works that get you to heaven.  True, pure faith comes from God.  You simply must be open to receive it and believe that He is God and He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him (Heb. 11:6).

Let's rejoice together with Julie!  Keep believing for your own miracle as we believe with you!  

Your Keys to Living in Permanent Revival, p4

"The 100 Year Bloom - Your Keys to Living in Permanent Revival," by Mahesh and Bonnie Chavda

 

The believer's KEY to living in glorious revival is FEAR THE LORD:  The fear of the Lord revives the heart and makes us responsive to His Presence at all times.  "The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life."  Proverbs 14:27

Three keys to seeing miracles, part 2

This is part 2 of 3 in the series, "keys to seeing miracles."  

2.  The Fear of the Lord precedes miracles!

While documenting the powerful signs and wonders through the Apostles by the power of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit purposely inspired Luke to write that before each of these documented historical references to signs and wonders that the fear of the Lord came upon all the people:

Acts 2:43

Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. (NKJV)

Acts 5

11 So great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things.

12 And through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people. 

The fear of the Lord can be defined as a great awe and reverence for God's Greatness and Majesty.  The Bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom (3) and infers throughout Proverbs and the rest of the Bible for that matter that a healthy fear of the Lord is good because it will keep us doing things with a posture of honor for God and all things He created and keep us on the track of doing what is right.

The fear of the Lord keeps us honoring what is holy as holy.  God punished people in the Old Testament for making anything unclean which was consecrated as holy.  A great sin in the Church is when we treat what is holy as common.  

We should treat the works of the Holy Spirit as commonplace but not common.  We need to have a great honor and respect for Him so much so that we do not want to do anything that would be unholy.  This healthy fear keeps us on the right track and with a posture of repentance and dependency on God.

Signs and wonders can come when we honor God, desire righteousness and live to please Him.  If miracles came easily we may have a tendancy to not show the respect and reverent honor of God that is needed.  Why would God bless us with signs and wonders if it would mess us up spiritually?  If something in us thinks that we have something to do with the miracles instead of giving all the glory to God this can lead to eternal damnation.  Such attitudes subtly put us ahead of God which is a form of idolatry a sin worthy of eternal punishment.  When we stay in awe of Him we keep His righteousness and holiness lifted up which can protect our hearts from falling to other idols or to pride or presumption.  When we are in awe of His works we continue in our first love of prayer and worship, which brought us to that point in the first place.  

How sad that many revival moves of the past have been snuffed out because they stopped doing what got them there in the first place, like desperate passionate prayer, and have let impurities come in to the people's hearts and minds.  

Your Keys to Living in Permanent Revival, p3

"The 100 Year Bloom - Your Keys to Living in Permanent Revival," by Mahesh and Bonnie Chavda

 

The believer's KEY to living in costly revival is FREEDOM FROM IDOLS:  Revival will force idols of the heart to the surface.  Sometimes a religious facade cloaks the root problem.  "Those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."  John 4:24