Hungry!?

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You can imagine the meager rations of those exiles on the Isle of Patmos. Whether it’s coincidental, or because of the meager rations, the theme of food comes up often enough to warrant attention. Consider the following passages: Revelation 2:14 But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols…NKJV

Revelation 2:17 To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. NKJV

Revelation 2:20 Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. NKJV

Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. NKJV

If I had been hearing these words from the Lord I would have been tempted to ask the Lord for mercy. I would have asked Him to possibly choose other analogies and references. But Jesus didn’t stop there. He “hid” a food reference in plain sight – yet it’s hard to see. Several months ago I noted a distinction in translating Revelation 3:18. The AMPC translation reads: Therefore I counsel you to purchase from Me gold refined and tested by fire, that you may be [truly] wealthy, and white clothes to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nudity from being seen, and salve to put on your eyes, that you may see. Take note of this last boldened, phrase:…and salve to put on your eyes, that you may see.

Now take note of how the NKJV translates the same passage: I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.

The first thing to notice is that in the AMPC translation they were to purchase refined and tested gold, white clothes, and eye salve. But the NKJV separates the gold, and clothes from the eye salve. In fact the NKJV states that they should purchase the first two, but anoint their eyes with eye salve. In the NKJV translation, anointing the eyes appears to be a separate topic. Why are there two different verbs: purchase and anoint?

When you study the original meaning of the word for salve you discover something that is quite startling. You discover that it was an extremely small, “coarse bread roll.”  Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words states: Hence an “eye-salve,” shaped like a roll….The word is doubtless an allusion to the Phrygian powder used by oculists in the famous medical school at Laodicea. Which led me to ask another question, What was considered coarse bread to John’s readers? Basically there were two sources of grain used for making bread, wheat and barley. What does this have to do with our eye salve? Bread made from barley was considered the poor man’s bread, while bread made from wheat was for those who were wealthy. Now keep in mind Jesus is addressing the wealthy, self-sufficient Laodiceans. They have no need, or lack. Yet, Jesus is stating that the cure for their spiritual blindness is salve shaped like a roll or loaf of barley bread. What does this remind you of? Matthew 5:3,6 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.“…Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.

What’s the interpretation? Those that are spiritually poor – are spiritually hungry. Those who are spiritually poor will ENTER through the DOOR of Jesus; the DOOR of Revelation 4. Those that recognize their spiritual poverty and blindness will be moved to make room for Jesus; will be moved to overcome the Laodiceans, do-it-yourself righteousness; will be moved to open their spiritual senses: sight, hearing, and feeling. The spiritually hungry will be moved to be zealous; to be on FIRE with the FIRE from the Man whose legs and eyes burn with HOLY FUEL.

Bread throughout Scripture has typically been a symbol for the Word of God. Those who are aware of their spiritual blindness will seek to “anoint” their spiritual “vision” with the revelational, living, out of the Mouth of God – Word of God. This is the Spiritual Manna that comes down out of Heaven and feeds the spiritually hungry. Are you hungry for more of Jesus? Are you hungry to be closer to Him? Are you hungry to see more of Jesus? Are you hungry to be hot, on FIRE, in love with Jesus? Are you hungry to hear His Voice? Hungry to fellowship, commune and have a daily, intimate love relationship with Him? Then cry out for the poor man’s “bread” to “rub” in the way you see.

Dead Man Walking!

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Revelation 1:17-18 When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as if dead. But He laid His right hand on me and said, Do not be afraid! I am the First and the Last, 18 And the Ever-living One [I am living in the eternity of the eternities]. I died, but see, I am alive forevermore; and I possess the keys of death and Hades (the realm of the dead). AMPC

Candace Osmond, on her website, Grammarist discusses the popular idiom, “dead man walking,” stating: “Dead man walking” is a phrase we’ve all heard thrown around, from conversations to T.V., movies, and even books. But have you ever taken a second to think about where it could have possibly come from? The roots of the phrase “dead man walking” actually originated in the United States in the early 20th century. It was created in prisons to describe a man condemned to death who was being led to his execution. The guards would walk him down the corridor, and others would say, “dead man walking!”

The author of Revelation, the Apostle John, is believed to have been in his nineties when he was exiled by the Emperor Domitian to the Isle of Patmos. Interestingly, tradition states that Domitian attempted to boil John to death in a boiling cauldron of oil but John survived unscathed. As a result the Emperor banished him to exile on Patmos in which many of the prisoners were forced to work in the mines. All of these things taken together in a collective whole become even more interesting against the backdrop of John 21:19-23  He said this to indicate by what kind of death Peter would glorify God. And after this, He said to him, Follow Me! 20 But Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved, following—the one who also had leaned back on His breast at the supper and had said, Lord, who is it that is going to betray You? 21 When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, Lord, what about this man? 22 Jesus said to him, If I want him to stay (survive, live) until I come, what is that to you? [What concern is it of yours?] You follow Me! 23 So word went out among the brethren that this disciple was not going to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not going to die, but, If I want him to stay (survive, live) till I come, what is that to you? AMPC

The Apostle had faced down the possibility of death on numerous occasions simply by choosing to be counted among the followers of Jesus. To follow Jesus was to embrace death. It was guilt by association and none was more intimate with Jesus than John. John was the only disciple courageous enough to stand at the foot of Jesus’ crucifixion and was no stranger to its inevitability. Which makes the events of Revelation 1 almost comical. John wasn’t afraid of death – he is in his nineties – yet when he encountered the Shofar-like Voice of Jesus “on Fire” – he fell at His feet as a dead man. To which Jesus replies to His friend: Do not be afraid! I am the First and the Last, 18 And the Ever-living One [I am living in the eternity of the eternities]. I died, but see, I am alive forevermore; and I possess the keys of death and Hades (the realm of the dead). Jesus had faced down the specter of death, was crucified, and raised from the dead. He wanted to remind John of the fact: I am alive forevermore! (and you will be too).

The Apostle Paul had written years earlier: For we who live are constantly [experiencing] being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake, that the [resurrection] life of Jesus also may be evidenced through our flesh which is liable to death.12 Thus death is actively at work in us, but [it is in order that our] life [may be actively at work] in you. 2 Cor. 4:11-12 AMPC

For all of the Apostles death was no stranger yet they did not “smell” like death. The Resurrection Life of Jesus only grew stronger in them as they repeatedly submitted to Jesus, the Spirit and the Word. Every time they yielded and obeyed; every time they submitted themselves to the will of God – they lived even more and those around them came to life too. Possibly this is the reason John was invited to “Come Up Here!” in Revelation 4:1. John reminds us in Revelation 12:11 that those who live with Jesus in eternity – those permitted to “Come Up Here!” – are those who “did not love and cling to life even when faced with death [holding their lives cheap till they had to die for their witnessing].” Revelation 12:11 AMPC

During this holy season remind yourself to not cling so tightly to this life but to embrace Jesus’ death in order to become His life to those around you. Look up and see the “great cloud of witnesses” in Hebrews 12:1 and listen for their exhortation: “For the reward of the lamb and for His Suffering!” This was the exhortation of Moravian missionaries who sold themselves into slavery, and packed their belongings in a coffin that would be used to bury them on the mission field. Join with the other dead men, women and children walking – into His Light and Love.

Wake Up Call!

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We’ve all had it happen. That abrupt, intrusive, and startling awakening while lost in sleep. It’s annoying at best and at worse, can make you angry at whoever, or whatever was the source of disturbance. Yet in Revelation 3 a message is delivered by God the Father’s Heavenly Alarm Clock – Jesus. Revelation 3:2-3 states, Rouse yourselves and keep awake, and strengthen and invigorate what remains and is on the point of dying; for I have not found a thing that you have done [any work of yours] meeting the requirements of My God or perfect in His sight.3 So call to mind the lessons you received and heard; continually lay them to heart and obey them, and repent. In case you will not rouse yourselves and keep awake and watch, I will come upon you like a thief, and you will not know or suspect at what hour I will come. AMPC

From chapters one to three startling images intrude upon all who read the unveiling, apocalyptic messages from Jesus. For example, while John is in the Spirit worshipping, a “Man on Fire” appears. Not in front of, but from behind him. If that wasn’t bad enough Revelation 1:10 records: “…a great voice like the calling of a war trumpet,…” AMPC

The AMPC translates this as a “war trumpet,” drawing upon a Hebraic understanding of the type of trumpet used by watchmen on the walls of a city warning its citizens of approaching danger. This war trumpet wasn’t like the silver trumpets used in Solomons Temple calling people to prayer, or worship through sacrifice. No, this was what is known as a shofar, or rams horn. It was used by soldiers in battle, and prophets anointing men to become kings.

Imagine. You are John trying to worship in the Spirit and the sound of a war trumpet blasts and blares in your ear. And don’t forget: it’s coming from behind you. This imagery occurs throughout Revelation addressed to churches and their members. Jesus appears walking among seven blazing menorahs, wielding a sharp, two-edged sword – from His mouth! His eyes and feet are on fire, threatening to strike their children with a rod of iron with which He rules and reigns. He knocks on the door of a church, calling out to any who would listen, opening doors in the heavens, trumpeting for John (and all who heed His Voice and overcome) to Come Up Here; to enter God’s Throne room; to see prophetic events about to occur. This was, and still is, a rude awakening for Last Days saints who fall asleep under the spell of a satanic lullaby.

But, Jesus in His Mercy calls to saints and sinners, Spirit-filled followers and prodigals – Repent! Change your thinking. Be transformed or “metamorpho-sized” in your lifestyle, and actions. Be zealous! Be on FIRE! Pay the price to purchase what it takes to awaken, hear His invitation, and sit on His Throne.

But where do you begin? The answer lies in waking up – setting aside a time to keep an appointment with Him. The Jewish emphasis on 10 Days of Awe is a good place to begin. Why stop at ten days? Why not make a commitment to meet daily – before any thing else? You may say, Well, Robert, I’m not a morning person. The believers throughout the Bible understood that. That’s why they set aside three times a day to meet with God through thanksgiving, praise, worship and prayer. You can set aside your lunch time. You can set aside time to meet and connect before going to bed. But I caution you. Over the years I have had people take me aside and say, Pastor, if I win the lottery, get a new job, or a raise – the church is going to be the first place I make a donation. Can I counsel you in something? If you aren’t giving with your little you will most definitely not give with your surplus. What’s the point? If you do not value meeting with Jesus in the morning you will most certainly not meet with Him at another time of day. May I encourage you to take this holy season to make a fresh commitment to wake up and draw near to Jesus. Pray and ask for His Grace to Wake Up. Tis the season!

The Key of David

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Isaiah 22:22 And the key of the house of David I will lay upon his shoulder; he shall open and no one shall shut, he shall shut and no one shall open. AMPC

What is this passage regarding? It is actually a Messianic promise and prophecy that was originally directed to Eliakim, who was over King Hezekiah’s household. Eliakim means “God Raises Up!” This passage goes on to say: And I will fasten him like a peg or nail in a firm place; and he will become a throne of honor and glory to his father’s house. 24 And they will hang on him the honor and the whole weight of [responsibility for] his father’s house: the offspring and issue [of the family, high and low], every small vessel, from the cups even to all the flasks and big bulging bottles.25 In that day, says the Lord of hosts, the nail or peg that was fastened into the sure place shall give way and be moved and be hewn down and fall, and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off; for the Lord has spoken it.

It doesn’t take too much revelation to realize Jesus is Eliakim, the One Whom God Raises Up, after he has been fastened like a peg or nail. He is the One who becomes a Throne of Honor and Glory for His Father’s House. And we know the rest of that story. In that day, says the Lord of hosts, the nail or peg that was fastened into the sure place shall give way and be moved and be hewn down and fall, and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off;… King Jesus became a curse for us removing from us the curse; bearing our burden away in order for us to be reconciled to God, and to become the righteousness of God. But not only was the curse removed King Jesus rose from the dead conquering death and removing from all mankind the sting of death.

What does any of this have to do with Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot? Revelation 3:7-11 And to the angel (messenger) of the assembly (church) in Philadelphia write: These are the words of the Holy One, the True One, He Who has the key of David, Who opens and no one shall shut, Who shuts and no one shall open:8 I know your [record of] works and what you are doing. See! I have set before you a door wide open which no one is able to shut; I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept My Word and guarded My message and have not renounced or denied My name.9 Take note! I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews and are not, but lie—behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet and learn and acknowledge that I have loved you.10 Because you have guarded and kept My word of patient endurance [have held fast the lesson of My patience with the expectant endurance that I give you], I also will keep you [safe] from the hour of trial (testing) which is coming on the whole world to try those who dwell upon the earth. 11 I am coming quickly; hold fast what you have, so that no one may rob you and deprive you of your crown.

Jesus has opened the Door of Who He is and the Door of Heaven’s Throne to these Philadelphian believers. Why? I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept My Word and guarded My message and have not renounced or denied My name.9 Take note! I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews and are not, but lie—behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet and learn and acknowledge that I have loved you.10 Because you have guarded and kept My word of patient endurance [have held fast the lesson of My patience with the expectant endurance that I give you],…

Embedded in this message are the seeds of Truth that are meant to grow into a harvest testimony of manifested reality. Here we have other keys which unlock Heaven’s Door during this season enabling us to enter in. What are those keys? They had little power (in their weakness they had Christ’s strength). They guarded and kept Jesus’ Word through expectant endurance. They persevered through the things they had to suffer for being obedient to Jesus’ Word and Message.

The Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 12:9 But He said to me, My grace (My favor and loving-kindness and mercy) is enough for you [sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully]; for My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and show themselves most effective in [your] weakness. Therefore, I will all the more gladly glory in my weaknesses and infirmities, that the strength and power of Christ (the Messiah) may rest (yes, may pitch a tent over and dwell) upon me! The Philidelphians had learned the secret of this revelation. They had learned to turn their weakness in to Christ’s Strength accessing the Grace of Jesus – the empowerment to do the will of the Lord (GRACE = Glorious Realities As Christ Empowers). They had learned to access the truth of 2 Peter 3:18 But grow in grace (undeserved favor, spiritual strength) and recognition and knowledge and understanding of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (the Messiah). To Him [be] glory (honor, majesty, and splendor) both now and to the day of eternity. Amen (so be it)! – Growing in the Grace of the Spirit. And it’s no coincidence that this same theme is manifested in Hebrews 4:16 Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace (the throne of God’s unmerited favor to us sinners), that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find grace to help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it]. No wonder the Door was open to them for they had learned to access the Throne of Grace to obtain more Grace to help them in their time of need.

During this season we are to come boldly before God Throne to obtain mercy and Grace to help in our need. We are to turn our weaknesses into Christ’s Strength and we are to grow in His Grace – in His empowerment to do His Will and Word. We are to seek Him in prayer for more Grace to ascend higher in His Presence and His Manifested Reality.

But there is one more key: Because you have guarded and kept My word of patient endurance [have held fast the lesson of My patience with the expectant endurance….The key to entering through this Door of Jesus and His Throne Room is found in keeping His Word; persevering with it and through it. The Word of God is Jesus and it truly is a mirror reflection of the true condition of our relationship with Jesus. To persevere in keeping His Word is to persevere in obeying and doing what His Word says. To obey His Word is to Love Jesus! The Door of Heaven had been thrown open to these Philadelphians because they had thrown wide the door of their hearts to Jesus and His Word. They had a heart like David who longed to be forever in the Manifested Presence of the Lord. He truly was, as the Philadelphians were – after the Heart of Jesus; to get as close to Jesus as was physically, and spiritually possible. During this holy time when God draws near to you make sure you reciprocate in drawing near to Him – with a heart and arms wide open.

Come Up Here!

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Revelation 4:1-2 After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice which I had heard addressing me like [the calling of] a war trumpet said, Come up here, and I will show you what must take place in the future. 2 At once I came under the [Holy] Spirit’s power, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with One seated on the throne!

During this season we have learned we are to prepare for the return of Jesus, watching, listening and praying regarding what He has to say regarding this new year. But there is another clue imbedded in this passage the Lord has left for its reality to manifest in our lives: Come up here, and I will show you what must take place in the future. 2 At once I came under the [Holy] Spirit’s power, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with One seated on the throne!

The Apostle John was invited to ascend through the Door, Jesus entering the Throne Room of God. Now as mind bending as that seems its easy to overlook the promise at the end of Revelation 3:21 He who overcomes (is victorious), I will grant him to sit beside Me on My throne, as I Myself overcame (was victorious) and sat down beside My Father on His throne. Now we can apply this promise to the culmination of our salvation – seeing Jesus face-to-face, or we can use this passage as a guide to begin experiencing the spiritual dimensions of this promise in the present. Colossians 3:1-3 reminds us: If then you have been raised with Christ [to a new life, thus sharing His resurrection from the dead], aim at and seek the [rich, eternal treasures] that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.2 And set your minds and keep them set on what is above (the higher things), not on the things that are on the earth. 3 For [as far as this world is concerned] you have died, and your [new, real] life is hidden with Christ in God. AMPC

According to this passage your [new, real] life is hidden with Christ… Where is Jesus according to this passage? Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Part of the key to unlocking aspects of the Revelation 3:21 promise is found in the exhortation: set your minds and keep them set on what is above (the higher things),…

Your mind is one of the keys to ascending into the Throne of God. What are the other keys? Revelation 3:21 He who overcomes (is victorious),…Overcomes what? The spiritual condition of the Laodiceans. A careful reading of Revelation 3:14-20 reveals what we are to overcome. First, they were spiritually blind to the fact that Jesus was not in their church service (they weren’t looking for Jesus). Second, they were spiritually deaf to His Voice (they weren’t listening for Jesus). Third, they were unfeeling regarding their spiritual condition and the Manifest Presence of Jesus (they were only lukewarm – not hot or cold). Fourth, they expected nothing to happen because they were self-assured they needed nothing spiritually. Fifth, they were spiritually poor and naked and weren’t even conscious that the poor in spirit see God; those who are hungry for more of Him.

Ephesians 1:17-18 Paul prays: [For I always pray to] the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that He may grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation [of insight into mysteries and secrets] in the [deep and intimate] knowledge of Him, 18 By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints (His set-apart ones),…

Paul prayed the eyes of their heart would be flooded with light so they could know. Hebrews 5:11,14 makes reference to using our spiritual senses to see, hear and know spiritual things: Concerning this we have much to say which is hard to explain, since you have become dull in your [spiritual] hearing and sluggish [even slothful in achieving spiritual insight].…14 But solid food is for full-grown men, for those whose senses and mental faculties are trained by practice to discriminate and distinguish between what is morally good and noble and what is evil and contrary either to divine or human law. AMPC

The writer of Hebrews was rebuking its recipients of being like the Laodiceans: blind, deaf, and spiritually dull in their spiritual senses. Without going into a long explanation let’s reword this concept by using the phrase “divine imagination.” 1 Corinthians 2:16 states that we have the Mind of Christ. For those of you uncomfortable with this concept let me ask you a question. When you read the Bible do you imagine what certain things were like? If you have the Mind of Christ can you tap into His mind, praying that He would open your spiritual eyes and ears to the Throne room of Heaven? Why would Jesus exhort the Laodiceans to be zealous and change their thinking regarding all of that which is mentioned above? Surely His exhortation included the Grace to quit being spiritually blind and spiritually deaf.

He exhorts the Laodiceans to purchase, or pay a price for these things spiritually. During this holy time are you paying the price to sit with Jesus in Heaven? This may be too much for you to take in so let me provide another key to entering into the manifestation of this reality. Psalm 22:3 But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. KJV

We can enter into the Throne Room of God simply through thanksgiving, praise, and worship. God inhabits these things. When we acknowledge the Omniscient Lord seeking His Manifested Presence – He meets us there enthroning Himself on our praises. During the Ten Days of Awe seek to enter into His Throne Room by enthroning Him on your thanksgiving, praise, and worship. And while you are practicing these things ask Him to open your mind so you can fix your imagination on things above – not on things of the earth. Pray He will give you salve to heal your spiritual vision and seek Him to open your spiritual eyes to see and be flooded with the Light of His Presence.

The Watchmen!

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Revelation 4:1-2 After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice which I had heard addressing me like [the calling of] a war trumpet said, Come up here, and I will show you what must take place in the future. 2 At once I came under the [Holy] Spirit’s power, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with One seated on the throne!

In John 10:1-7 reveals to us Who the Door is in Revelation 4:1-2. It states: I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, he who does not enter by the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up some other way (elsewhere, from some other quarter) is a thief and a robber.2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.3 The watchman opens the door for this man, and the sheep listen to his voice and heed it; and he calls his own sheep by name and brings (leads) them out.4 When he has brought his own sheep outside, he walks on before them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.5 They will never [on any account] follow a stranger, but will run away from him because they do not know the voice of strangers or recognize their call.6 Jesus used this parable (illustration) with them, but they did not understand what He was talking about.7 So Jesus said again, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, that I Myself am the Door for the sheep. AMPC

Watchmen open the Door! Watchmen know His Voice! Watchmen listen for the Shepherds Voice! Luke 21:36 reminds us: Keep awake then and watch at all times [be discreet, attentive, and ready], praying that you may have the full strength and ability and be accounted worthy to escape all these things [taken together] that will take place, and to stand in the presence of the Son of Man. AMPC

What are we to be watching, praying and waiting for? The Return of Jesus. But, especially during this time of year we are to be watchful, and listening. Is there a specific thing we are to seek? Revelation 4:1-2 gives us a clue: Come up here, and I will show you what must take place in the future. 2 At once I came under the [Holy] Spirit’s power, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with One seated on the throne! Now you may be tempted to say, Robert I can’t know what will happen in the future. I am not a prophet. Let me ask you a question. How much of the Bible do you believe and trust? Your Bible promises you in John 16:13 But when He, the Spirit of Truth (the Truth-giving Spirit) comes, He will guide you into all the Truth (the whole, full Truth). For He will not speak His own message [on His own authority]; but He will tell whatever He hears [from the Father; He will give the message that has been given to Him], and He will announce and declare to you the things that are to come [that will happen in the future]. AMPC

Did you see that? Do you believe it? If you believe it then you can know from the Revelation 4:1-2 connection with Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur – that you and I have been given an invitation to know what must take place in the future. Now you might say this passage only applies to John. I can’t go into Heaven. Yet Eph. 2:6 states, And He raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together [giving us joint seating with Him] in the heavenly sphere [by virtue of our being] in Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed One). AMPC According to Scripture our spirits are already seated in Heavenly Places with Jesus.

In conclusion, Can you see that the Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of all prophecy? (Revelation 19:10) Prophecy fulfilled is the manifestation of spoken words becoming manifested reality. From this passage you can deduce that the testimony of Jesus contained in Scripture is a prophetic testimony waiting to manifest. Scripture is a collection of testimonies of Jesus manifesting in others lives. It is through the testimony of Scripture that Jesus became a Manifested Reality in your life. Scripture was given to us by God not simply for us to know about God but to see His Testimony manifested in our lives.

During this holy season don’t be content with simply preparing for the Return of Jesus. Take the time to step out in faith on the testimony of His Word to ask Him, Lord what is coming this new year that you want me to pray with You about and prepare others to know? He’s knocking in Revelation 3:20. Are you willing to open the Door? Are you willing to listen to what He has to say?

Immanuel?

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Matthew 1:23 states: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). NIV

No it’s not Christmas but I wanted to draw your attention to this passage in order to connect the significance it had for the Jewish people and this sacred time of year. Three Jewish holy days or holidays occur in sequential order during this time of year: Rosh Hashanah (New Years), Yom Kippur (Atonement, or At-One-Ment), and Sukkot, or Tabernacles. Another way of stating the symbolic significance of these holy days is to say, God came down (to be with His people); the people prepared by cleansing their lives; and when God appeared the people were ready for Him to make His Home, or “tabernacle” among them. Two thousand years ago Jesus came to earth but did not remain among His people. Yet He promised He would return making His Home with us.

Why is this significant? Because, the Jewish holy day of Tabernacles reminds us that Jesus has promised He is coming back. God has a calendar, and because of it we know when He has scheduled His return. Annually, the Jewish Feast of Passover reminded the people to prepare for God’s Visitation as the Lamb of God. They spent extra time in preparation cleansing the leaven, or yeast from their households. This leaven symbolized the pride that rises in us all hindering our capacity to receive God’s visitation. Two thousand years ago Jesus ministered to thousands of people yet it appears that only 500 were saved (that’s the number of people He appeared to following His resurrection). That number should alarm you. If the people, and the world, missed Jesus’ visit the first time what lulls us to sleep into thinking we will be prepared for the final, and last time?

God in His infinite wisdom and mercy provided us with His Indwelling Son, His Spirit, His Word, and His prophetic timetable and calendar. Yet many church attenders do not read the Word, or know the Spirit, assuming that the Old Testament no longer has relevance for us. They have been lulled to sleep in believing that Jesus has done it all and we are exempt from any responsibility (responsibility implies an ability to respond). Many are contented to go to church and look at the back of someone’s head, selfishly waiting to die and go to Heaven, wanting the benefits but not the responsibilities. Yet Scripture repeatedly warns the followers of Jesus to prepare and be prepared for His Return. Revelation 19:7 states: Let us rejoice and shout for joy [exulting and triumphant]! Let us celebrate and ascribe to Him glory and honor, for the marriage of the Lamb [at last] has come, and His bride has prepared herself. The Greek word for prepare means to make fit, prepare, get or make ready and metaphorically is derived from the oriental, or ancient Middle Eastern custom of sending on before kings on their journeys persons to level the roads and make them passable. John the Baptist performed this duty for Jesus preparing the minds of the people to give the Messiah a fit reception and secure his blessings.

The Ten Days of Awe, beginning today, is a time the Lord has given us mercy to prepare for His Return – coming to tabernacle with us for eternity. Now the question is, Is ten days enough to be ready for Jesus’ Return? Are you prepared to be judged for the works, and righteous deeds you have done for Him and His Kingdom? You may be tempted to say, But I am saved by grace not works – quoting from Ephesians 2:8-9. But if that is your stance you have overlooked verse ten – which follows stating: “you are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus – TO DO GOOD WORKS!” 1 Cor. 3:10-15 adds: 10 According to the grace (the special endowment for my task) of God bestowed on me, like a skillful architect and master builder I laid [the] foundation, and now another [man] is building upon it. But let each [man] be careful how he builds upon it, For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is [already] laid, which is Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).12 But if anyone builds upon the Foundation, whether it be with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,13 The work of each [one] will become [plainly, openly] known (shown for what it is); for the day [of Christ] will disclose and declare it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test and critically appraise the character and worth of the work each person has done.14 If the work which any person has built on this Foundation [any product of his efforts whatever] survives [this test], he will get his reward.15 But if any person’s work is burned up [under the test], he will suffer the loss [of it all, losing his reward], though he himself will be saved, but only as [one who has passed] through fire. AMPC

The Apostle John reminds us, in the book that is the Revelation, or Unveiling of Who Jesus, of the following: Rev. 21:3 Then I heard a mighty voice from the throne and I perceived its distinct words, saying, See! The abode of God is with men, and He will live (encamp, tent) among them; and they shall be His people, and God shall personally be with them and be their God. God’s mercy has provided us with a prompting to prepare, or get ready during this time. Are you ready?

Rend the Heavens!

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“Does it not stir up our hearts to go forth and help them, does it not make us long to leave our luxury, our exceeding abundant light, and go to them that sit in darkness.” – Amy Carmichael

“God send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me. And sever any tie in my heart except the tie that binds my heart to you.” – David Livingstone

“This morning about nine, I withdrew to the woods for prayer. I was in such anguish that when I arose from my knees, I felt extremely weak and overcome…I cared not how or where I lived, or what hardships I went through so that I could but gain souls for Christ.” – David Brainerd

“Some may now say that my prayer was finally answered, but that would be incorrect. I received the answer to my prayer the day I prayed it.” – James O. Fraser

Herrnhut, The Lord’s Watch

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David Christian cut down the first tree for the first house for the new community the would call “Herrnhut,” which means the “Lord’s Watch.” The small group now totaled 300. It wasn’t long before Herrnhut began growing and accepted refugees from other doctrinal persuasions. Now there were not only Moravians but also Lutherans, Calvinists, Catholics, Separatists, Reformed, and Anabaptists.

The vision of Count Zinzendorf was that of the restoration of the apostolic community. He worked to establish a community of saints that loved and supports one another through prayer, encouragement, and accountability. John Wesley (founder of the Methodist Denomination) was so enamored with the Moravians that he called Herrnhut the “closest thing to the New Jerusalem that could be.” In 1738, eleven years into the revival, Wesley visited “this happy place” and was so impressed that he commented in his journal: “I would gladly have spent my life here….Oh, when shall this Christianity cover the earth as water covers the sea?”

It wasn’t something that happened overnight. With all the different views and doctrines…trouble soon arose. Many disputes erupted within the other sects over doctrinal language and how the community would support itself. From the start the Herrnhut community showed few signs of spiritual power. Leslie K. Tara described in his book, A Prayer Meeting That Lasted 100 Years, what was happening: “By the beginning of 1727, the community of about 300 people was wracked by dissension and bickering, an unlikely site for revival.” To make matters worse, a new resident, John Kruger, attacked Zinzendorf and his beliefs – preaching that the Count was none other than “the Beast” mentioned in the Book of Revelation. Linda Jacobs writes: “He turned almost the entire community of Herrnhut against their benefactor.” With a pastor’s heart, the Count began going from house to house, counseling each family from the Scriptures. He was teaching and exhorting daily, creating what he called “Bands,” a small group of believers who had “a special affinity” to each other. Before long the small community was becoming one as more and more homes were opening day and night for prayer, fellowship, and teaching. Small groups began holding all-night prayer vigils, and it seemed almost weekly that the spiritual unity and the bonds of love were becoming perceptively stronger. The community pooled their finances for the sick and began distributing goods to the poor among them.

Now that dissension and bickering had vanished, many unbelievers who came to Herrnhut were converted, and on May 12, Zinzendorf covenanted all to pray and labor for revival. The fire of the Spirit on these precious saints was beginning to heat up. Services held at this time usually ended in weeping, deep repentance, and lying prostrate on the floor. By August 5th, anticipation was building to the point where many did not want to sleep for fear that they would miss something God was doing.

Count Zinzendorf and Christian David

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In 1722 Count Zinzendorf and his wife began to settle into the Berthelsdorf Estate they had just purchased. They had both sacrifices their right of nobility and willingly entered into the sacred service of their Savior. the purpose that God had for the Count’s life was about to be fulfilled. Zinzendorf’s life was not flawless, but he was moved with consuming passion and preoccupation with the Person of Jesus Christ: My mind inclined continually toward the cross of Christ…My conversation always turned to that subject.” A glimpse of his burning love for Jesus can be caught in the following letter: Our method of proclaiming salvation is this: to point out to every heart the loving Lamb, who died for us, and although He was the Son of God, offered Himself for our sins…By preaching of His blood and of His love unto death, even the death of the cross, never, either in discourse or in agreement, to digress even for a quarter of an hour from the loving Lamb! To name no virtue except in Him and from Him and on His account to preach no commandment except faith in Him; no other sanctification but the privilege to sin no more; no other happiness but to be near Him, to think of Him and do His pleasure; no other self denial but to be deprived of Him and His blessings; no other life but in Him.

Before long a lone Christian refugee from Moravia showed up at Zinzendorf’s door. His name was Christian David, and he hoped the Count might allow a group of oppressed Moravian refugees a haven on his land. The Count was eager to help. Christian David was brought up as a Catholic but could find no spiritual satisfaction within the organizations teachings. Rick Joyner comments: “At age 20, David obtained a German Bible and began his quest for truth. This resulted in a profound conversion.”

He made many evangelistic trips into Moravia. There he happened upon a group of brethren who longed for the rebirth of the true New Testament Church. After David met Zinzendorf, he returned to Moravia for those oppressed saints and led them to the Zinzendorf estate. The Count called David the “Moravian Moses” because he crossed the borders ten times to lead groups of refugees to the land donated to them by Zinzendorf.

The Moravians Part Two

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“….fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. 2 And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord’s house.” – 2 Chronicles 7:1-2

An entry in the journal of Von Zinzendorf: December 18, 1734 “I was but 10 years old when I began to direct my companions to Jesus as their redeemer. My deficiency in knowledge was compensated by sincerity. Now I am 37 and though I have made various experiences, yet in the main, my mind has undergone no change. My zeal has not cooled….I will continue, as heretofore, to win souls for my precious Savior…I shall endeavor to imitate the labors of my brethren who have the honor of being the first messengers to the heathen…”

The Moravians were honored to be “Ambassadors for Christ,” even though where they were going meant sure death, and they knew it. Up until that day and age, an organized system of spreading the Gospel to the lost of the world was nonexistent, especially to civilizations in the most desperate places. The commission of Jesus, Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature…(Mark 16:15), had no relevancy to the European churches. The Protestant churches of that day were too locked in theological debates and internal dissension to even care about the rest of the world. That was about to change. The missionary outreach that would explode out of the “Moravian Revival” was so full of passion, zeal, and compassion for the lost it had to be direct from the heart of God. Sure death meant nothing to them. Many sold themselves into lifelong slavery in places like Suriname in South America just so they could spread the Gospel to closed societies. The Moravians were the first missionaries to the slaves of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. They went to Supland, Greenland, the West Indies, New Guinea, from the Arctic Circle to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. A Zinzendorf hymn reflected their conviction: “Ambassadors of Christ, know ye the way to go; It leads unto the jaws of death, is strewn with thorns and woe.” But a lot had to take place before this unheard-of mission of bold evangelism could be attempted. – Excerpt from The Fire That Once Was, by Frank DiPietro

Count Nikolas Ludwig Von Zinzendorf and the Moravians, Part One

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Count Zinzendorf was born into one of the noblest families in Europe. His inheritance was to sit on one of the continent’s most powerful thrones. He gave all that up and spent his life and fortune to carry the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Zinzendorf was not a Moravian but a devout Lutheran, and from a very early age had a desperate hunger for the Lord. At age six, he made a commitment to the Savior: “I firmly resolved to live for Him alone Who laid down His life for me.” Again, at age 9: “…To have a living communion with Christ, my heart’s affection never departed from my Savior.”

David Smithers tells of Zinzendorf: “His ‘blessed presence’ was his all-consuming theme. He had chosen from an early age as his life’s motto the now famous confession, ‘I have one passion. It is Jesus, Jesus only.” Prevailing prayer was a lifestyle for the Count. Establishing circles for prayer was his daily routine.

When he graduated from the school of staunch Pietist, August Franke in Halle, at the age of 16, he left the famous professor a list of seven praying societies. While at the school, the young Count was exposed to two evangelists who had been sent to India. At meals and daily meetings, these men recounted their experiences preaching the Gospel in foreign lands. To young Zinzendorf, these stories sounded like a modern Book of Acts. It was then that he was stirred with a passion for preaching the Gospel…The road had been paved. These two works of God (Zinzendorf and the Moravians) were about to meet and erupt in an explosion of God’s Presence on the earth. Holy Fire was about to be poured out on these humble, desperate, and hungry souls, and God was going to dwell and walk among His people.

Rend the Heavens

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“Can a mariner sit idle if he heard the drowning cry? Could a doctor sit in comfort and just let his patients die? Could a fireman sit idle while men burn and give no hand? Can you sit at ease in Zion with the world around you damned? – Leonard Ravenhill

“What God’s truth demands, His Grace will provide.” – Francis Frangipane

“I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they shall never hold their peace, day or night. You who call upon the Lord, do not keep silent, and give Him no rest till He establishes….” – Isaiah 62:6-7

“The Scottish revivalist John Knox cried to God, “Give me Scotland or I die!” The cry of the Moravian Fellowship could well have been, “Oh God, give us souls or take us now!” – Frank Di Pietro

“See what the Moravians have done? Cannot we follow their example…and preach the Gospel to the heathen?” – William Carey

“This small group of people, in twenty years, called into being more missions than the whole Church has done in two centuries.” – Dr. Warneck

This missionary work, that would soon fill the Kingdom of God, was birthed by intense intercessory prayer. Perched atop a prayer tower, these nearly forgotten prayer warriors took turns praying 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from 1727-1827 – 100 years nonstop! “This intense intercessory prayer pioneered the richest and most daring missionary work in the history of the Church.” – Jim Goll

Prayers for Safe Travels and Breakthroughs

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Micah 2:13 The Breaker [the Messiah] will go up before them. They will break through, pass in through the gate and go out through it, and their King will pass on before them, the Lord at their head.

Kristy Whittington, our resident missionary, is returning from Africa this week and should be on American soil by February 28. Could you keep her in your prayers for safe travels?

Also, our mission team leadership has received the following emergency email from our director of missions on the ground in Nicaragua. She wrote: Dear Bethany Friends, The church that was going to sponsor your team to get into the country as a group has not been able to obtain their government paperwork. The government now requires churches and non-profits to register every two months!  It’s ridiculous bureaucracy that is hard for churches/organizations to achieve. Then, when they don’t have the proper paperwork, they are technically operating illegally and the government uses this reason to shut them down. We have another option that we are pursuing but we REALLY need prayers for this to happen quickly! Thank you, Naomi

Soooo, as you can see Kristy and our Nicaragua Mission Outreach desperately needs your prayers.

Thank you and have a great week.

Rend the Heavens

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Frank Di Pietro: ” The Great Commission is not an option to be considered; it is a command to be obeyed.” – Hudson Taylor

“The Will of God – nothing less, nothing more, nothing else.” – F.E. Marsh

“Will the heathen who have never heard the Gospel be saved? It is more the question with me whether we – who have the Gospel and fail to give it to those who have not – can be saved?” – C.H. Spurgeon

“If God calls you to be a missionary, don’t stoop to be a king.” – C. H. Spurgeon

“Never pity missionaries; envy them. They are where the action is – where life and death, sin and grace, heaven and hell converge.” – Robert C. Shannon

“My son set out as a missionary of Christ; but alas! He has dwindled down to a mere British ambassador.” – William Carey

“If I had 1000 lives, I’d give them all for China.” – Hudson Taylor

George Whitefield: The Opposition Grows

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Di Pietro: “The authorities and Anglican power brokers were intimidated by his ministry. They felt something had to be done to stop him. They drew the line in the sand and said they were not going to allow his efforts to go unchallenged. Some New England pastors wrongly claimed that Whitefield destroyed, “New Englands’ orderly parish system, communities, and even families.” A prominent newspaper editor in Charleston, South Carolina labeled him, “blasphemous, uncharitable, and unreasonable.” In many of the Colonial pulpits, Whitefield was accused of being an “imposter, a devil, the beast, the man of sin, the antiChrist.” In 1757, while preaching in Dublin, Ireland, a huge Roman Catholic mob rioted and attacked him. These out-of-control people wounded Whitefield severely and smashed his portable pulpit. Opponents threw anything they could get their hands on – rocks, feces, rotten food, and even dead cats. On one occasion, Whitefield was almost killed by a man who beat him with a brass-headed cane. Another time he was assaulted by a woman wielding, “scissors and a pistol, and her teeth.” Whitefield endured numerous public humiliations including the time an opponent climbed a tree and urinated on him.”

Yet, he “was unwavering in his commitment to preach. He stood whether people received his words or not. When the people became harsh, he said, that they were “being hardened as were Pharaoh and the Egyptians.” Any opposition made him more adamant to set God’s people free.”

Rend the Heavens

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“A dead ministry will always make a dead people, whereas of ministers who are warmed with the love of God themselves, they cannot but be instruments of diffusing that love among others.” – George Whitefield

“Men who long ago lost their anointing still minister, using the same cliche’s and mannerisms. But they are not feared in hell; they are just ‘clouds with out water.’ Lord have mercy.” – Leonard Ravenhill

“And as the circumcission in the flesh, and not the heart, have no part in God’s good promises, even so they that are baptized in the flesh, and not in the heart have no place in Christ’s Blood.” – William Booth

The Stirrings of Revival: George Whitefield

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Frank Di Pietro, Rend the Heavens: “At the age of twenty-one, Whitefield gave his first sermon in the church of St. Mary de Crypt. The people were excited to hear him. When he spoke, the congregation was shaken to the core. A presiding Bishop, who was in attendance, said at least fifteen people were “driven mad!” The people were transfixed, and from that day on, Whitefield’s popularity never waned. Together with the Wesley’s, he preached throughout England, Scotland, and Wales. Thousands attended his services. Revival fires were breaking out wherever he preached. Because of the controversies that came with soul-stirring messages, the Church of England, refused to give Whitefield a pulpit – just like they had done to the Wesleys. Never deterred, Whitefield began preaching in out-of-the way places – parks, fields, wagons, tables, balconies, hills, and boats. Everywhere he spoke, enormous crowds gathered. Over the months, the head count continued to grow. Whitefield went to Hackney Marsh race course and preached to 10,000 who were there for the races. The people largely ignored the races and listened to the Gospel as Whitefield proclaimed it. Whitefield went to other race tracks to preach to the masses. In Marylebone Fields, he preached to 30,000 at the Moorefields in London, he preached to 60,000. “

Rend the Heavens: George Whitefield

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Frank Di Petro, Rend the Heavens: “The English colonies were entering a desperate time with the dawning of the eighteenth century. The church had become inconsequential in the affairs of mankind. Christians had become impotent; instituting little to change society. As the prophet Isaiah foretold, “darkness covered the earth and deep darkness the people…” (Isaiah 60:2).”

Enter George Whitefield, the “flame of fire” who preached 18,000 sermons to ten million hearers. George was born December 27, 1714, in Gloucester, England. His parents ran an Inn and Tavern called Bell’s Tavern. It was a gathering place for malcontents and highwaymen – robbers and pimps. (As a result) George was continually around lying, thievery, gambling, and cursing.

As a young man, Whitefield attended Oxford University in England. Here he met a group of students called the “Holy Club” and his life was changed forever. This small group was led by two brothers, John and Charles Wesley. After years of study Whitefield was ordained an Anglican Minster. Meeting other ministers and speaking in churches, he came to the realization that the religion of his day did not address the inner needs of people. In much of the Anglican Church, there was no teaching on having a personal relationship with Jesus. As he was searching for answers, he came upon Henry Scougal’s work, “The Life of God and the Soul of Man.” What he read shook him to the core. Afterward, he wrote the following in his journal: God showed me that I must be born again or be damned! I learned a man may go to church, say his prayers, receive the sacraments, and yet not be a Christian. Shall I burn this book? Shall I throw it down? Or shall I search it? I did search it; and…addressed the God of Heaven and earth.”

Whitefiled began to pray, “Lord, if I am not a Christian, or if I am not a real one, for Jesus Christ’s sake show me what Christianity is that I may not be damned at last.” This was a sincere prayer that defined the rest of his life. Whitefield became desperate for intimacy with the Living God. Casting the world and self aside, he ran toward his Savior in a hungry search for complete conversion.”

Jonathan Edwards and the Great Awakening

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George Whitefield preached at Jonathan Edwards’ church in Northampton. Many were reminded of the revival they had experienced just a few years earlier. Edwards (1703-1758) was so deeply touched, he wept through the entire service, as did much of his congregation. Shortly thereafter, Edwards preached what would become his most famous sermon: “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”

Here is an excerpt of that famous message: The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked. His wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire. He is of purer eyes than to bear you in his sight; you are ten thousand times as abominable in his eyes as the most hateful, venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince, and yet it is nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment. It is to be ascribed to nothing else that you did not got to hell the last night; that you were suffered to awake again in this world, after you closed your eyes to sleep. And there is no other reason to be given why you have not dropped into hell since you arose in the morning, but that God’s hand has held you up. There is no other reason to be given why you have not gone to hell since you have sat here in the house of God provoking his pure eye by your sinful, wicked manner of attending his solemn worship. Yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you do not this very moment drop down into hell. 

Reverend Stephen Williams was in attendance at the Enfield sermon, with his diary entry for that day containing the following account of the congregation’s reactions during and after the sermon: [B]efore the sermon was done there was a great moaning and crying out through the whole house — “What shall I do to be saved?” “Oh, I am going to hell!” “Oh what shall I do for a Christ?” and so forth — so that the minister was obliged to desist. [The] shrieks and cries were piercing and amazing.

Interestingly enough, “fire and brimstone was not at all indicative of Edwards’ preaching. Most of his sermon’s were focused on God’s beauty and love. Personally, Edwards was a sensitive individual with a soft, tender voice, who meticulously read his sermons. Unlike Whitefield, Edwards was not a powerful preacher, but he was a powerful prayer who often spent days and weeks in prayer, sometimes devoting up to eighteen hours in prayer before delivering a single sermon. The result was a revival that transformed not only a community but an entire nation.”

The Great Awakening

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Pentecost to the Present – Book Two Reformations and Awakenings, Jeff Oliver: “Finally, in 1733, a revival broke out at Jonathan Edwards’ church in Northampton. During one six-month period in 1734, nearly 300 new converts had joined his church. In 1735, he wrote, ‘The town seemed to be full of the Presence of God…There was scarcely a single person in the town, old or young, left unconcerned about the great things of the eternal world.’ The revival featured many miraculous and ecstatic manifestations of the Holy Spirit, which some critics used to try to denounce the revival. This included outbreaks of laughter during the services; some experienced visions or ‘impressions’ and others fell into trances or ‘faintings,’ as Edwards called them. he said, ‘There were some instances of persons lying in a sort of trance, remaining perhaps for twenty-four hours motionless, and with their senses locked up; but in the mean time under strong imaginations, as though they went to heaven and had there visions of glorious and delightful objects.’

A History of the Jerks: Bodily Exercises and the Great Revival

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Douglas Winiarski, University of Richmond, April 9, 2018 writes: Between 1799 and 1805, the backcountry settlements of the early American frontier blazed with religious excitement. From western Pennsylvania to northern Georgia, middle Tennessee to the Carolina piedmont—but especially in the Bluegrass Country of Ohio—tens of thousands of frontier settlers gathered for multi-day, open-air religious meetings in which teams of Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian ministers preached from morning until late at night. Ministers claimed to have converted thousands at camp meetings during the first decade of the nineteenth century. From innovations in theology and hymnody to church organization and denominational proliferation, the Great Revival played a decisive role in the development of early American evangelicalism and the southern Bible Belt.  The revivals also stimulated the development of innovative new religious practices known collectively as the “bodily exercises.” Men and women in the throes of conversion collapsed to the ground, then rose up and began dancing. Others lay insensate for hours, enraptured with dramatic visions of heaven and hell. Camp meeting participants barked liked dogs, scampered up trees, engaged in trance walking, ran headlong through the woods, faced off in mock boxing matches, and burst into uncontrolled peals of holy laughter. Observers witnessed people speaking in unknown tongues and claimed to have heard music issuing miraculously from the chests of young converts.

A History of the Jerks: Bodily Exercises and the Great Revival

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Douglas Winiarski: Of the various somatic religious exercises that spread across the trans-Appalachian frontier and southern backcountry during the Great Revival, none drew more astonished commentary or more virulent opposition than “the jerks”: involuntary convulsions in which the subjects’ heads lashed violently backward and forward. More than half a century before the derisive phrase holy roller was coined to describe the ecstatic worship practices of Holiness and Pentecostal evangelicals in Appalachia, the subjects of these extraordinary bodily fits were known as “Jerkers.” Sometimes these spasmodic “shuddering” gesticulations of neck and head “operated like the hickups.” Other accounts described jerkers bouncing from “place to place like a foot-ball” or thrashing like a “fish, when thrown out of the water.” The “wondrous quickness” with which their necks pivoted back and forth reminded one observer of a “flail in the hands of a thresher.” The jerks purportedly struck riders on horseback, men plowing in the fields, boys at their school desks, young girls drinking tea, families at supper, people in bed, musicians at play, and nursing mothers. They erupted without warning and without regard to age, class, gender, or physical constitution. Pious saints and notorious sinners were “taken,” “seized,” or “attacked” by the jerks, which were often propagated from person to person like a “sympathetic contagion.” Witnesses recounted stories of the jerkers’ preternatural strength: diminutive women hurling 200-pound men to the ground; floundering men leaving imprints of their knuckles on the massive timber walls of pioneer log churches. Samuel Doak’s congregants near Jonesborough, Tennessee, even cut saplings in the woods surrounding their meetinghouse for use as “jerking-posts” to steady the afflicted.

Great Stirrings in America

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Pentecost to the Present – Book Two Reformations and Awakenings, Jeff Oliver: By the 1670’s, New England Puritan leaders began calling out for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit to revive their languishing churches. Samuel Torrey, pastor at Weymouth, Massachusetts, began raising doubts as to whether the churches’ reform efforts were even possible without an effusion of the Holy Spirit and proactive prayer for revival. In 1705, Samuel Danforth, Jr. wrote: ‘We are much encouraged by an unusual and amazing Impression, made by God’s Spirit on all Sorts among us, especially on the young Men and Women.’ Danforth said he had no time for his regular pastoral duties because of constant visits from young people seeking salvation and believed it to be a sign of greater things to come. He said, ‘I think sometimes that the Time of the pouring out of the Spirit upon all Flesh, may be at the Door.’ In 1713, Solomon Stoddard of Northampton, Massachusetts, grandfather of Jonathan Edwards, wrote, ‘The Spirit of the Lord must be poured out upon the People, else Religion will not revive.’ He believed seasons of revival characterized by special outpourings of the Spirit were necessary to quicken believers’ faith, convert sinners, and make disinterested people interested in the things of God. In 1721, Samuel Whiting’s church in Windham (now Maine) saw eighty new people join the church in six months. Observing this, another minister wrote, ‘Pray that the Spirit may be poured out from on High on every part of the land.’ Then in 1727, an earthquake rocked New England. Suddenly churches everywhere were being filled with anxious people seeking salvation as church leaders began wondering if this was not the nature of all revivals to happen suddenly and unexpectedly. Revival did ensue but not for long.

Carnival of Preachers and Informal Prayer

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Pentecost to the Present – Book Two: Reformations and Awakenings: “One remarkable feature of the early camp meetings was the informal prayer groups that formed between the regular meetings. In these prayer groups, any man, woman, child, white or black, educated or not, could spontaneously exhort anyone within hearing distance. This earned the camp meeting its unofficial title ‘a carnival of preachers.’ In the regular meetings, Presbyterian, Baptist, and Methodist preachers took turns speaking as camp meetings were attended by all denominations, and all denominations experienced their fruit. In Kentucky alone between 1800 and 1803, the Baptists added 10,000 to their rolls, while the Methodists added 40,000. Peter Cartwright, an original convert of the Cane Ridge revival, wrote, ‘The work went on and spread almost in every direction gathering additional force till our country seemed all coming to God.‘”

Cane Ridge Revival Spreads

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Pentecost to the Present – Book Two: Reformations and Awakenings: From Kentucky, the camp meetings soon spread into Tennessee, West Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and throughout the South. Some were as wild as the frontier itself. In North Carolina, yet another Presbyterian congregation held a similar series of meetings in 1801 in anticipation of revival, but nothing happened. Sorely disappointed, the pastor rose to conclude the last meeting when someone from the audience stood and shouted, ‘Stand still and see the salvation of God!’ Immediately, ‘a wave of emotion swept over the congregation like an electric shock.’ The physical manifestations and speaking in tongues reportedly made it ‘like the day of Pentecost and none was careless or indifferent.’ One University of Georgia student told of a meeting in which “they swooned away and lay for hours in the straw prepared for those ‘smitten of the Lord,’ or they started to flee away and fell prostrate as if shot down by a sniper, or they took suddenly to jerking with apparently every muscle in their body until it seemed they would be torn to pieces or converted into marble, or they shouted and talked in unknown tongues.’

Birthing of the American Camp Meeting and the Cane Ridge Revival

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Pentecost to the Present – Book Two: Reformations and Awakenings, Jeff Oliver: “When McGready announced a similar meeting at his Gasper River Church in July, the response was overwhelming. Some came from as far away as a hundred miles, bringing their tents with them. The crowds grew so large they had to clear some underbrush near the church, build a pulpit, and set up log seats outdoors. The American camp meeting was born. Services lasted well into the night. When McGee preached that Sunday night, the Spirit again fell, and many who were seeking God were slain followed by cries and shouts of joy that seemed to drown out the preaching. In 1801, Barton W. Stone (1772-1844), another Presbyterian pastor, who attended the Red River meetings, decided to use McGready’s principles to start a series of meetings near his church in Cane Ridge, Kentucky. Crowd estimates were reported between 15,000 and 20,000. One minister who was present reported 3,000 slain in the Spirit at once with others breaking into loud laughter and still others running, shouting, barking like dogs, and making other strange sounds. One eyewitness reported, ‘The noise was like the roar of Niagara. The vast sea of human beings seemed to be agitated as if by a storm. Some of the people were singing, others praying, some crying for mercy in the most precious accents, while others shouted vociferously. A strange supernatural power seemed to pervade the entire mass of mind there collected…At one time I saw at least five hundred, swept down in a moment as if a battery of a thousand guns had been opened upon them, and then immediately followed shrieks and shouts that rent the very heavens.’

Birthing of the American Camp Meeting and the Cane Ridge Revival

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Pentecost to the Present: Book Two – Reformations and Awakenings, Jeff Oliver: “In 1796, James McGready (1763-1817), a Presbyterian pastor of three small churches in Kentucky, led his congregations to sign a covenant to pray every Saturday and Sunday morning and to devote the third Saturday of each month to prayer and fasting for revival. Three years later, McGready invited some other denominational ministers to join him at their annual Communion gathering at the Red River Church when the power of God came down. The following summer, they returned on the weekend of June 21-23, 1800, when the Presence of the Spirit became so intense the congregation was reduced to tears. On the third and final day of meetings, the Spirit again lingered. John McGee, one of the Methodist ministers started weeping and others soon followed. McGee then stood up and exhorted the crowd. Several women began shouting, and one in particular shouted above the others. McGee left the pulpit to go to her, but several warned him that the Presbyterians liked order. McGee described what happened as he headed toward the pulpit: ‘I turned to go back and was near falling; the Power of God was so strong upon me. I turned again and, losing sight of the fear of man, I went through the house shouting and exhorting with all possible ecstasy and energy, and the floor was soon covered by the slain.’

Jubilation!?

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Jeff Oliver, Pentecost to the Present: “In Augustine’s Homilies on the First Epistle of John, he repeatedly suggested that tongues had “passed away.” In a time when baptism had been largely reduced to the ceremonial sprinkling of infants, he even poked fun at speaking in tongues. Yet in his Expositions on the Psalms, Augustine spoke of a Christian phenomenon called jubilation, which he described as unpremeditated, incoherent singing that sounded much like modern-day sung glossolalia or singing in tongues: Words cannot express the things that are sung by the heart. Take the case of people singing while harvesting in the fields or in the vineyards or when any other strenuous work is in progress. Although they begin by giving expression to their happiness in sung words, yet shortly there is a change. As if so happy that words can no longer express what they feel, they discard the restricting syllables. They burst into a simple sound of joy; of jubilation. Such a cry of joy is a sound signifying that the heart is bringing birth to what it cannot utter in words. Now who is more worthy of such a cry of jubilation than God Himself, whom all words fail to describe? If words will not serve, and yet you must not remain silent, what else can you do but cry out for joy? Your heart must rejoice beyond words, that your unbounded joy may be unrestrained by syllabic bonds.

At one point Augustine argued that the witness of the Spirit’s Presence was no longer given by miracles but by the love of God in one’s heart for the church. Then as supernatural healings began occurring in public services in his own church and in his own time, and as he began to see and experience miracles in his own life and in the lives of others, his views progressed. In one of Augustine’s later and best known works, the City of God, he wrote: “Even now, therefore miracles are wrought, the same God who wrought those we read of still performing them, by whom He will and as He will.”

Should we be surprised? 1 Corinthians 14:15 Then what am I to do? I will pray with my spirit [by the Holy Spirit that is within me], but I will also pray [intelligently] with my mind and understanding; I will sing with my spirit [by the Holy Spirit that is within me], but I will sing [intelligently] with my mind and understanding also.

The Wind Blows Where It Wishes

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John 3:8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Exodus 1:8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.

Regarding the manifestations of the Spirit, from Genesis to our present age, we are in many ways like the new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph. Often we behave as children scooping up the oceans sand in a pail hoping to bring an ocean home, or as Bobby Conner once stated, “We are too familiar with an unfamiliar God” – (“God in a box” theology void of experiential reality). We become champions of our intelligence missing the glaring fact that it was this very “mountain” that Jesus chose to drive His Cross through.

Jeff Oliver, in Pentecost To The Present, Book One: Early Prophetic and Spiritual Gifts Movements states: So this question begs an answer: If these supernatural gifts never left the Church and if the Holy Spirit has been active throughout Church history, working through each generation to build Christ’s Church since the day of Pentecost, why haven’t we heard more about such activity?

Certainly, nothing in the Gospels or Acts indicated that signs and wonders would cease or that the Spirit of God would become passive or dormant. Indeed, the very notion of an inactive Holy Spirit contradicts everything the Bible teaches about His nature and character. This is like saying the wind hasn’t blown in over two thousand years!….The reasons for the relative historical silence are many, but a few are cited below:

  1. Sometimes historical records can be sketchy at best. Objects close in proximity – whether of space or time – are more easily discerned than objects far off….Today modern archaeology and the Information Age are rewriting history every day. Have you ever heard the term “Dark Ages”? This term was once used to describe a period of alleged intellectual and cultural darkness between the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of the Renaissance (AD 500 – 1300), but starting in the nineteenth century an increased recognition of the accomplishments of that period led to a more restrictive use of the term. By the twentieth century, the term had been further narrowed until most modern scholars finally stopped using it altogether, finding the term false and misleading. In other words, there never really was a “Dark Ages.”
  2. It is not possible to record every miracle or event as it occurs, especially in times of spiritual fervor. Journalists are familiar with the inverted pyramid. Essentially, all important information is placed at the top of a story to capture readers’ interest while all remaining information, for the sake of time and space, is reported in descending order of importance. Likewise when the Spirit of God moved throughout history, it was not always practical or even possible to record every event as it happened.
  3. Until the twentieth century, many of the firsthand participants in spiritual revivals were largely illiterate….Even most early accounts of the twentieth-century Pentecostal movement were written by non-Pentecostals since many early Pentecostals could neither read nor write. Similarly, most information coming from Early and Middle Ages came from church fathers who were among the relatively few who could read and write….Likewise, many early accounts of the Spirit’s activities in the Church are secondhand and often from hostile witnesses. Consider this expose’ written about an historical Christian sect from a previous century: Devotees of the weird doctrine practice the most fanatical rites, preach the wildest theories and work themselves into a state of mad excitement in their peculiar zeal….Night is made hideous in the neighborhood by the howling of worshippers, who spend hours swaying back and forth in a nerve-racking attitude of prayer and supplication. They claim to have the gift of tongues and to be able to comprehend the babel. – This excerpt was printed in the Los Angeles Times on April 18, 1906, regarding a “tumble-down shack on Azusa Street” – essentially, the foundation of modern Pentecostalism. 
  4. It is simply human nature to take what we hear at face value, relying on conventional wisdom and prevailing thought for correctness. Few follow the Berean practice of searching the Scriptures daily to verify whether what is said is so….Horace Bushnell, a graduate of Yale during America’s Second Great Awakening, in one of the earliest known works on Continuationism (1858), provided an impetus for this series: It is very commonly assumed and has been since the days of Chrysostom, that miracles and all similar externalities of divine power have been discontinued….The Christian world has been gravitating, visibly, more and more, toward this vanishing point of faith, for whole centuries, and especially since the modern era of science began to shape the thoughts of men by only scientific methods. Religion has fallen into the domain of the mere understanding, and so it has become a kind of wisdom not to believe much, therefore to expect little.