REVIVALTALK

  Hebrews 12:29 – “For our God is a consuming fire.” The Passion Translation says, “For our God is a holy devouring fire.” When God appears it is usually associated with fire. The fire represents God’s presence. Moses encountered the fire of God’s presence on the mountain in the wilderness.  Exodus 3:2 says, “ 2  And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. ” In Genesis 15:17 God appeared to Abraham as a flaming torch. In Exodus 16 He appeared to Israel as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.  This pillar of fire had a two-fold purpose.  First, it provided heat for the cold nights in the wilderness. Second, it provided light in the darkness.  The presence of God will warm you in a harsh cold world. John 16:33 says, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace...

  Luke 1:37 - “For with God nothing will be impossible.” There is a popular phrase people are posting on social media, printing on t-shirts, and even face masks: “Faith over Fear.” We are living in fearful times. Fear is one of the devil’s favorite tools.   As believers, we do not have to be afraid. II Timothy 1:7 says, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind.”   How do we navigate fearful times? We learn to stand on God’s Word in faith.   Mark 11:22-24 says, “Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be removed and be cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” The Apostle Paul wrote these encouraging words in Ephesians 6:10-18 to prepare us to war with our faith. “Final...

  Ezekiel 37:1 – “The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones.”       God takes the Prophet Ezekiel and sets him down into a valley filled with bones.   Ezekiel 37:2 says, “Then he caused me to pass by them all around, and behold there were very many in the open valley, and indeed they were very dry.” This valley was filled with death. There was no life, only dry bones.   It is a valley of impossibilities. It is a valley of hopelessness. In Ezekiel 37:3 the Lord asks the prophet a question, “Son of man, can these bones live?” Can these dry bones be reanimated and live again? The prophet answers the Lord in Ezekiel 37:3, “So I answered, ‘O Lord God, You know.’”   The New Living Translation says , “you alone know the answer to that.”   Like Ezekiel, we are standing in a valley of impossibilities. The Lord is asking the same question of us t...

  Psalms 26:7  - “That I may publish (proclaim) with voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works.” We are entering into a season of praise and thanksgiving.  In the coming days we will gather with our families and friends to celebrate Thanksgiving.  People will travel great distances to gather around the table and share a meal of thanksgiving.  This is a wonderful holiday and we should enjoy our time with family and friends.   Worship involves a number of elements.  Two elements that are closely related are thanksgiving and praise. Though they are similar there are differences.  Praise is a powerful weapon to be used against the enemy of our soul in spiritual warfare.  Praise nourishes the soul, prepares the heart to become pure, and builds us up in faith.  The twin sister of praise is thanksgiving.  These two elements of prayer look alike, perform alike and come from the sa...

  II Chronicles 29:36 – “Then Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced that God had prepared the people, since the events took place so suddenly.   When I was a young boy growing up my dad bought my mom a very nice 1969 Chevrolet Caprice.   It was silver with a dark vinyl top.   I remember it being a sporty car with a powerful engine.   One of the things that I remember is my father talking about the car having a passing gear.   A passing gear is a gear in an automatic transmission that shifts to a lower gear to provide an extra burst of power to pass slower cars on the highway. The driver activates it when the gas pedal is sharply depressed.   When the gas pedal is released the car will return to normal driving. We are entering into a time of rapid acceleration. God is going to allow us to accomplish His purposes at an accelerated pace.   In II Chronicles we learn that King Hezekiah cleansed the temple and restored true worship.   In verse...

  Matthew 6:10 – “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We are entering into a kingdom reset.   We are experiencing a paradigm shift.   In Luke 12:32 Jesus said, “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Reset is defined as “to set again, or to set, adjust, or fix in a new or different way.” When we reset our computers or smartphones it is to restore them to their factory settings.   God is resetting the church to restore us to our original purpose. God is restoring us to pure worship. He is calling us back to His original blueprint in Matthew 21:13, a house of prayer. Many things around us are changing. There will be no going back to what we have known as normal. Things are going to be very different.   How do we navigate these changes?   At the beginning of 2020 I wrote the following words: “We are entering into a new kingdom era.   We are in unchartered territory. ...

Joshua 3:5 - “And Joshua said to the people, “Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.”  Joshua 3:4 in the New Living Translation reads, Then Joshua told the people, “Purify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do great wonders among you.” The world is enamored with power. In the Body of Christ, we recognize that purity is the prerequisite to power. Joshua’s instructions to the children of Israel were to purify themselves in preparation for crossing over into their promised inheritance.   Verse 4 says, “for tomorrow the Lord will do great wonders among you.”   As Spirit-filled believers, we believe in the nine manifestation gifts of the Spirit as defined in 1 Corinthians 12, and we desire to see them in operation in our services, prayer gatherings, and individual lives.   We define these gifts as power encounters. These power encounters are life-changing.   In Galatians 5:22-23, we are introduced ...