Welcome to visit my Site.
Allan Svensson, Sweden
http://www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/INDEX.HTM

Why does the revival tarry? It is because God's
people tarry to obey the powerful command of
the Lord in Rev. 18:4. This is the most powerful
revival message of the Lord to his people in our time.

As in the days of Lot, it is now. Lot was not interested
to leave Sodom. God sent two angels to rescue him,
and they must persuade him to leave Sodom. When
he yet lingered, one of the angels said to him:
"Flee for your life sake …"
Just like as Lot, God's people are not interested to
leave the great Babylon, but finally they must flee
for their life from there.
http://www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/PAGE88.HTM

My two eldest sons wanted to take me for my 50th and when the third son who was 17 wanted to join us, we were told no. Alas, we put off the event until he was 18, and it has never happened due to scheduling. Sigh. The controlled lives we lead according to schedules!! E-mail me or drop by my blog and we’ll schedule a time to tip.

I certainly know what it means to be an adventure junkie. Both of my kids have me roped into skydiving for their 16th birthdays. Tab is petrified, but I am already making a daily countdown chain for the next 870 days (sigh…). The thing that I have learned about those ecstatic experiences is that they do serve to not only as a high, but a great opportunity to go deeper relationally with God. That means heart, soul, mind and strength. Feelings are stronger than thoughts, though seldom as enduring. Contemplation has become something that is deeply meaningful in both intellectual and emotive spheres for my journey. I do not begrudge anyone an intimate encounter with God. I greatly desire that more folks would have them and not merely let them fade but use them as catalyst for going deeper into relationship instead of merely letting them be a temporary “high”. They really are just a taste of the feast that is available for us. Here is to hope and prayer for depth as well as height! (Too bad we can’t all tip a pint to it together). Perhaps we can take one in soon.

I hear a caution against blanket rejection of manisfestations attributed to God, but rather examining the fruit. I also heard an appeal for holiness that lasts. Yours is a wise word on how to deal with the “mountain top”.

In reading accounts of the Great Awakening and subsequent other noted moves of the Holy Spirit, the Welsh revival about one hundred years ago and the Azusa Street Revival come to mind, I am aware of stories of fruit. These stories validate the movement. Is the concurrent emotionalism validated as well?.

I do not question movements per se, but in searching for the lasting fruit, I think some analysis is necessary. What is this emotional fervor all about? In addition to joy over those who find themselves set free from whatever as a result, I see other dynamics that need to named and understood.

First, it never surprises me when any group breaks away from a culturally mandated decorum surrounding a “religious” gathering and in a mountain-high moment of expression before a loving and accepting Father, there results extreme levels of emoting. As recounted in the case of the Great Awakening, the emoting began as wails of repentance. Other phenomena of swooning and uncontrollable shaking followed in later meetings. (This may or may not be a fair accounting, but so I am remembering.) I think individuals who have unknowingly moved into a self-righteousness over their religious practice, are often stunned by the level of love they feel flooding their souls when that lie is undone in the Presence of Jesus. People’s behavior in such moments is extreme, expected, and to be accepted.

Such moments of being undone are not restricted to gatherings, an individual can have such a moment in a prayer closet; but the atmosphere of the traditional “revival” and in today’s jargon “renewal” is fertile ground indeed. If everyone around is acting as if their finger has just been jammed into a wall socket, it is all the safer to “manifest” and in the loss of the culturally controlled behavior modes find one’s soul flooded with life. Is God in this kind of atmosphere? Why would He not be?

Second, our culture is awash in pushing the limits for the “next level” experience. When people have not come to grips with the futility of life as described in Ecclesiastes, the next level experience is often perceived as needed for “real” satisfaction in life. Extreme sports, extreme cruises, extreme consumption, extreme rhetoric in politics and religion are all examples of this “I want more” mentality. Is it not possible that as a function of a spirit of this age, when this desire for more satisfaction meets a charismatic leader with an alluring word, we regard extreme manifestations as evidence of God’s Presence and blessing?
Is God in this, as well? Level-headness like yours demands that fruit be the measure. Agreed.

However, people always seek what is in their heart and will find the same. Thus within a meeting where “freedom” has busted loose, some walk away changed while others sink back into the same old way of being once the high has worn off. Those who are changed, are so, because faith in what the Bible reveals, the reality of the in-dwelling Spirit of Jesus, has been established in them. The warning is that believers realize God is not in any man’s teaching over another or in the significant “move” of the Holy Spirit within the group setting and thus not available to the one being humble and honest in the private prayer vigil. In fact, some teaching and subsequent “moves” of God rely on man rather than the spirit of the living God. Herein is the danger.

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. I am totally impure, and therefore, it hopeless I will ever see God. Except! that Jesus’ righteousness stands in my place and thus opens the vision of my heart. When Christians know this reality, the constant seeking for the next level of God is over.
He is new every morning.

Because people I respect have attended and feel that God was there (without buying into the hype), and because I don’t want to discount people genuinely being touched…I wouldn’t want to denounce it. Let’s just say I’m wary. At any rate, I’m looking for Jesus in another direction myself.

I posted a few times about this, if you want to check them:

Jaded? Or Just Hungry for More?
Why God Shows Up Where We Don’t Think He Ought To
Discussions of Lakeland Revival…