Refreshing, Renewal, Revival, Restoration & Apostolic Reformation

Refreshing, Renewal, Restoration, Apostolic Reformation & Revival

The heart of the Church is throbbing in eager anticipation of the final explosive spiritual awakening that is on a collision course toward planet earth.

A current of refreshing and renewal is presently serving to strengthen the pillars of the Church that they will be able to withstand the shaking of the stampede of multitudes that will soon storm our assemblies---multitudes starving for the spiritual substance that can only be supplied by a vibrant Church pulsating with life.

It has been observed that refreshing/renewal touches the church, where as revival affects the unchurched.

The common thread between refreshing/renewal and revival is that all are accompanied by repentance:

[Tit 3:5] - "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost." Referring to repentance unto salvation.

[Acts 3:19] - "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord."

[Isa 57:15] - "For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones."

In America, it is to the chagrin of the non-denominational churches that renewal and refreshing seems to have especially visited certain local denominational churches. One would expect that the non-denominational spirit-filled churches might be the most likely recipients of a selective spiritual outpouring---but when we consider that God ultimately wants a reformed church, we can understand that He has visited churches with refreshing as a prelude for restoration and reform. The hearts of God's people must first be renewed that they might be open to the NEW thing the Lord is doing in the earth---the restoration of the apostle and prophet. In inserting these offices back into the universal church, God must do an operation that requires a body that has been strengthened by refreshing and renewal. The anemic body has to be first refreshed in order to endure the surgical knife of the Holy Spirit as He cuts away the dead flesh and inserts the apostolic element into His body. What more likely place to begin than the denominations? True repentance that accompanies renewal/refreshing must bring forth the fruit of repentance---which is obedience. If the refreshed churches don't submit to the next stages in God's progressive sequence, which are restoration and reform, they will not partake of the final revival.

The Lord's Glory was pleased to dwell in a tent-like tabernacle in the wilderness. When God's Glory Cloud moves, if we doggedly continue to camp on our former renewal/refreshing experiences we are in effect erecting a permanent edifice devoid of glory, while God's mobile tent is moving on without us into the Promised Land. Just as the Captain of the Hosts dwelt in a tent, the army of the Lord must be quick to pull up stakes and move with the God's Spiritual tide of changes, or we'll forever remain in the desert, content with a small stream of water from the Rock, when He offers us a deluge from Heaven and geysers from the depths.

God's House is a living, breathing Temple that must flex with every inhalation and exhalation of the Spirit. In order for His House to withstand the force of the future Spiritual Glory that will soon ingress and egress within it, the Church must be built on a foundation that will not fragment and fracture under stress. This Foundation of Knowledge, the revelatory Rock of personal intimacy with the Lord Jesus Christ, is laid by an apostolic and prophetic people. Its pillars are wisdom, its walls are salvation, and the Glory of the Spirit is its canopy. The temple's construction code is the perfect Law of Liberty, and its plumb-line is the Word of God.

Refreshing and renewal are a scant foretaste of revival. Refreshing and renewal activate a heart change that causes the recipients to seek the face of God in order to find the means through which revival can be consummated. In God's progressive sequence, refreshing and renewal must be followed by restoration and reformation, which in turn birth revival. Revival encompasses the things near and dear to God's heart that He suffered to purchase---salvation, miracles, healing, deliverance, and more abundant life.

The culmination of revival incites vicious persecution from the adversary, knowing that his time is short, which only serves to further cement the unity of the Church. While the anti-christ's ten toes of iron mixed with clay trample the Body of Christ on earth, the Church, as olive oil, is pressed into final accord; the Melchisedec anointing emanating from our Head, Jesus, flows down, saturating the hem of His garment, dripping upon all the ten toes of clay and oil, and the freshly anointed feet carry the Good News of the Kingdom to the ends of the earth, while the angel of the Lord declares the everlasting Gospel. Just as the beast with feet of iron bruised the saints, the God of Vengeance, wearing garments stained red, will return to trample the armies of the beast in the winepress of the Lord's wrath.

Just as there will be ten (5+5) toes of iron & clay coexisting in time with ten (5+5) toes of clay & oil, we are mindful of the parable of five virgins with oil and five without. Will all churches, perched on the edge of revival, dive into the river of the Oil of the Spirit flowing from the Throne of Grace, thereby receiving the vital oil into their clay vessels that will illuminate this world? or will some withdraw into garments of Babylonish armor letting their hearts become shrouded by the hard, black iron that crushes and tarnishes the hopes of a desperate populace?

The old wineskins of traditional church structures would surely explode with the pneumatic expansion of revival. The antique staves of existing granaries cannot contain the swelling harvest to come unless the barn is shored up with the fivefold pillars of the apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher.

David went forth armed with five smooth stones to slay Goliath. He only needed one stone to kill the giant, but if he had taken only one stone instead of five, he would have disobeyed the Lord, and he would have lost the victory. God has ordained the five proven, polished, time-worn rocks of mature fivefold ministry to lead the troops of the Lord against the hordes of demonic minions.

Elijah saw a tiny cloud like a man's hand and he knew its meaning---an outpouring was on the horizon. The king focused only on the insignificance size of the cloud, but the prophet had his spiritual eyes on the cloud of God's Glory and the God of the Glorious cloud which symbolized the plan. Pessimists ask, "What can this small crew of five men do?" These five representatives are the gatekeepers for the deluge from Heaven that is about to be unlocked. They are the hand at the end of the outstretched arm of the Lord:

The prophet (guide) is the forefinger--he points the way.
The evangelist (gatherer) is the long middle finger--his zeal makes him stand out.
The pastor (guard) is the ring finger--he is married to the church.
The teacher (grounder) is the little finger--he provides balance. Try standing on your hands without your pinky finger. The teacher cares about "dinky" details, the jots and tittles of the Spiritual Law of Liberty. For the want of a horse-shoe nail, the kingdom was lost.
The apostle (governor) is the thumb--as a mentor he touches all the other fivefold ministries. The apostle is the local head, and the anointing flows down from the head. It was not necessary for Moses to anoint all five of Aaron's fingers with the oil of consecration; Moses only anointed the thumb. The Lord knew the oil would spread from the thumb to the other fingers as they were brought together.

Through the laying on of the hands of the presbytery healing, deliverance, wisdom, and knowledge, and graces are imparted. Gifts and callings are revealed and confirmed. The fivefold ministers have a "hand" ministry, and because of it: "The hand of the Lord was with them ..." (Acts 11:21) and so God has ordained it to continue to be in today's church. The hand of the Lord is not short or weakened that He cannot do what He did in days gone by.

As the final outpouring of the Holy Ghost increases, the planting of the Lord, the Church, ripens on the Vine:

First, the fruits of the Spirit appear as buds, then the charismatic gifts of the Spirit burst into bloom, then the dorea gifts and callings of Jesus are established when the fruit is green; the foundational fivefold roots dig deep into the water of the Word bringing up nutrients that develop the meat of the mature fruit that will feed the nations. Jesus said, "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work." When God says, "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in Mine House," the real meat is not the material substance going into the house but the spiritual blessings that He promises to pour out on the House when we obey Him and His pattern---blessings which the House cannot contain--- "There shall not be room enough to receive it." "The plowman shall overtake the reaper."

The nature of the apostolic movement is life. Apostolic fathers beget Spiritually procreative apostolic sons and daughters. A prophetic people speak life to deathly circumstances. The Lord of Prophecy will soon breathe life into the valley of the dry dusty bones of tradition, apathy, paralysis, disintegration, confusion, and despair. Bone shall join to bone. Sinew shall come upon bones. Flesh upon sinew---and the body shall be newly covered in skin like that of a newborn babe.

An apostolic and prophetic people bring unity. Just as the body is joined bone to bone, the Lord shall likewise unite families; He shall join the stick of brother Ephraim with the stick of brother Judah; He shall unite Samaria with Judea; the Lord shall make the Jews jealous by means of the Gentiles, and two shall become one. Multitudes of Jews shall turn to their Messiah; they shall be grafted back into the root from whence they were broken off. They shall return to the Rock from whence they were hewn.

Jesus' human birth begin amidst the peaceful lowing of cattle and choruses of celestial angels. His life was terminated at Golgotha midst the sound of driving nails, clattering swords and shields, the jeers of Pharisees and the mocking of thieves during that eerie, gloomy twilight afternoon; the Father turned His back on His only begotten Son, and symbolically the sun withheld its rays from shining upon humanity. But we all know the end of the story. Glorification---He arose.

The excitement of refreshing, the exhilaration of revival, the restoration of honor to the fivefold, and the exaltation of the believers to the royal priesthood all are steps toward the final persecution of the Church.

A revived people know the True Source of Life, and are satisfied with nothing less. We'll not bow to the anti-christ's Nebucadnessar image. There is no fear of death in perfect love.

The orthodox Jew, who knows that he must not bow to graven images, will be inspired to accept Christ as Messiah, through the displayed boldness of the Church in the face of death. And so we all together will become the one true Spiritual Israel, and the Lord Jesus Christ will be ultimately glorified in His people, in accordance with the divine plan of the ages. (to Revival page)

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