Refocusing on Revival

It’s time to return to the original purpose of this blog. I apologize for the digressions of recent months. Let’s talk about revival!

Several years ago I attended Randy Clark’s School of Healing and Impartation at Washington Crossing United Methodist Church in Pennsylvania. While I was there, Pastor Scott McDermott prayed over me twice, on different days. Both times he used the words, “Ezekiel anointing.”

I took it as a word from the Lord. When I returned home, I re-read the book of Ezekiel, looking specifically for what God might have been saying to me through Scott. Here’s what I gleaned from it. It has come to form the basis of my understanding of revival.

Through a strange and unforgettable vision, God calls Ezekiel to go to his own people, those whose language he understands. God tells Ezekiel that though many will not listen, he must persevere in his message: warning people of God’s righteousness and judgment while encouraging them about God’s grace and promise of restoration. Ezekiel does this through a series of speeches and memorable prophetic actions.

In chapter 37 the story shifts to a series of visions, beginning with the famous valley of dry bones. As Ezekiel speaks God’s message over the bones – the same message of righteousness, judgment, grace and restoration – the power of the Holy Spirit brings them to life and forms them into a vast army.

The scene shifts again. This time Ezekiel sees a vision of God’s temple – not the stone temple which lay in ruins in Jerusalem, but the ideal which the stone temple was intended to represent: the dwelling place of God. From the temple flows a stream of water. As Ezekiel follows the stream farther from the temple, it becomes deeper and wider, and trees grow along the riverbank, with healing power in their leaves.

The New Testament uses the images of army and temple in referring to Christians. In other words, Ezekiel’s visions are pictures of the church.

More than that, these visions are pictures of what God wants each local church to be, at least in part. The farther Ezekiel got from the temple, the wider and deeper the river got. Water must have been flowing in from other sources. The only source of Holy Spirit water is Christians, whom Jesus said are to be fountains of living water. So the increasing size of the river speaks of the varied contributions of all the different local churches flowing together into one great river of life.

Taking this all together, I condensed it into what I believe is God’s personal mission statement for me: to go to my own people, whose language I understand, and, regardless of their response, to faithfully proclaim through word and action God’s message of righteousness and judgment, grace and restoration, prophesying the Holy Spirit over the dry bones to form them into a dwelling place for the manifest presence of God and a source of the river of living water that brings healing to the nations.

The people of Annapolis are certainly my own people. I grew up in the area. I don’t believe God is calling me to try to organize some big revival movement. But neither do I believe that God has called me to focus on building my own little local church empire. You can’t dam up living water. You can’t catch it all in a cistern inside the temple and keep it for yourself. The purpose of the river living water is to bring life and healing to all those who are outside the walls.

So that’s what I hope to focus on in this blog from now on. I appreciate your prayers and your comments.