“And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not.
And when this cometh to pass, (lo, it will come,) then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them. “ Ezekiel 33:31-33
That’s the word the Lord gave me yesterday. Scary, isn’t it? But that is what I am experiencing here in Cabo Verde.
Wherever I have preached this message on revival, congregations have responded with zeal. They have been desperate for a move of God and know intrinsically that the things they have been doing is not bringing revival to their church. They are so easily broken at the altar of repentance that you can literally feel the floodgates open from the Throne of God. What a joy it has been to bust through and see a church ignited with the fire of God!
But not so in Cabo Verde.
My message has centered around what I say are four steps to revival. The first step is to bring the realization that they do not have a revival right now and that their church is not experiencing the power that accompanies a real Holy Ghost revival. That is easy to do. All you have to do is ask them how many souls got saved last week. They get it. They’re a barren wife to God.
The second step is about getting an all-consuming desire for revival like Rachel’s cry to Jacob, “Give me souls lest I die!” It is also easy to make them realize that the price for revival is high, that it will cost them everything. In Africa, just tell them what they have to do and get out of the way — they are ready to do whatever it takes.
But here in Cabo Verde, they hear the message — and are excited — but although they want revival, they just can’t seem to grasp that they actually have to do something! Night after night, I am stuck on driving home the message that they need a burden for the lost more than the comfort of their weekly church services. They stare and blink, but it doesn’t go in. I have even taken them out into the streets to witness, but it only lasts while I am there with them.
I’ve told them about the Good Samaritan, the Great Commission, and the parable of the Great Banquet where the Lord commands us to go out into the streets and compel the lost to come in. I have shown them the command in Ezekiel 33 of the watchman on the wall to warn the people of the coming danger and that they would have the blood of those souls on their hands if they did not. I’ve explained 1 John 3:16 that the love of God is to lay down our lives for others. I’ve shown them how Jesus in John chapter 5 went to the Pool of Bethesda where the sick were while the “church people” were over at the Temple. I have brought forth this same message out of I don’t know how many passages until it is scaring me, never mind them!
But there is a wall that I cannot seem to break through. But isn’t this the same in America? So why am I surprised?
The core message has always been that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not about us – it is about others. It is about winning souls while there is still time. This is the core message of the Cross. Until we cry out for God to give us that kind of a burden for lost souls and repent for being a barren woman who has not brought forth children for our Bridegroom, God cannot and will not send a revival.
Revival is not about feeling good in exciting services and watching miracles performed – it is about winning souls. Everything else is just what accompanies it. When the altars are bare, so is your church. It is so simple: if you want revival, go out into the streets and get one! Bring in the lost and God will pour out His Spirit. If you don’t, neither will He.
But there is hope. In Philippians 2:13, the promise is that God will work in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Only God can break open the fallow ground of our hearts to drive that desire into us. When he does, the wheels of revival will begin to turn.
Like Nehemiah and Daniel, let us call out to God in deep repentance and beg Him to return to His people with forgiveness so that we can be restored to the glory that belongs to His Bride.
“Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations?
Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?
Shew us thy mercy, O LORD, and grant us thy salvation.” Psalms 85:5-7
Brother Dale, http://www.Revivalfire.org