“Practical steps that will revolutionize your Christian walk”

For many years now I have studied the accounts of past Revivals and Revivalists. This is what I am known for – writing and speaking on the subject of ‘Revival’. But when you study this topic, one of the things you see very quickly is that we in the church today are living well below the level of Christianity that should be considered ‘normal’. (-Even a lot of “Spirit-filled” believers today). When you see what kind of Gospel was preached and what kind of Christian life was lived in the Revival days of old, you start to hunger for that kind of Christianity again. And you start to see that there is a kind-of “Revived” life that is very attainable for us all today – but so few are walking in it – or are even told that it exists.

In many ways, what I am talking about is the ‘Normal’ Christian life. It is nothing else but the “new creation” life found in Romans chapters 6 – 8. There is nothing “amazing” about it at all. Yet it is so far above the kind of Christianity that we have been led to expect, that many think it “unattainable”. How very sad – because it is the free gift of God to us all.

Is it possible to walk before God in a constant state of being ‘clean’ before Him – and knowing it? Is it possible to walk with a totally pure heart and clean conscience as our “normal” state – every day?

Is it possible to live in true victory over sin – at a practical level? Is it possible to have the strongholds of sin and pride in our fallen nature so dealt-with that they hardly bother us at all?

The answer to these questions is ‘Yes’. And one of the key things that I want this website to be about, is how to come into this kind of Christianity – how to literally have a “personal Revival”.

THE STARTING PLACE – “REPENTANCE”

As all Scripture and Revival history shows – a true Revival begins with “Deep Repentance”. And in our personal lives, it so often begins with making a “list” – literally – of ANY sin or compromise or “cloud” that is in our life – and confessing those sins to God with real sorrow and repentance. Any person who cannot make a ‘LIST’ like that – and spend time confessing their sins before God (-And forsaking them!) – is not really serious about becoming ‘Revived’. This is the first place to start.

In fact, please stop reading this right now. Please find a piece of paper and write down a List of every sin or ‘doubtful’ thing in your life. Ask God to “shine His light” into your heart and show you everything that you need to repent of. Then simply get alone with Him and go through that List – repenting of each thing one by one – deeply confessing and forsaking them before the Lord.

I believe a lot of people will have a “Personal Revival” just through doing that! -In fact, I know of many people who have literally been ‘revived’ through this simple process. So please – DO IT NOW! This first step is so important that I do not believe there is any point reading further until you have gone through it.

THEN – “WALKING” IN IT

Now, after you have been through this Repentance process, what you are left with is a CLEAN CONSCIENCE. [-This is assuming that you have already been through the other basic steps found in Romans 6 - 8. ie. WATER-BAPTISM (-a "death" to the old life) and also RECEIVING THE HOLY SPIRIT (-without which we do not have the 'POWER' to walk in a truly 'Revived' state). Please see my other articles for more on these two steps if you need to].

Assuming that you have these basic things in place, and that you have now REPENTED DEEPLY by confessing your sins to God one by one, you should now sense a RENEWED COMMUNION with God through having a totally CLEAN CONSCIENCE before Him. Is that what you are sensing?

The Bible speaks many times of having a conscience that is “sprinkled clean” by God. -And what a precious thing that is! In fact, it is fair to say that the Christian life consists of- (1) Getting a clean conscience, and (2) Keeping it clean! -It is pretty much as simple as that!

So how do you “walk” in a ‘Revived’ state before God? -Simply by walking in a way that KEEPS YOUR CONSCIENCE CLEAN. That is what Romans 8 is all about! -That is what 1 John 3 is all about! -Keeping your heart PURE before God. -Getting a clean conscience and WALKING IN IT – by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Below I have compiled a number of testimonies from readers – telling about their experience of this continual “clean” state before God – and how it happened. Remember – this is a “GIFT” from God – and to experience it we MUST have His Spirit. The testimonies are below:

JASON WRITES:
As a word of encouragement, I have been screaming the message of deliverance from sin, freedom from bondage, and slavery to righteousness from Romans 5-8 for about the last five years.

The most common response is a list of reasons (actually, justifications) of why these verses simply CANNOT mean what they seem to mean. Another response is that simple “mystified” look – as when one cannot quite process what they have just been told. Still another sad response is that of sheer anger.

Nevertheless, “He is able to save to the uttermost.” The Book of Revelation declares that He has “freed us from our sins by His blood.” In yet another place we are told that we “died to sins that we might live for righteousness.”

MARY BELLE WRITES:
I just read your word, “My Experience of a CLEAN HEART”, and it is a word that the Body of Christ must hear. If we only lived out from Romans 6, our lives would be revolutionized. We are not living the “normal Christian life” because we don’t believe that it is obtainable except through struggle and trying to do our best.

Most of the believers in Christ have never walked or lived according to what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished on the Cross for us… We have lived the “sub-normal life” and believed it to be the truth. The lie of satan must be exposed and the Church of the Living God come into the complete fullness of who she really is.

TERRY WRITES:
I think your article is exactly right! In fact this has been a normal life for me. Whenever conviction arises I do something about it and return to that place of rest and freedom from sin. I don’t think there is any other kind of Christianity, unless a person is willing to live under conviction of sin and not do anything about it.

LINDA WRITES:
Many of these truths aren’t taught in a lot of churches… Not death to self, not the crucified life, and as you know – that’s where it all starts. Many don’t know who they are in Christ Jesus, have no idea we are Clean, Justified, released from our old nature to take on His nature.

JEFF WRITES:
The fact that so few experience this does not mean we should change the Gospel, so willfully sinning people can feel better about their relationship with God – so they can feel better than God wants them to. But I think we also need to give them the tools so they can live in Romans 8.

I attended an evangelical seminary for a year, hearing over and over about imputed righteousness, and almost nothing about actual, overcoming righteousness, and seeing hardly any.

In “Are You Walking in Romans 8?” you preached that we must have a pure white robe to be normal Christians and to enter heaven. Isn’t this what Jesus said in Revelation 3? But how many U.S. ‘Christians’ have heard this preached? No wonder the knee-jerk reaction that some will have when the Biblical standard for going to heaven is finally taught.

Jesus’ heart is grieved, and He wants us to speak out the truth, even if this offends some people and makes them uncomfortable. Smith Wigglesworth said, ~”I want to make people either mad or glad.” We must teach what Jesus requires, as well as how people can live in Romans 8; otherwise, millions who think they are Christians will be doomed.

I think the most radical difference between overcoming-you and the undercoming majority is your statement: “God gave me a true ‘fear of the Lord’ from the start, and a deep repentance where I literally went right through my life and repented of everything I could find that was not godly.”

This happened to me, also, over 30 years ago…. I had a healthy fear of the Lord. If the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, how can the church make right decisions about many things if they don¹t even have the beginning of wisdom. Satan has taken the fear of the Lord from the American church, and the ‘church’ is mostly not really Jesus’ going-to-heaven church.

We will see the prophesied revival which will just be a group of people who are living as true going-to-heaven Christians. Then the world will know.

That’s my opinion. I would love to share more, regarding what will help the church truly overcome, including how God told me I was in danger of going to hell when I was willfully lusting, and how He told me to live in the kingdom with my whole heart, not just my head, which I¹ve found is a huge key to overcoming sin.

The heart is much more than a pump. It¹s the deepest center of our emotions. Andrew, you talk a lot about having a pure heart. I believe that Jesus means this literally. He says we are not to look at a woman with lust in our heart, and that we need to do whatever we need to in order to not do this and be able to go to heaven. He says we are to forgive everyone from our hearts, otherwise the tormentors have a right to mess with us. Jesus says we are to love God with our whole heart, not just our heads, or even with part of our heart. Why do lovers say, “I love you from the bottom of my heart?” Why does the Bible speak of the heart about 1,000 times?

I think one of the biggest keys you¹ve learned is to keep your heart pure, not just your head. But most Americans don¹t understand this concept. Most pastors don’t understand this, yet it’s the first part of the greatest commandment.

The ‘church’ must repent, and we need to speak what the Holy Spirit is putting on our hearts to speak. Then we will be one, not just a few of us, but many. It will be so awesome!!! We will see it if we don¹t give up.

JAEL WRITES:
I, and many others walk in what I call ‘righteousness conciousness’ daily. As for my walk, I keep in communion with my Heavenly Father at all times, making corrections and receiving forgiveness as necessary, but staying in His presence always. He shows me where to correct, where to re-examine myself, when I need to repent in order to stay in this blessed state. This should not come as a major upset to anyone. Isn’t this how Christianity is supposed to be? As far as I can see, this is the only way to live… the only way I’d ever WANT to live. We are new creations… as it says in another translation…”we are a new species of being, that never existed before.” Humans with God inside. Hallelujah!! I say we should live in the light, as children of the light.

TENNEY WRITES:
I loved your essay on walking in cleanness. I too experience a daily walk with the Lord wherein I do not find myself having to repent all the time. Some things are SETTLED! I was delighted to hear your story, because I agree, there should be more of this easy wonderful walk with God.

KATRINA WRITES:
At one time in my life I was an alcoholic, drug-addicted prostitute. I was arrested and in jail when I made a complete and total surrender to the Lord. He put me in Romans, Chapters 5-8 for about 3 months continuous study and prayer. When I left that jail at the end of six months I was a set free captive! Today, six years later, I walk as a new creation that Jesus Christ has made me! I serve as housemother/counselor in a women’s ministry for ladies coming out of addiction and sin and turning to the Lord for that victory. I agree with everything that you have “preached”! After all, “whom the Son sets free, is free indeed!”

BRAD WRITES:
Years ago after a wonderful meeting with the Lord in prayer one night my faith was ignited and my wife would say I went from a 1 to a 10 overnight in my relationship with God. I often shared my faith with other believers who were constantly contending with my new faith. One day I was reading thru Romans because of some contention about the Holy Spirit. I knelt down to talk to God and He spoke to me and asked me “What do you see?” and I said I see that I don’t have to sin any more, and He said to me “That’s what I wanted you to see”. Our Baptism into His death and raised into His new life should not be contaminated with unbelief or arguments of “I can’t stop sinning, it’s too hard”. These are lies that are contrary to the truth. I never knew before that moment that I was freed from sin through Baptism (Romans ch 6). That lack of truth in my life was a source of great struggles and self condemnation for years.

JUDY WRITES:
Andrew, Perhaps as well you can post chapter by chapter the Watchman Nee book, The Normal Christian Life on here… I am finding that I must read more than once this book and I also believe that this sinless life as explained in this book and also in the book of Romans is something that must be by revelation, not just teaching. It must be “got” as it is so very deep. Add to that your sermons, and other perhaps teachings by those whom you have also mentioned as preachers of this sinless life and hopefully the readers will be able to appropriate the truths by revelation.

CANDITA WRITES:
I finally found someone who believes as I do! I sat at my computer and cried. I’m not a weirdo after all! I don’t believe any Christian should live a yoyo life (up and down). Another thing that I’m not hearing in the preaching of the Gospel, is Maintenance – How to Maintain the Salvation that you receive…. nobody tells you HOW to maintain what Jesus has given you.

GEORGE WRITES:
Dear Andrew, [You wrote:] “Normal” Christianity is this: Walking before God with a totally clean conscience and a pure heart – as our ‘normal’ state before Him. -Utterly clean. No STRIVING or “TRYING to be good”. This is clearly what the New Testament describes as normal. – Literally walking before God with “no consciousness of present sin”.

Yes, absolutely. That is what we are doing. And if something “pops up”, we take a good look at it (being “transparent” is our goal) and deal with it. If there is indeed something there, then repentance and taking authority over it are the order of the day… and we keep on walking! Is this preached today? Sadly not.

ANDREW AGAIN:
I hope through these testimonies you can get a sense of how simple – yet how vital – this “clean conscience” state is for Christians. It really is the ‘Normal Christian Life’! It is simply Romans Chapters 5 – 8, and I do not believe that any lesser state is acceptable at all. -In fact, it is totally unacceptable for any believer.

I am truly hoping that this article will give you some practical insights about how to come into this state in your own life. That is what it is all about. -First ‘GETTING’ a clean conscience – then ‘WALKING’ in it! Quite a simple concept – and utterly scriptural. But remember – we must have the POWER of the HOLY SPIRIT in our lives before we can walk in this. -It is only by HIS strength and leading that it is possible.

I am currently writing a book on how to have a “Personal Revival” – and it should be finished soon. But in the meantime, we have placed a number of audio sermons on the right-hand side of our website relating to this ( – REVIVALSCHOOL.com ). Some actually experience a “Personal Revival” through listening to these – which I truly thank God for. -The most helpful ones to download are probably “How to Experience Personal Revival” and also “Are you Walking in Romans 8?” But others such as “Repentance in Kansas City” or even “Outspoken!” can be helpful also. Most of the audio up there is designed to take you deeper into revival.

Below is one of the most recent testimonies about this:

CHRISTOPH WRITES:
I’m from Germany (18 y.o) and it’s just a few months ago I visited your page for the first time. I think one of the first sermons I listened to was about Romans 8 … In the beginning I could not imagine that this kind of Christianity you preached exists at all. But I thought about it again and again and now I’m so thankful… I now live in a state where there is no sin in my life that rules over me. I am so full of life now, because I realized what this life Jesus promised is all about.

I am so happy that there is nothing that controls me except my Lord and God Jesus and I started fighting for this truth in my youth group. Yesterday I preached a sermon about hell and Romans 8 in front of about 50 people. Some were really touched by the Spirit, others just said I am crazy and that this kind of Christian life without all this fleshly stuff is not possible. I said one part of the gospel is to get free from this bondage of sin. Some got mad and said the gospel is just love and has nothing really to do with our sins. So I hope I will be able to start this in our country because we are so weak that I often prayed: “God, send revival or take me home.”

And believe me, the first time I made a decision for Christ was about 2 years ago, but somehow I am not sure that I got saved at that time. There was so much sin and worldly stuff in my life that I’m convinced I was just some kind of “almost Christian”.

My church is a pentecostal church with everything except prayer meetings. So I just want to thank you that I am now living in a state that I think is what you call a revival state. I know God did this and I did nothing for it…

ANDREW AGAIN:
As I said, it may be best to start with the two sermons – “HOW TO EXPERIENCE PERSONAL REVIVAL” and “ARE YOU WALKING IN ROMANS 8?” You can download these (free) from the right-hand side of- http://www.revivalschool.com

I pray that we all truly and deeply experience “Personal Revival”, my friends.

God bless you all,

Andrew Strom.

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“It is with great sadness that I make the following report…”

I said last week that the ‘Whitedove’ conference in Kansas City this past weekend would be a pivotal one. It certainly was pivotal for me personally. I wish I could say that there was deep repentance – that the preaching was incredibly anointed and the crowd were on their faces crying before God. I wish I could say that, but I can’t. In fact, it seemed to me that the opposite was true. The saddest thing of all is that many people probably came away from this conference saying how “wonderful” and “uplifting” it was (-just as they always do). But I have to tell you, I was grieved to the core by it. Many parts of it I would even describe as spiritually “sick”.

Some people believe that the fall of Paul Cain into serious sin is some kind of aberration – just one individual’s problem. But I am convinced that the fall of Paul Cain (-who was recognised worldwide as the ‘father’ of this movement) is a symptom of a much wider disease. The whole movement is sick. As I have stated in previous articles, the ‘Prophetic’ as we know it is really a “fallen” movement – since the early 1990’s. But I always held out hope that it would somehow turn around and get back on track again. In fact, I believed that this conference was a heaven-sent opportunity for that to happen.

However, after what I saw this weekend, I no longer believe this is possible. The deception is now too deep. This movement is being “given over to believe a lie” and I want no part of it. I am cutting myself off, because I cannot afford the disease to spread into what we ourselves are doing. Things have now gotten so bad that we have to separate ourselves – and to do so publicly.

As you know, I requested special prayer from you all last week that a true spirit of Repentance might prevail in this conference. The reason I made this request was because God had woken me up at 6 am the previous Friday and given me a strong word about the conference. (God only wakes me up like this quite rarely – perhaps five times a year).

The word He gave me was that this must be a ‘repentance’ conference – that this was in essence the “last chance” for the Prophetic movement because it had become more and more corrupt – centered around money and ‘ear-tickling’ words, false prophecy and so-on. This was a gathering of KEY prophets at a moment in time when the ‘father’ of the movement had just fallen. It was God’s ideal moment for a truly “solemn assembly”. (And yes – I did write and pass this word on – in person – to the three main leaders of the conference).

However, what actually eventuated at this event seemed to me to be more akin to a circus than a solemn assembly. The music, the concert-style lighting, the stage dancers, the groaning tables stacked high with books and CD’s for sale, the ‘ear-tickling’, the hype, the $40.00 door fee (plus extra offerings taken each session) – and that’s just for starters.

What really bothered me about the weekend was the total lack of any truly ‘prophetic’ preaching. There was some good stuff on Self-pity and Bitterness right near the start, but after that it was mostly downhill. As always, there were plenty of anecdotes and tales of angelic visitations, etc. There were Scriptures quoted and a few helpful insights. But as far as a message that truly pierces and challenges and convicts – well, don’t go looking for that in THIS prophetic movement! In fact, there were warnings AGAINST any message that might come across as even slightly “condemning”, and there was even one of those cute talks on the need for “loving oneself”, etc.

Today’s prophets seem to talk a lot ABOUT the ’sword of the Lord’ but never actually bring it to bear. They bring no piercing word. And thus the entire movement is open to great deception. And instead of REPENTANCE, people are getting all kinds of counterfeit spiritual experiences. There seems to be almost no discernment at all.

The ON-STAGE DANCING throughout this conference was a good example. Now, I myself am a rock musician, but from the beginning these dance items had a rather ‘wild’ aspect to them that truly made me uncomfortable in my spirit. There was even one that came across like a sensual ‘Harem’ dance. Much of it really felt “off” – and almost anyone who sees the videos will tell you so. Even the worship had a very “tribal” feel to it at times. And by Day Three they were doing dance items with just loud voodoo-style drums only – and leaping around in a frenzied circle making weird cries to the super-amplified beat. The feeling in the room was so oppressive and “pagan” during this, that I could hardly even bear to stay in there. Then came one of the most shocking statements of the whole conference – from one of the main prophets. He got up and said that people may feel uncomfortable with such obviously “pagan” type dancing, but that it was originally God’s type of dancing and we were just now ’stealing back’ what the pagans had stolen from God!

I have to admit, this was the last straw for me. What could be more blatant? What kind of ’spirits’ do they think are being transmitted to people who open themselves up to that music? There is no discernment in this movement at all.

Now, I do not primarily blame the dancers. They were young and possibly immature. (-They weren’t actually from ‘Whitedove’ itself). Clearly, most of the blame lies with the main prophets who invited them in and openly endorsed and promoted what was happening the whole time. They would get up and publicly acclaim these dance items, thus ensuring that the spirit of it would pervade the entire event. And indeed it did – more and more.

Remember, most of the major “movers and shakers” of the Prophetic movement were at this conference, going along with this stuff. I repeat what I said earlier: This movement demonstrates absolutely NO DISCERNMENT. I urge everyone to GET OUT NOW, before even worse is brought in. I believe this movement is RIGHT NOW being given over to deception by God – and it is going to get much worse.

Even the ’spiritual’ moments in this conference often had strong touches of “Charis-mania” excess about them. And this was not the ‘harmless, silly’ kind of excess, either. It was at a level where I believe demonic spirits of deception were clearly at work. By the last session the audience was so hyped that they threw away all inhibition and leapt into the ‘pagan’ dancing themselves with wild abandon. And one of the main prophets even got up and announced that there were angels in the room going around “blowing on peoples’ fingers” if only they would lift them up in the air. That particular part sounds silly, but actually the whole thing by this stage had become awful beyond words. Virtually every day I came home utterly grieved and depressed. I had come to this conference with great expectancy and hope, thinking that the return of Bob Jones may bring a renewal of all that was originally good about this movement. I literally came as a ‘friend’ and they turned me into an enemy in the space of three days.

Below are the SPECIFIC THINGS that God told me He has against this movement as a whole:

-The giving and receiving of “ear-tickling” words.
-The giving and receiving of money in expectation of prophecy.
-False words and false teaching.
-The lack of a true Repentance message.
-The spiritual ‘blindness’ that allows familiar spirits and spirits of divination to flourish.
-The failure of this movement to judge itself, meaning that God must judge it.
-The idolising of well-known prophets – placing them on a pedestal.
-And so on….
WHAT NOW FOR US?

Well, obviously, with great sadness we must now totally cut ourselves off from today’s Prophetic Movement. Any related links and articles will be removed from our web-site immediately.

As you know, for some time now I have spoken of the ‘John-the- Baptist’ type ministries that must arise to preach REPENTANCE in the Western nations. -Preachers of righteousness with a piercing word, like the Finneys, the Wesleys and the Whitefields of old. Such ministries are essential for true Revival to come. I now see that this new move must completely “separate itself” from the influence of the existing Prophetic movement. We need a completely ‘NEW’ Prophetic, and to keep it from being tainted by the sickness that has infected the old, there must be a complete cutting-off and a “leaving behind”.

I urge all of you to take this before the Lord for yourself. We live in very dangerous times, and I believe the old Prophetic literally stands under the judgement of God.

For our ministry in Kansas City, what this means is that we have to go right back to the original calling and mandate over this city, and build on that. We cannot build on the movement that came after. The 21 days of prayer and fasting, the comet that came, and the comission to preach Repentance to the Lukewarm church – these were all foundational elements. So too were the four standards of “Holiness of heart, Unwavering faith, Day and Night prayer, and Extravagant Giving to the Poor”. The original Prophetic move here seemed to be relatively pure for only a few years – and then quickly became a quagmire. So we have to stick to only the original foundations – and build on that. Our Sunday night meetings in Kansas City will certainly continue.

There were prophecies last year that a ‘new’ prophetic – a “second phase” was about to begin. I do believe this. But what we need to make sure of is that it does not become ensnared in the garbage of this previous movement. It must be totally NEW.

I would ask that you forward this announcement to as many Lists as you can, and to your Christian friends. We want it as widely known as possible that we have cut off all relations with the current Prophetic movement – and why we did it.

To email me with any feedback, please write to: prophetic@revivalschool.com

As you can tell, it has been a terribly sad and devastating weekend for myself and my family. We would truly appreciate your prayers at this time, my friends.

God bless you all.

Kindest regards in Christ,

Andrew Strom.

I have met and fellowshipped with many wonderful Christian people over the years – from all kinds of backgrounds. But I just need to comment on this “In-church/ Out-of-church” thing – because it keeps cropping up.

Let me be clear about this. I meet wonderful “In-church” people all
the time that I absolutely love – and I meet lovely “Out-of-church”
people too that I absolutely love. One of the biggest problems is
that often these two groups do not understand each other at all.
And neither do they necessarily see the need for a “future church”
that is beyond anything that any of us are seeing – a church that
is literally just like the Book of Acts. That is supposed to be our
goal – but too often we are satisfied basically where we are.

CHALLENGES FOR the “IN-CHURCH”

Many of the Christians who are totally “in” the church system truly
see the need for “change”. They are not wanting to sit still. They
see there has been a great “decline” in Christianity away from the
old paths – and they are praying that God will move to restore and
purify His Bride. I have met many godly, warm-hearted people like
this who care passionately about God’s kingdom and His true
gospel. I usually get on very well with such ones because we
share a common desire to see things “righted” – especially the
gospel message that has become so diluted and lost.

I guess the biggest challenge that I see in these settings is that
I believe God is about to move “outside the box” in such a drastic
way that if we allow ourselves to be too attached to the current
“system” or “way of church” – then we can easily get left behind.
To get us back to true “Book of Acts” Christianity will take such
a leap – and such change – that I wonder if we truly have it in us
to go with Him where He wants to go. How “loosely” do we hold
all these things – our buildings, our “meeting formats”, our labels,
titles and ways of doing things? When these things are shaken
or challenged, it is sometimes surprising to discover what a hold
they have on us – even if we think they don’t. This is the biggest
challenge that the “system”-type people face, I believe.

But our love of the true gospel and true “Bible” Christianity will
take us a long way.

CHALLENGES FOR the “OUT-Of-CHURCH”

I have moved amongst many ‘House-church’ and “Out-of-church”
type Christians (which are not the same thing) over the years. In
fact I have been part of these circles myself at times. One of the
biggest problems I have seen is that some of us really thought
we had the major “answer” to the church’s problems. Those of us
in the ‘House church’ movement would think, “If only the church
would get out of buildings and into houses and become more
‘relational’ – most of our problems would be solved!” We truly
thought that simply by “changing boxes” we could get back the
Book of Acts church! What we ended up with, of course, was
simply the same people in a different “shell” – slightly more
‘relational’ – but hardly anything like the power and purity of the
early Christians. We had changed the outward “form” but the
POWER of Jesus Christ was still mostly lacking.

I can remember having arguments over “plurality of eldership”, the
precise “correct” way of taking the Lord’s Supper, and all kinds of
things. None of it seemed to make the slightest bit of difference.
That is because the “outward” things and the ‘form’ of things
are all “secondary”. This is not where the power is. But it took
such a long time to learn this lesson.

The “Out-of-church” people are even more radical. They often
fellowship with almost no-one – and many of them will tell you that
the organized church is the “whore of babylon”, etc. A lot of them
are lovely people with a real heart for people and for TRUTH. But
some can be very judgmental and harsh. They will often “write off”
church people as being totally bound by “religion”. But I found
many of us in that circle had our own “anti-religion” religion going
on! We despised having “leaders” or “organized” things of any
kind. We said we believed in the “5 fold” ministries but we couldn’t
stand to have any actual “leaders” – even godly ones. And we
were secretly filled with PRIDE – because we could see everything
that was wrong with the “system”. Man – did I have a “humbling”
coming when I got into this mindset! I was so “religiously” anti-
religious. I was so filled with arrogance and looked down my nose
at so many “system” people! I “judged” them just because they
went to a “building” on Sunday! God forgive me.

Of course, none of this is the answer either. I had to repent. I had
to RENOUNCE very deeply this harsh “anti-religion” religion that
made me so proud and arrogant towards people. I found that many
of them loved Jesus just as much as I did. And many of them
prayed more and were kinder, more loving and more godly than
I’d ever been. I had been kidding myself. When it boiled right down,
we “out-of-church” types were no closer to the Book of Acts than
many of the “system” people that we judged so harshly. We just
knew more “stuff” (supposedly). But clearly it wasn’t the stuff that mattered.

It was only when I deeply repented and RENOUNCED this whole
prideful mindset that God gradually began to show me what was
really important. And it was not the “outward” stuff – though of
course there is some importance to structure, etc.

Each of these things (below) I believe will be a crucial part of the
FUTURE CHURCH that God wants to bring about. You could
literally write a book about each one – they are so important.
It was these very things that meant the early church SHONE
FORTH the GLORY OF JESUS every day. Here they are-

We must have-
(1) An APOSTOLIC gospel being preached with Apostolic-type
anointing and authority. (Whenever this has happened down
through history there has been real Revival). -SO CRUCIAL.
(2) The powerful moving of the HOLY SPIRIT – filling people, healing
people, convicting people, transforming people.
(3) REAL LOVE and an emphasis on ministering to the POOR.
(-Just like the early church).
(3) REAL DISCIPLES who actually “forsake all” to follow Jesus.
(4) REAL PRAYER – in the Holy Spirit. -And lots of it!!
(5) THE WHOLE BODY MINISTERING – Starting with the “5-fold”
ministries – whose goal is to release the whole body into ministry.
(6) MIRACLES and HEALINGS. -These are a must!

Of course, we could go on and on. But let me just conclude by
saying this:-

It doesn’t matter if we are “In-church”, Out-of-church, Over-churched
or under-churched. If we don’t have the above things (which the
early church had in abundance) then we really don’t have ANYTHING.
It doesn’t matter what we “know” or whether we meet in houses,
barns, on the streets or in sun-porches. If we don’t have these
crucial things that the early church majored on, then we really
have NOTHING that matters.

So I don’t really care if you are “out” churched, “over” churched,
“thru” churched or “half” churched. We need to pursue and
pursue until we GET REAL CHRISTIANITY BACK!! And none of
us have got it – so we had all better repent of our pride and start
seeking that which is lost! A glorious Bride beckons. What price
are we willing to pay to see this glory restored?

We have discussed many aspects of “Reformation” and structural change needed in the church. But the two secrets of Revival that we are about to look at, have very little to do with these kinds of “outward” things. Merely changing the structures will achieve very little in itself. It is like re-arranging the “boxes” or the outward shell. It is like trying to form a new wineskin but forgetting about the ‘new wine’ that goes in it.

So it is high time that we talked about obtaining this NEW WINE from God. That is what true Revival is all about.

Some of you will have read about these “2 Secrets” before. But please read this article anyway, because I am going to be applying them in a way that goes beyond what I have written in the past.

The two key questions that we will be covering in this article are: (1) How do I get into a state of “Personal Revival”, and (2) How do we get from there into a state of “Corporate Revival”?

As many of you know, I have been studying Revival history now for many years. I have looked at Revivals from recent decades and Revivals from centuries ago. And after all this research, I have found that the secrets of Revival seem to boil down to 2 main things.

These things are: (1) Extremely deep REPENTANCE, and (2) A kind of “wrestling, agonizing” prayer – crying to God for the “OUTPOURING” of His Holy Spirit.

These two things have been the secrets to countless Revivals down the ages – and I fully believe they will be so again. That is why there is NOTHING more important that we need to be discussing right now.

ACTUALLY “EXPERIENCING” DEEP REPENTANCE

You have probably heard of Frank Bartleman’s statement from the ‘Azusa Street’ Revival: “I received from God early in 1905 the following keynote to revival: ‘The DEPTH of revival will be determined exactly by the DEPTH of the spirit of REPENTANCE.’ And this will obtain for all people, at all times.”

I can affirm that all history backs up Bartleman’s words here. And I can also tell you that if you want to get into a truly “Revived”state – or a state of “personal Revival” – then DEEP Repentance is one of the keys.

What we often find is that Christians have turned away from a lot of the “obvious” sins, such as lying, stealing, adultery, etc. But there are other things that they are aware of in their lives that are not right. It is dealing with these “other things” that can be the key to a far greater intimacy with God.

Do you know that God HATES all sin, and that when you get close to God then your heart will HATE sin just like He does?

So let’s get “practical” with this. Here is what you need to do to deal with these things at a DEEP level: Firstly, get off by yourself with God. You need a couple of hours or more in a quiet place alone with Him. Secondly, ask and plead with God to “shine His light” into your heart. -To show you any unclean thing, whether it be unforgiveness, lust, speaking against people behind their backs, holding grudges, little “white” lies, etc. Ask God to show you how HE FEELS about sin. Ask Him to shine His light deep inside you and show you things that you need to confess and renounce and ask forgiveness for. In some cases, you may need to go to a brother or sister and apologize to them or even make restitution. Make sure the repentance goes to the DEEPEST LEVEL possible. Confess each sin specifically to God, turn from it and ask God to cleanse you. With a lot of people it is these so-called “MINOR” SINS that are holding them back.

Here is one last quote on this subject from Evan Roberts of the Welsh Revival: “First, is there any sin in your past with which you have not honestly dealt,- not confessed to God? On your knees at once. Your past must be put away and cleansed. Second, is there anything in your life that is doubtful – anything you cannot decide whether it is good or evil? Away with it. There must not be a trace of a cloud between you and God. Have you forgiven everybody – EVERYBODY? If not, don’t expect forgiveness for your sins…”

This issue of TRULY forgiving those who have hurt you can be a big one. It is important to be BRUTALLY HONEST with yourself. Is there still “bad feeling” deep inside you towards certain people? Is there a trace of bitterness when you speak about that person? We all need to get before God and repent and RENOUNCE all unforgiveness from deep within us. Going through this whole “deep repentance” process is the first key to personal Revival.

KEY # 2 – “WRESTLING, AGONIZING” PRAYER

When you study history, you soon notice that there is a specific type of prayer that you see in Revivals again and again. When I first began to study past moves of God I quickly realized this, because I came across it so often. This special type of prayer is an ESSENTIAL ingredient of Revival.

The old Revivalists used to speak of having the “spirit of prayer”. They spoke of weeping, agonizing, pleading, wrestling, ‘travailing’ in prayer. The whole reason that these Revival preachers were so anointed and saturated with the presence of God was because they had truly broken through, right into His very throneroom in prayer, and had spent much time communing with Him there. This type of praying has always been one of the most important keys to true Revival.

Charles Finney said, “Unless I had the spirit of prayer I could do nothing… I found myself unable to preach with power and efficiency, or to win souls…” George Whitefield said: “Whole days and WEEKS have I spent prostrate on the ground in silent or vocal prayer…” Frank Bartleman wrote: “At night I could scarcely sleep for the spirit of prayer… Prayer literally consumed me.” And D.M. McIntyre wrote: “Before the great revival in Gallneukirchen broke out, Martin Boos spent hours and days and often nights in lonely agonies of intercession. Afterwards, when he preached, his words were as flame, and the hearts of the people as grass.”

As history shows, the church can only expect true Revival when a remnant of God’s people get DESPERATE – desperate about the backslidden state of the church, desperate about the lukewarmness within them and all around them, desperate about sin and compromise, desperate about the fact that God is not GLORIFIED, that He is not truly LORD of His church, that His words are mocked and largely seen as irrelevant by a dying world. Revival will come when God’s people truly humble themselves, when they replace their “positive imaging” (‘Rise up, you people of power”, etc), with the reality of James’ lament: “Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up” (Ja 4:9-10).

As was said of Evan Roberts: “He would break down, crying bitterly for God to bend them, in an agony of prayer, the tears coursing down his cheeks, with his whole frame writhing.” And John Wesley asked: “Have you any days of fasting and prayer? Storm the throne of grace and persevere therein, and mercy will come down.” Brothers, sisters, we need to get DESPERATE in our praying!

HOW TO “WRESTLE” IN PRAYER

Now, it is very important to realize that this type of prayer is not just for “special” people or leaders. It is absolutely one of the keys to “personal Revival” for every one of us. The Bible makes it very clear that the “effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man” is available to us all.

And history shows that “wrestling Revival prayer” can actually be TAUGHT to Christians. This comes through loud and clear in the book ‘Anointed for Burial’, which is Todd and DeAnn Burke’s account of the mighty Revival in Cambodia in the 1970’s. It occurred when God had already been moving there for some time. Todd wrote: “Referring to Genesis 32, I told them how Jacob WRESTLED with the Lord until He blessed him. ‘If we expect power and blessing from the Lord, we are going to have to be willing to wrestle with Him in prayer and fasting, in self-denial, in taking up our cross,’ I said. Then I shared with them from a devotional book by Hudson Taylor, “An easy-going, non-self- denying life will never be one of power.” With that, everyone began to wrestle in prayer, and before long, the blessing came.”

When these people broke up into prayer groups and began to “wrestle” with God in prayer as Todd had taught them, the result was actual “OUTPOURINGS” of the Holy Spirit. (ie. The Holy Spirit descending upon whole groups of Christians just like in Acts, with incredibly powerful results). It was an amazing time.

Notice that these Christians were actually TAUGHT to “wrestle” with God in this way. And they simply went and did it!

Early in the 1904 Welsh Revival, Evan Roberts taught the children of Moriah to pray this simple prayer: “Send the Spirit to Moriah for Jesus Christ’s sake.” Later, he developed this same concept for his general meetings. -Because it was vital that people plead with God to “send His Spirit” down upon them.

After all, this is exactly what Pentecost was all about. It was the 120 in the upper room, crying out to God for ten days, and then God “sending His Spirit” like a mighty rushing wind, and filling them to overflowing. In the past 50 years, there have been many powerful Revivals in which God outpoured His Spirit in a similar way. When God “outpours” His Spirit like this, it is far more than a person simply being baptized in the Spirit. -It is a general “outpouring”.

In fact, an “Outpouring of the Holy Spirit” is the essence of what Revival truly is. And just like Pentecost, the result is that many become FILLED with the Holy Spirit, and many others become greatly CONVICTED of their sin. True Revival is the Glory of God coming down. It is His Spirit being “POURED OUT” in a specific place or upon a specific people. We need to ‘wrestle’ with God to see such an outpouring occur in our day.

Now, before you can ‘wrestle’ with God in prayer, here is what you need to do:
(1) Become DESPERATE to see God GLORIFIED in the earth;
(2) Cleanse your “hands” and your “heart” so that you can truly enter into the throneroom of God;
(3) Plead with God to outpour His “spirit of prayer” upon you;
(4) Nurture His “fire” in your heart, so that you can ‘agonize’ in prayer before Him.
(5) When you do pray, be very SPECIFIC in ‘wrestling’ with God to outpour His Spirit upon YOURSELF or upon a specific group. -We all need this fresh infilling.

If you can do these simple things, then TODAY is the day when you can begin to “wrestle” with God in prayer. Do not delay. This could be the key to seeing you transformed by “personal Revival” and coming into a far deeper communion with God.

IN SUMMARY:

Having studied Revivals now for over 20 years, I am convinced that the road to “personal Revival” is really the same as the road to ‘corporate Revival’. The major keys have always been “deep repentance” and ‘agonizing’ prayer.

Our motives for seeking God must never be selfish ones. We should be seeking Him for His own sake, not for what He can “do for us”. It is to see HIM GLORIFIED that we ask these things.

So, my friends, all I can do is urge you to get into a quiet place and give yourself to heart-searching repentance and “agonizing” prayer until you see a massive “BREAKTHROUGH” in your Christian walk. We all need to be filled with His Spirit again and again. Since I was 17 years old, I would attribute almost every spiritual breakthrough in my life to these two ‘Revival’ secrets. They have truly revolutionized my life.

So what about “Corporate” Revival – where God’s Spirit is poured out upon whole communities and cities? Well, what God will often do is what He did at Pentecost. -He will take His “Revived” ones and use them to bring Revival to others. In other words, if God can find a GROUP of people who have gone through “personal Revival”, then He can use them to speak Truth and carry His anointing into whole areas. -And to PRAY for further outpourings.

So what does God need to find in the earth today? Simply GROUPS of “Revived” Christians who can begin to preach repentance and pray for God’s Spirit to be outpoured. It all starts with people who have been “Revived”.

As A.T. Pierson wrote, “From the day of Pentecost, there has been not one great spiritual awakening in any land which has not begun in a union of prayer, though only among two or three; no such outward, upward movement has continued after such prayer meetings declined.”

If you are someone who decides to ACT on what you have read today, then please write to me and let me know the results, my friends? I know that these truths actually WORK in the real world because I have experienced them myself. I pray that they will truly revolutionize many lives.

To comment on this article, please send an email to- prophetic@revivalschool.com

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It is an interesting fact that Charles Finney spent his entire ministry preaching to professing Christians. And yet he was called the greatest ‘evangelist’! What he was doing was evangelizing the church people – because he found that most of them were not living in a state of true salvation at all. The church was ‘unsaved’!

Thus his first calling was to the believers of his day – to see them converted. -Just like Jesus and the apostles were called first to the Jews – the ‘believers’ of their time. Finney found himself preaching piercing salvation messages his whole life in church buildings, Bible Colleges and so-on. The “Christians” must be saved.

Actually, you see this pattern in most Revivals down the centuries. In many cases, what Revival was, was the church coming into true SALVATION for the first time. They THOUGHT they were saved before, but they had been under a delusion. When the ‘Revivalist’ arrived and preached to them, suddenly they saw that they were undone and in a lost state, and multitudes were converted. Revival almost always begins with the church.

I believe it is no different today, especially in America where church attendance is very high (-around 40 percent) – the highest percentage in the world. Everyone agrees that there is a lot of ‘nominal’ Christianity and ’social’ Christianity going on – as well as a huge number of people who attend churches where they are told they are ’saved’ when clearly they are not.

It is difficult not to come to the conclusion that most of these churches are like “holding pens” for the damned – telling people that they are ‘OK’, when in reality they are headed for destruction. Personally, I find this very hard to take. What will God do to the preachers who are lulling the flock to sleep in this way? And when will men be found who will dare to tell the “Christians” that many are not ’saved’ at all – but still in their sins? -Such is the role of the true prophets of God. Such is the role of the coming “John the Baptists”.

Of course, Finney was hated and despised by church men for saying such things. How DARE he preach in such a way that assumed that many ‘fine church members’ were unsaved? How offensive and ill- mannered! But Finney had such a passion and a burden to REACH THE ‘CHRISTIANS’ with the gospel. -And this was exactly what God had called him to do.

Today we see exactly the same thing in the West as Finney saw in his day. We see a church that is very largely UNSAVED. A truly “saved” church (in the New Testament sense) behaves and looks and sounds utterly different to what we have today.

Even in Pentecostal/Charismatic circles we often find many “previously-saved-but-no-longer-walking-in-it” believers. Friends, this is not a state of ’salvation’. The Bible is very clear that only those who CONTINUE in New Testament Christianity and who “overcome” will be saved. These people are lost. You are either walking as a ‘new creature’ in love with Christ or you are not. If you are not walking in it then do not assume you are “saved” – no matter what some preacher tells you. It is all or nothing with God. The Bible tells us to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling”. I would be very surprised if more than a quarter of the West’s so-called “Spirit-filled” believers are actually walking with a clean heart before God. What on earth do they think will happen to them on Judgement Day?

Added to this, we have millions upon millions of ‘mainline’ believers who literally NEVER get the opportunity to find out about “FULL” salvation. -The Holy Spirit is never made real to them, and many have never been fully BAPTIZED in water, either.

Now, we have already discussed elsewhere how people became Christians in the Bible. We know that there were THREE THINGS that always needed to happen when someone wanted to become a Christian in the New Testament:

(1) Repentance

(2) Water Baptism

(3) Being filled with the Holy Spirit.

-Every time, these were the three things that happened STRAIGHT AWAY. (-See Acts 2:37-41, Acts 8:12-20, Acts 10:44-48, Acts 19:1-6, Acts 22:16, Heb 6:1-2, Mk 16:16-18, etc.)

As I have said before, the doctrine of “Asking Jesus into your heart” does not exist in the Bible, and personally I would come very close to calling it a lie from the pit of hell, because it falsely assures people that they are “saved” just because they have ‘prayed a little prayer’. It is very dishonest and totally unscriptural. So we know that a basic “New Testament Christian” is someone who has:

(1) Repented

(2) Been Baptized (immersed) in water, and

(3) Been filled with the Holy Spirit (-accompanied by ‘tongues’, as far as we can tell in Scripture).

So how on earth do we reach all these vast millions who are being duped with this half-Christianity of “Asking Jesus into your heart” – but never hear the full gospel? What on earth can be done to get this message through to them?

This is a burden that is very much on my heart. And I am convinced that only the coming “John-the-Baptist” ministries will have the anointing to break through the walls of ‘Religion’ to reach these people with the truth. We are talking about millions upon millions of precious souls here. And they are people who DO BELIEVE in God. But they have been lied-to, and the real truth has been denied them.

I am convinced that the coming harvest will BEGIN IN THE CHURCH. It will begin with converting the “CHRISTIANS”. -This has always been God’s order. “First in Jerusalem, then in Judea….”

I am deeply burdened for the church in the West. Let the new “Charles Finneys” arise. Let the trumpet sound go forth. The message of PIERCING REPENTANCE must be heard in the land once again. And the idol of “Mammon” must surely be one of it’s key targets.

I am convinced that such prophets must arise for Revival to come to the West in these days. “For the word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword.” -May this mighty sword be brought to bear on the walls of Religion and false ‘assurance’ in these days.

IMPORTANT:
-CLICK HERE FOR AN EYE-OPENING STUDY OF HOW PEOPLE BECAME CHRISTIANS IN THE BIBLE.

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(Please feel free to copy and share this article. -Or “link” to it).

One of the most basic things that has amazed me for many years is the preaching of “Giving your heart to the Lord” or “Asking Jesus into your life” to become a Christian. Do we not realize that such a practice is found NOWHERE in the entire Bible?

Is there ANY example of someone “asking Jesus into their heart” (or similar) to become a Christian in the book of Acts? NO – NOT EVEN ONE. The book of Acts is full of literally thousands of people becoming born-again Christians. And we are often told exactly what these people did. But there is no record of any of them doing anything like “asking Jesus into their heart” to be saved.
Now SURELY, if the church has even remotely got it’s act together, it would have this one thing right. Surely this has got to be one of the most crucial and basic points in the whole New Testament:- How exactly are people supposed to become Christians? What were they told to do in the New Testament? A very simple and straight-forward question, you would think. And so vitally important.

But incredibly, it seems that very few of us have even bothered to ask this question or to take on board the glaringly obvious answer. Here we have one of the most vital, fundamental points that it is possible to have in Christianity:- “What shall we DO TO BE SAVED?” And generally speaking, our answer today is utterly different from that of the apostles. Incredible really, isn’t it? It’s right there in black-and-white, time after time! But TRADITION has blinded our eyes to the Truth. And I’m sure that even many of you reading this will be shocked at how obvious the truth of this matter is.

Let’s start with the day of Pentecost (-a great place to begin!) As we all know, the Holy Spirit fell on the 120, and they all began to speak in tongues. This is officially known by theologians as the birth of the Church – the beginning of Christianity as we know it. And after Peter preached his convicting sermon to the gathered crowd that day, another 3000 people were added to the church. And we are told exactly what occurred:- “… They were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brethren, WHAT SHALL WE DO?’ And Peter said to them, ‘REPENT, and be BAPTIZED every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the FORGIVENESS OF YOUR SINS; and you shall receive the gift of the HOLY SPIRIT’” (Acts 2:37-38 RSV). Notice how different Peter’s reply is to what we tell people today. We might have said something like, “Just say this little prayer after me” but Peter said nothing like that at all.

There were three elements to what Peter told them:- REPENTANCE, WATER-BAPTISM and receiving the HOLY SPIRIT. We see this pattern repeated again and again, right through the book of Acts (-in fact, throughout the New Testament writings) in the most glaringly obvious way. And yet still we hear, “Just ask Jesus into your heart” preached throughout Christendom today.

The next significant people-group to be reached by the early Christians were the Samaritans. In Acts chapter 8 we read how Philip the evangelist saw massive Revival in Samaria:- “But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were BAPTIZED, both men and women… Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT” (Acts 8:12-17). Note the identical pattern to the salvations on the day of Pentecost.

I hope you realize that we have been talking about THOUSANDS of conversions here. And NOT ONE of them involved “Giving their heart to the Lord” or “Inviting Jesus to be their personal savior”. If you look up these Scriptures in Acts, you will see that every time it was “Repentance, Baptism and Recieiving the Holy Spirit”. -Over and over again.

The next significant people-group to be reached by the early church were the ‘Godly’ gentiles (-Acts chapters 10 and 11). Peter was led to preach to Cornelius and his household. And God suddenly moved even while he was still preaching!:- “While Peter was still saying this, the HOLY SPIRIT FELL on all who heard the word… they heard them SPEAKING IN TONGUES and extolling God. Then Peter declared, ‘Can anyone forbid water for BAPTIZING these people who have RECEIVED THE HOLY SPIRIT just as we have?’ And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ” (Acts 10:44-48). Peter later described the scene again: “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit FELL ON THEM just as on us at the beginning” (Acts 11:15). He also referred to it as them being “Baptized in the Holy Spirit” (Acts 11:16). I hope you can see from these passages that the Holy Spirit ‘FALLING’ upon people is the same experience as people ‘RECEIVING’ or being ‘BAPTIZED’ in the Holy Spirit.

Thus we see the same pattern as before, in the salvation experience of Cornelius’ household – (1) Repentant hearts, (2) Receiving the Holy Spirit and (3) Baptism.

Another good example involves some disciples of John the Baptist whom Paul met at Ephesus:- “And Paul said, ‘John baptized with the baptism of REPENTANCE, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.’ On hearing this, they were BAPTIZED in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul laid his hands upon them, the HOLY SPIRIT came on them; and they SPOKE WITH TONGUES and prophesied” (Acts 19:1-6). I guess I hardly need to point out the pattern by now?

Notice too that there were no “instructional classes” to prepare people for baptism. All the way through the book of Acts, people were baptized STRAIGHT AWAY, as soon as they were believing and repentant. With the Phillipian jailer, he and his entire household were baptized immediately – IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT (-Acts 16:32-33). With the Ethiopian eunuch, he was baptized by Philip straight away, in some water that they saw while travelling in his chariot (Acts 8:35-38). And the apostle Paul himself was baptized immediately by the disciple Ananias, who said something very interesting to Paul beforehand:- “Rise and be BAPTIZED, and WASH AWAY YOUR SINS, calling on His name” (Acts 22:16). This verse would be treated almost like “heresy” by many in today’s church. How shocking to imply that baptism might have something to do with forgiveness and cleansing from our past sins! However, there are many verses like it scattered throughout the New Testament. Also note that Paul was told this DAYS AFTER he had had his blinding ‘Damascus Road’ experience. Today’s Christians might assume that Paul was “born again” during this blinding encounter with God. Not so. Not until Paul was to be BAPTIZED was he to have his sins “washed away”. This is clearly what the Scriptures say. Arguments, anyone?

Many Christians are taught today that Baptism is basic- ally a ’symbolic’ act. In my youth I was raised mainly in Baptist churches, and they always taught that baptism is an “outward SYMBOL of an inner change”. Thus baptism is stripped of much of it’s significance and power in Christian thinking. For a “symbol” is never as important as the real thing, is it? I have studied baptism extensively in the New Testament. It is NEVER spoken of as a mere ‘SYMBOL’. Rather, it is spoken of as being a ‘circumcision of the heart’, a “cutting off”, a “burial” into the DEATH of Christ. And it is also spoken of as being “for the forgiveness of sins” and to “wash one’s sins away”. I am convinced that in the spirit realm (from God’s point of view), baptism is seen as a LITERAL “burial into death” (-see Romans 6) which has a profound effect on our hearts and lives. But still we preach, “Ask Jesus into your heart”, and deny many people one of the most vital keys to living a Christian life. I am also convinced that baptism MUST be by ‘FULL IMMERSION’. Sprinkling little infants is not enough. This must be baptism for BELIEVERS. And the original Greek word ‘baptizo’ actually means “TO DIP OR IMMERSE”. So people must be ‘buried’ under the water in baptism, not just sprinkled. (-I’m sure most of you already agree with this).

Likewise I am convinced that Baptism in the Holy Spirit (accompanied by ’speaking in tongues’) is ESSENTIAL. It is NOT just an option. As we have seen in the book of Acts, the way that people became Christians in the New Testament was to (1) Repent, (2) Be Baptized in water and (3) Be Baptized in the Holy Spirit (accompanied by ‘tongues’ as far as we can tell). What right do we have to change the fundamental teachings and practices of the Bible, just so we can make things more “convenient” for new converts? Unless we are getting people saved the Bible way, how can we claim to be getting them saved at all?

We are forever talking about being “born again” in the church today. But are we truly getting people ‘born again’ like they did in Acts? Bearing in mind the pattern that we have seen in the New Testament, what exactly do you think Jesus was talking about when He declared that, “Unless a man is born of WATER and of THE SPIRIT he cannot enter into the kingdom of God”? (Jn 3:5). Born of WATER, born of the SPIRIT. Hmmmmmm. That’s a tough one!

Baptism in water and the Spirit are never regarded as mere ‘options’ in the Scriptures. In fact they are clearly ESSENTIAL experiences to begin to walk in Christ’s kingdom. There are many Scriptures on this that are often bypassed today or regarded as “inexplicable” because they do not fit in with current tradition. Please take the time to look up the following:- Mark 16:16-18, 1 Peter 3:20-21, Titus 3:5-6, 1 Cor 10:1-2, Gal 3:27, Col 2:11-12, 1 Cor 12:13, Heb 6:1-2, Rom 6:2-11, Rom 8:9, Mt 28:19, etc.

I really mean it. Please do take the time to look at the above Scriptures if you have any interest in this issue at all. Many people write to me with their opinions, saying, “I cannot believe you are teaching this.” -And yet they have never bothered to actually look up the Scriptures on the subject! PLEASE read Acts and look up the above Scriptures before sending me your views.

It is my belief that there are a number of important teachings and practices from the early church that will be restored during the coming Revival. (-God often does this in Revivals). I am convinced that the above teaching will be one of them. (-I have believed this for many years).

I realize that I have probably shocked and provoked a number of you with this article. Please believe me, I myself was very shocked when I first came face-to-face with these truths some years ago. They really are very apparent when you study them, but I was blind to them for many years. I was amongst those who gave out tracts like ‘The Four Spiritual Laws’ and led people in the “sinner’s prayer”. Like many, I would back this up by mis-applying Rev 3:20 – “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him, and sup with him and he with me.” It was only later that I realized that, as Leonard Ravenhill points out, this Scripture is clearly aimed at the CHURCH, not at unconverted sinners. It is Jesus standing outside the ‘Laodicean’ church, trying to get in! Please go and read the whole passage – Rev 3:14-21. You will see what I mean. It is very clear.

I am not ashamed that I used to preach these things. It was all I knew at the time. But I was certainly shocked to discover how much of the basic gospel I was leaving out. Like me, there are a number of you who will have to “search the Scriptures to see if these things be so” just as the Bereans did. Believe me, I fought these truths for months before I simply ran out of corners to back into. I knew the implications of this were huge and I just did not want to face it. But there they are in black and white. And this is not a trivial matter. These are key gospel truths that we are talking about here.

After writing the first version of this article, many people wrote to me pointing out that the THIEF ON THE CROSS was not baptized or Spirit-filled, yet he was clearly saved. Please believe me, I had all these same objections when I first came across this teaching. But God annihilated all my excuses one by one. So let me deal with this “THIEF ON THE CROSS” thing right here.

The most obvious question is:- When did this event occur – was it under the OLD Covenant or the NEW Covenant? When Jesus proffered salvation to the thief, was the Old Covenant still in place, or had the New begun? For clearly, it only became possible to become an actual CHRISTIAN (-born again – a member of Christ’s body) AFTER the New Covenant had started. And for the New Covenant to begin, Jesus, the sacrificial Lamb had to die and also be RAISED FROM THE DEAD. The New Covenant could not begin until this occurred. Surely we all know this? Jesus had to die and be raised from the dead, and then ascend into heaven, sending His Holy Spirit, before the Church could truly begin or people could start becoming born-again Christians. That is why people in the Old Testament, or even in Jesus’ own day were not “born again” the way we are today. They simply couldn’t be. Remember, Jesus said that John the Baptist was the greatest born among men, but even the least in the kingdom was greater than he. John the Baptist couldn’t become a “born-again Christian” because the New Covenant had not yet begun. I bet he would have loved the opportunity! Jesus died in agony and was raised again, to purchase for us this wonderful new life in Him. Surely we all know this? GLORY TO GOD!!

Now back to the thief. Did he have his conversation with Jesus and die under the New Covenant or the Old? The answer, obviously, is:- The OLD Covenant. He was presumably a Jew – one of God’s chosen people (though a sinner), who received a wonderful pardon from Jesus when he repented and turned to Him. But those were very different conditions to those that we live under today. We now have a NEW Covenant – a NEW “agreement” with God, very different from the Old. We have a new and living way in which to walk. How do we enter into it? By being born again – of water and the Spirit. And this has only been possible since Pentecost – the day the church began. I am not saying that “death-bed repentance” is not possible today. I’m sure that God has reached down in His mercy many times to people who have turned to Him when they were close to death. But these are special cases. They are not the “norm” for New Testament Christianity. Repentance, Baptism and receiving the Holy Spirit are ESSENTIAL to enter into the New Covenant, I believe.

As I said, many people offer me their own views and opinions on all this without truly studying the basic Scriptures on the matter. It is important to remember that fundamental doctrines are not about mere opinion. They are about what the SCRIPTURES SAY. I tell you, I have put MONTHS of study and prayer into this whole subject. I could tell that it really was THAT important. I honestly considered EVERYTHING – every angle I could find. Please treat this with the seriousness that it is due. This is a very crucial area. I believe these are SALVATION issues that are being discussed here. And the case is enormously strong. Just read the Scriptures. (-It should take less than an hour to read through the Scriptures highlighted above). I urge any of you who are the least bit interested in this to PLEASE read those Scriptures.

I am well aware that ‘doctrine’ tends to be divisive by it’s very nature. And I know that I am taking a big risk talking so openly about such a controversial teaching. I try and keep right away from doctrinal debates in general. It is only the most fundamental and important issues that I bother making a fuss about. You will notice that even though I run a ‘Prophetic’ site, there are no debates about the ‘Pre-trib’/ Post-trib positions or the exact meaning of Daniel’s 70 weeks, etc. I just find such debates pointless and utterly dull, to be honest. I heard the arguments many moons ago, and just cannot stomach any more. I have no desire for nit-picking arguments. But the BIG issues, like New Testament salvation and God’s plan for His church – these things I really do care about. For I believe the devil is robbing us blind in some of these crucial areas. And God wants to restore these truths to the church.

Just imagine for a moment that I am right, and baptism and receiving the Holy Spirit are a lot more important than we have been led to believe. Just think how many thousands of believers around the world today have received the Holy Spirit (including ‘tongues’) but have simply not bothered getting baptized. After all, it’s only “symbolic”, right? Or perhaps they say, “I got sprinkled as a baby.” I myself know many people in this exact position. I think it’s terrible, and I believe God does too. Not to mention all the believers who still have not been baptized in the Holy Spirit. Don’t you think God’s heart aches over all this? Why do people ignore His commands? Our church traditions and habitual patterns have a lot to answer for in this area. This has got to change, my friends. And I believe it will only change when the underlying doctrines are challenged. But if I am right, the devil will fight this all the way. He likes anything that leaves believers impoverished or still chained up in any way. This really is crucial doctrine, otherwise I simply would not bother with it. I have really stuck my neck on the line and risked my reputation over this. And I do not do so lightly.

I have been accused of being “legalistic” and ‘majoring on minor points’ by a couple of readers. I really cannot see this. As I have said, some doctrine is “straining at gnats” and some is really crucial. I believe this issue falls into the second category. Others accused me of being “too literal”! (I had to laugh over this). Now this is basic Bible doctrine we are talking about here, isn’t it? Too literal? What on earth else should we be?

Other readers accused me of believing in “baptismal regeneration”. This is not the case. I believe that (1) Repentance, (2) Water-Baptism and (3) Receiving the Holy Spirit, are ALL ESSENTIAL. I do not believe in “baptismal” regeneration. These elements are all equally important and we need to have all three to be able to call ourselves ‘New Testament Christians’, as far as I can see.

Other readers have brought up the verse in Romans that says “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead you will be saved” (Rom 10:9). Actually, a number of theologians believe that this statement was used as a kind of “baptismal confession” in the early church. I remember a fellowship I was involved with years ago that used it in exactly this way. To me, this verse “proves” little doctrinally, either way. It needs to be put into context with the WHOLE New Testament to gain the proper perspective on it. I certainly don’t see it as proof for ‘asking Jesus into our heart’.

One of the most serious allegations I have faced is that I am preaching a kind of “justification by works” by saying that baptism and receiving the Holy Spirit are so essential. And that I am “adding to the gospel” and taking away people’s freedom like the Galatians!! Serious charges, indeed. But let’s look at this carefully. Is baptism a “work” that I can do to myself? Is receiving the Holy Spirit a “work”? I don’t think so! These are initial experiences that are ‘DONE TO US’ or given to us – they’re not things that we can “DO” ourselves, as such. Can I baptize myself? No! And isn’t it a brief one-off act of simple faith and obedience anyway? To me, baptism is no more a “work” than, say, the act of “praying a sinner’s prayer”. The act of opening one’s mouth, moving one’s jaws and praying is not seen as a work. And neither should baptism be. They only take an instant, after all. The real question is:- Is baptism a truly spiritual act, or is it merely a symbolic ritual? That is the real question. This also brings up the whole issue of ‘convenience’. For we love neat little packages that are comfortable and easy in this age, don’t we? (-”Just asking Jesus in”). And baptism is so wet and messy, we think. But at the end of the day, what it boils down to is this:- We have to make a decision between doing things the Bible way and doing things the modern ‘convenient’ way. It is that simple.

Now, onto something else that numerous people raised:- Where does FAITH come into all this? Aren’t we supposed to be saved by FAITH? Absolutely! And faith is at a premium right through this whole thing. What happens when someone hears the gospel and BELIEVES it? (-A crucially important moment). Are they automatically a ‘Christian’ now? Just through believing what they have heard? Or do they have to act on that belief in some way to become a Christian? Were the Jews who were ‘cut to the heart’ when Peter preached at Pentecost automatically Christians right then at that moment, or did they have to DO something in FAITH to become Christians? Clearly, they needed to DO something, because Peter told them, “Repent and be baptized, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” And it is clear that each one of these elements involves the exercise of faith in Jesus.

However, I believe that when the Bible speaks of the “faith that saves us”, and being “JUSTIFIED BY FAITH”, it is speaking of the LIFE OF FAITH that we undertake after we have become a Christian. It is ‘WALKING IN FAITH’ day by day, moment by moment, after having become a Christian that justifies us before God. It is the covering of the blood of Jesus that hides our sin and makes us clean in God’s sight. If we are walking in faith, covered by the blood, we are saved, and we must continue to walk in it. And it is clear in the Scriptures that it is only by the POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT that we can walk in this kind of saving faith. This faith is a gift from God -”Not of ourselves, lest anyone should boast…” Like the love of God, this faith is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who is given to us. So how can we obtain it without RECEIVING THE HOLY SPIRIT? (-Which brings us back to Repentance, Baptism and Receiving the Holy Spirit as our ESSENTIAL starting point in the faith).

Actually, a couple of readers mentioned something quite interesting about baptism in the book of Acts. For it is noticeable in Acts that everyone was baptized “IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS” or in the ‘NAME OF JESUS CHRIST’. Now most churches today baptize in the name of the ‘Father, Son and Holy Spirit’, and I guess this is a small point, but I believe that if they felt it was important in Acts to speak the name of Jesus Christ over people as they were baptized, then I should do it too. I am not legalistic about the need for this, but personally these days I baptize people “in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, in the NAME OF JESUS CHRIST”. (-To make sure all the bases are covered).

To sum up, it is my belief that God has been slowly restoring truth to the church over the centuries since the Dark Ages when so much had been lost. Luther’s Reformation saw the restoration of ‘Justification by Faith’, the Anabaptists re-introduced baptism by immersion, Wesley re-introduced the importance of the ‘new birth’, and this century the Pentecostals re-discovered the infilling of the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts. (There have been many other things over time also, but this is just a simple overview). It is my belief that we are now at the stage where God wishes to restore the church to her true original glory, with all the basic doctrines and practices, “church life” and the full original gospel, the ‘five-fold’ ministries, etc. -Everything. That is what is about to occur in the coming Revival, I believe. And that is another reason why I believe basic New Testament doctrines are so important.

In past centuries, as now, the believers of that time walked in the light that they had, and God will judge them according to the light that was available to them. But now it is time to see the church truly restored to fullness in many areas. And it is going to be UNCOMFORTABLE, and it will surely leave much “SHAKEN” in it’s wake. A new Reformation is coming, and it is important that it leaves nothing undone that needs doing. Otherwise our children are going to have to have a further Reformation to correct all that we left undone. Let’s make it as complete as possible this time, shall we? For Christ cannot return until a glorious Bride is made ready for Him, without “spot or wrinkle or any such thing”. Surely we live in the days of the ‘restoration of all things’ about which the Scriptures speak.

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REPLIES FROM READERS

BRIEF INTRODUCTION BY ANDREW STROM:
The great thing about the below comments is that most of these people actually LOOKED UP the Scriptures on this subject! People will be amazed when they do this. In fact, if people read the entire Book of Acts, taking careful note of EVERY conversion and what happened, then they will be amazed the same way. Another thing you can do when studying this kind of issue is get a Concordance and look up EVERY Scripture on ‘Baptism’ and so-on. I encourage everybody to do this kind of thing. None of this is about our own “opinions”. It is about what the SCRIPTURES CLEARLY SAY on the subject. Four interesting replies are below:
_________________________________

Rachel H. writes:

I want to thank you so much for your article on Lie # 1 – “Ask Jesus Into Our Heart”. I was raised in a Baptist church also, so this is all new to me. I was skeptical at first, but I looked up every single verse in that article, and I have to say, WOW! I never knew that baptism played such an important role in becoming a Christian! I was baptized at a young age, but that was only because I had said that famous short prayer to accept Jesus into my heart, and attended the baptismal preparation classes!

I know that now, 13 years later, its time to be truly baptized. You covered every area, most of which I have never even known about, thank you so much!

I would also like to share something that God had revealed to me a couple of months ago about churches and the body of Christ. It started after I read a book about a revival that had taken place in Africa in the 50’s. The key factor to their revival was REPENTANCE. When the people realized that Jesus had died for their sins, and they truly believed, they began repenting, confessing sins out loud, in front of large groups of people!

They weren’t doing it for show, many times they were crying and moaning, sickened at their own sins but desperate to get it out. There was such a spirit of conviction there, that some of the people, as poor as they were, began repaying money that they had stolen years before that, or giving back eggs and animals that they had wrongfully taken. They were asking for forgiveness from other people left and right for things they had thought or said in anger and hate. Some of the people tried to keep their sins in, and they actually got physically sick until that sin was confessed. Some of the sins were more serious, but sin is sin to God, right?

What God revealed to me about churches is that everyone has some hidden sin that they don’t want anyone to know about. Even the pastors and elders are hiding sin that they don’t want to share, because, of course, they don’t want to be looked down upon! God showed me that people need to confess their sins, they need to be truly repentant of them for there to be any kind of revival.
_____________________________________

Pastor David K. writes:

Bro Andrew Strom, thank you for your response on the first of nine – “ASK JESUS into our Heart”.

You have opened my eyes on this one. I have read your article line by line and verse by verse. You have turned my heart. I will watch with the same interest for the other eight. I see your postion and on this point concede, I have been trained more by tradition than by the Word.
-Sincerely, Pastor David K.
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Ian writes:

Having just returned from India I must make the following observations re- salvation.

To be a Christian in the churches that I ministered in means a turning away from the old gods and destroying of all idols. They regard people as seekers of truth at this stage, but its not until they are Baptised in Water which is usually followed by an infilling of the Holy Spirit that they are regarded as Christian. I want to tell you that there is a tremendous cost to being publicly baptised. Often it is accompanied by a separation of familiy members who refuse to accept that they have become Christians. The truth is that if a Hindu comes to Church He is not percecuted but the moment a decision is made to be baptised “all Hell” breaks loose. Because what is happening is more than symbolic, it is an act of covenant. A demonstration of alliegance to a Kingdom.
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Brian J. writes:

Rev. David Pawson from England has written a book and done a video, both entitled “The Normal Christian Birth”

Both are in line with your position. David speaks of repentance towards God, faith in Jesus, baptism in water and the infilling of the Holy Spirit as the steps involved in the “Normal Christian Birth”, based on the accounts in the Book of Acts.

Anchor Recordings summarise it as follows: “So often, spiritual disease can be traced back to an inadequate initiation into the Kingdom. A better birth means greater growth in a healthy Christian life. David Pawson discusses some crucial and controversial biblical texts, challenging many traditional interpretations. He questions the adequacy of the typical “’sinners prayer” approach and gives practical tips on helping potential disciples to repent, believe, be baptised and recieve the Holy Spirit. 326 pages”

Perhaps those who argue against might like to read the book or get hold of the video themselves. In the UK both are available from- http://www.anchor-recordings.com/
______________________________________

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Some people say that knowing Scripture is the only real key to discernment that we need. And yes – Scripture is very important – especially in exposing false doctrine. But it is not only doctrines or teachings that are the greatest danger today. It is just as likely to be false ‘anointings’ or spirits – perhaps even “lying signs and wonders”. And we may need more than just a good understanding of Scripture to spot these things. Remember, a lot of the people caught up in the “manifestations mania” that we described in the last chapter actually know their Bible quite well. And yet they could still be deceived. So what are the things that can help us avoid deception in similar situations?

Some of the most basic keys to discernment that God has shown me are as follows:
(1) Know your HOLY GOD intimately. (When you have seen His glory, His holiness and His love – by drawing close to Him in prayer – then you can usually see through any counterfeits because you know the “real thing” so well).
(2) Know your Bible. It is very important to be able to spot teachings that are either extra-biblical or directly opposed to what the Scriptures teach. However, it is important to remember that the Scribes and Pharisees were extrememly learned in the Scriptures and yet they missed the very Messiah that was prophesied! So knowing the Bible is important – especially for doctrinal issues – but we need to be able to “discern the spirits” also.
(3) Be a “lover of truth”. This is very crucial. Are you someone who will actually stand up for Truth – even against the crowd? Or do you remain silent even when you are convinced something is very wrong?
(4) Purity of heart and Humility. Many deceptions only appeal to us because there is something inside us that “wants” to believe them. They are seductive because of darkness and wrong motives in our own lives. We must search our hearts and root these out.
(5) The ‘inner witness’ of the Holy Spirit. We must learn to never over-ride this “still small voice”, as it will save us from deception again and again. (More on this below).

Did you know that even an unbeliever can often spot a con-man or a snake-oil salesman? They get a kind-of “gut feeling” about such things. And they are often right! In fact, they are often less gullible than the Christians! (Because we are told in the church- “Do not judge”, ‘Touch not the Lord’s anointed’, “You have a critical spirit if you do not join in”, etc, etc. This is the very reason why Christians are often the most gullible and easily deceived). We need to realize that the Bible says to “test the spirits” and warns very strongly that the Last Days will be a time of “seducing spirits” and great deception. So how can we become more alert to these things?

I believe that God has placed within every human being at least a measure of an inner “warning system” to protect us from being easily deceived – just as He has given us all a conscience. It is something that He has built into every one of us, in His mercy. (I guess a lot of it is simply ‘common sense’). However, Christians should have an even greater advantage in this area, because we have the “inner witness” of the Holy Spirit, and the ’still small voice’ of the Lord speaking to us every day.

But what I have found again and again with people who give themselves over to some form of deception is that they often “override” these inner alarms. They go against their ‘better judgment’. They ignore the little voice deep inside them that is telling them that there is something wrong. Christians today do this all the time. That is how they get themselves involved in such foolish deceptions.

This may all sound very obvious, but I am telling you, this one basic area alone could wipe out half the deception in the church right now. If only people would listen to these internal ‘alarm bells’ and act with common sense, half of it would be gone overnight.

The Bible is very clear that the Last Days are a time of such widespread deception that it would “deceive if possible the very elect”. It also shows that much of this deception will arise from WITHIN the church – luring believers who have “itching ears”. Do we see evidence of this kind of thing taking place today? Absolutely! In fact, some of it is at a level that is truly shocking. And yet it is all accepted as perfectly “normal” by many Christians.

One of the problems, of course, is that those who bring in these deceptions are ‘trusted’ by the congregation. They have a reputation and they put across some very convincing-sounding arguments and surround the whole thing with Biblical terminology. And thus the deception is harder to spot. (After all, if it were not “deceptive” then it would not be called ‘deception’!) People see spiritual power operating and assume that it “must be God”. But this is a very dangerous assumption to make in these days.

As I said in a previous chapter, there is also a lot of “peer pressure” involved as well. For if everyone in the church is getting into something, then shouldn’t you just ignore those little ‘alarm bells’ and jump right in? This is what is happening all the time in the church right now. And some preachers are very good at making people feel that they are ‘hindering the Spirit’ if they do not get involved.

So how do you avoid being deceived in this way?

Very simply, you do not go along to these meetings in a “gullible” frame of mind. And you do not allow yourself to be carried along with the crowd. You listen carefully to the preaching and make sure that it truly is Biblical. Then you watch the ministry happening down the front of the meeting and discern whether it really is of God or not. You do not “override” any feelings of unease or any ‘alarm bells’ going off inside you. And you do not allow yourself to be swayed by ‘peer pressure’. Even if the whole church is getting into something, it does not mean that you have to. If you do not feel quite “right” about it then DO NOT GET INVOLVED. If you need to, make some excuse and get out of there! You do not have to get involved in things that do not feel spiritually “right” to you.

A lot of people today will go to the front to get something “imparted” to them by almost every visiting speaker – almost as a matter of course. I tell you, in today’s climate this can be a very dangerous thing to do. In fact, some of this ‘impartation’ business has very flimsy backing in Scripture. Who knows what on earth these preachers are imparting? And who knows where they picked it up? I tell you, deceiving spirits are commonplace today, and I believe they are being imparted to Christians on a large scale.

Let me give you an example. I received the following account from a preacher in England not too long ago: “There were about 20 fellow ministers all gathered together in one large room at a local minister’s house. We were introduced to the special guest… The next 3 hours were the weirdest three hours I have ever had to endure. We started listening to [her] testimony which seemed very powerful, next she spoke of the times that she meets with the Angel Gabriel and other spiritual beings, next we moved on to portals between this world and the next and then finally to how she was going to open up a portal to Heaven in the room that we were all in. Now things started to happen, really crazy things and strange noises… As [she] moved around the room ministering to individual people they were crashing to the ground, bouncing up and down, running around as if on fire and making all sorts of sounds. When she came to me she had no prophetic words for me and nothing happened to me so she just moved on. My Vineyard friend was the first to crash to the floor. Since that day his church has taken on a different guise, it is not the same church any more.”

Now, you should know that this ‘guest speaker’ is a woman who is very high up in the Prophetic Movement – well known and highly regarded (except by people with discernment). This is typical of the kind of thing that happens in a lot of the more “powerful” prophetic meetings today. People are so desperate for a ‘touch’ or a spiritual experience that they will fall for anything. I myself have been in one of her meetings and what I saw was people making involuntary “bat”-like movements all over the building and an eery ‘wailing’ noise filling the air. It was truly awful.

Now, it should not surprise us that there are strong deceptions or “powerful delusions” around today, for this is exactly what the Scriptures predict will happen. All the way through the New Testament we are warned of these days – over and over again.

However, one of the problems we have is that God actually does ’strange and unusual’ things Himself. (Especially in Revivals). So we cannot simply throw out everything unusual. Just think about the Book of Acts for a moment. Not only are there healings and miracles and demons being cast out right through the whole book, but there are also occasionally angels appearing with instructions from the Lord, and an abundance of dreams, visions and prophecies, etc. So we see that God is definitely a SUPERNATURAL GOD. He does “unusual” things. Angelic visitations DO HAPPEN. Prophetic signs DO OCCUR. But please notice that all of these things have a certain holy “character” about them. And that is the key right there. They have a holy character, because they come from a holy God.

Being a strong Pentecostal-type Christian myself, I expect to see believers speaking in tongues and moving in the gifts of the Holy Spirit – just like in the New Testament. But as I stated earlier, God never goes against His own holy character. Or against Scripture. And as I often say, we may see Him do ‘unusual’ things but I believe we need to draw the line at “weird” or ugly. Some of the deception that is around right now has a ‘touchy-feely’ New Age sense about it. Remember that the New Age movement majors on “inner healing” and unusual spiritual experiences. I do not believe in ‘guided visualisation’ or anything of that kind. And neither am I very fond of the writings of Catholic mystics or the like.

However, I have personally found it very helpful to immerse myself in the writings of past Revivalists and the accounts of great moves of God. A lot of the men and women involved in these Revivals lived very close to God and knew Him intimately. They knew His holiness, they knew His glory, and they knew His love. And it is enormously helpful to one’s discernment to immerse oneself in these writings, I have found. I would recommend this to all Christians everywhere.

If you have been touched or involved in any way with manifestations or experiences that you think may not have been from God, then I urge you to utterly RENOUNCE (with your mouth, but also from the depths of your very being in Jesus’ name) any links or involvement with that experience or ‘anointing’. Please do not put this off, my friends. Some of this stuff is extremely dangerous. RENOUNCE it today.

I hope this article has been of some practical help.

God bless you all!

Kindest regards in Christ,

Andrew Strom.

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Despite the thousands in our megachurches today, soaking up the warm entertainment offered to them every week, I want to put it to you that we have lost Christianity. Despite the Christian books now found in every Walmart, and the “crossover” of Christian artists into the mainstream, and our Christian mega-stores and CD’s and DVD’s and Study-Bibles, I want to put it to you that we have lost Christianity.

Despite our lavish Cathedrals in the suburbs (‘Charismatic or not) with their pastel hues and comfortable pews, their projector screens and $30,000 sound systems, I want to put it to you that we have utterly lost Christianity.

We left it behind somewhere when we shifted our churches from the inner city into the “comfortable” suburbs. We left it behind when we stopped welcoming the bums off the street into our meetings and started welcoming only the “respectable” people. We left it behind when we stopped preaching “take up your cross” and turned the gospel into a success formula – ‘Seven Steps to your Best Life Now.’

Somewhere in our comfortable suburban streetscape with its manicured lawns we lost the real thing. Somehow in our concern for “property values” and a better ‘dental plan’ we left it behind. But that is not the worst part of it. The worst part is that we don’t know how to get it back again. Or perhaps we don’t really WANT to get it back again. The cost simply doesn’t bear thinking about, does it? And so, as we drive around in our nice shiny cars with our groovy plastic toys, and attend “church” as we know it twice a week for 2 hours;- As we live a life that is about as unlike Jesus as you can get, a life of comfort and coddling undreamt of by billions around the world;- a lifestyle in the top 10% of the earth today (-in debt up to our eyeballs all the while) – the fact is that we don’t really CARE that we have lost original Christianity, do we? We are too busy, man. Don’t bother us with that kind of talk.

It will all be OK, the preacher tells us. We will all make it to heaven in the end. We are all “decent” people here. We have “prayed the little prayer”. We have ‘given our heart to the Lord’.

Oh yes. We will all make it, won’t we? We are all good suburban church-going folks here.

But what is this? What is that thundering voice I hear? “DEPART FROM ME.” ‘But LORD… But LORD….’

“I said – ‘DEPART FROM ME’. Don’t call me Lord. You never truly lived like I was your Lord and you know it. For I was hungry and you gave me no food; I was thirsty and you gave me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take me in; naked, and you did not clothe me; sick and in prison, and you did not visit me….”

What is the essence of true Christianity that we have lost, my friends? It is simply described by James as follows- “Pure religion and undefiled is this: To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” (Ja 1:27). Amen.

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There is no tragedy in the world worse than this – the church losing the gospel. We could have a hundred terrorist attacks, or earthquakes, or hurricanes, and it would still not outweigh the tragedy of this one thing – WE HAVE LOST THE GOSPEL. Nothing can compare to this disaster – nothing.

For when you lose the gospel, you lose salvation. People are actually no longer becoming saved. (Remember, Paul said that the gospel is the “POWER OF GOD unto salvation”). And when people are no longer truly becoming saved, you also lose the church. For no true gospel = no true church.

People will tell me that I am being too “drastic”. Well, I want to say to you that I am not being drastic enough. In fact, if I were to shout through 1000 megaphones directly into your ears, it would not be possible for me to overemphasize just how disastrous and awful and horrific it is that our backslidden Western church today has – to all intents and purposes – lost its gospel. And in doing so it has lost its very reason for being.

We tell everybody that all they need to do is say a little rote prayer accepting Jesus as their “personal savior”. Tell me, where is such a thing in Scripture? Does such a thing even come close to existing? Can you recall even ONE person doing such a thing to become a Christian in the Bible? Did any of the Apostles in Acts ever say to someone, “Just repeat this little prayer after me”? Or “Quietly slip up your hand – no need for anyone to see”? Can you remember ANYONE in Scripture doing anything like that?

No, you can’t. That is because nobody ever did. It is all a modern fabrication – a complete invention. -This is no salvation at all. We act like people can safely forget about CONVICTION of sin and DEEP REPENTANCE and WATER-BAPTISM and getting FILLED with the Holy Spirit. -Just “optional extras”, eh? But look at ‘Acts’ and tell me – was there ever such a thing as real Christianity with- out these things? And what about getting a CLEAN CONSCIENCE (-washed in the blood) and KEEPING IT CLEAN? Are we ever told how to walk in THAT today?? -To actually “walk” in the washing of the blood of Jesus? To be clean, to be utterly “Clean”, to be EVERY WHIT CLEAN?? (-The most important thing in the world). Where is this in our gospel? Where is the transformed life? Where is the “FREEDOM” from sin?

We have lost it all. Our people very rarely repent. They often go for years without baptism (-meaning, according to Romans 6, that their “old man” is not yet dead – and so they simply cannot live a new life in Christ). Read Romans 6 sometime and ask yourself this question- “If I have not been baptized, then is my old life “buried” with Christ or not? Is my ‘old man’ dead or not?” -This is why the apostles always baptized people RIGHT AWAY.

And then we often fail to get people ‘FILLED’ with the Spirit straight away too – let alone “walking” in the Spirit. Tell me, how are we supposed to have ‘HOLINESS’ if we have not even been filled with the “HOLY” Spirit? Why do you think that the apostles always made sure that people became Spirit-filled RIGHT AWAY??

Most of us do not even have “Day One” Christianity as it was in the Bible. We have lost the gospel and we don’t even know it. We have invented a gospel of ‘convenience’, a gospel without the cross, a gospel without holiness or the power to live a Christian life. -A gospel that shows no-one how to get a CLEAN CONSCIENCE or how to WALK IN IT. I want to say to you that such a gospel is NO GOSPEL AT ALL. And we should be ashamed of ourselves for preaching such a travesty.

No wonder today’s church is lukewarm! The gospel is the building block upon which everything else is built. Without it we have nothing – literally nothing. It affects all that we do and all that we are. To lose it is simply the worst disaster imaginable. So how on earth can we get it back?

Well, we have spoken about “Revival” many times on this site. But what a lot of people don’t realize is that the ‘RETURN OF THE GOSPEL’ was often the key that brought about the Great Awakenings – the GOSPEL being restored and preached in power. The longest-lasting Revivals always involved the “RETURN OF THE GOSPEL”. That is precisely what was happening with the preaching of Wesley, Finney, Whitefield, etc. And it has to happen again today!

So “Revival” to me is far more than just a fleeting visitation. It is to be the long-lasting restoration of the true gospel – and thus the true church also. If we want true Christianity restored today, we must first see THE GOSPEL restored. It is the most important key to it all. O God, send such a Revival! BRING BACK THE GOSPEL and those who will PREACH IT! O God, we cry out to you in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

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I write this as a musician and a radical. Christian Youth of America, your generation is dying, and I need to ask if you are EXTREME enough to provide the answers. We know there never was anyone more “Extreme” than Jesus. But what about you?

Christian Youth, I need to ask why you sit in the padded pews of your fathers while all around the darkness takes your cities and your friends.

I need to ask why you worship the great god of Entertainment, just like your parents before you – but a bit ‘louder’ – and think that is “radical”.

I need to ask why you think it is “extreme” to slam and mosh, when all the while the devil owns your streets, and fat Record Companies line their pockets with your cash.

I need to know why you have allowed the system to make you a slave – a “consumer” – a clone. I need to know why you can be sucked into buying $150 shoes and $200 sunglasses – while 30,000 children die of starvation every day.

I need to know why you will not cry out to the rich money-preachers “REPENT”. I need to know why you still enjoy it when they tickle your ears and never speak of Hell. I need to know why you accept it when their gospel sounds like a toothpaste commercial – all slick and no substance. Well-dressed drones with plastic smiles, selling you the latest line in snake-oil. WHEN WILL YOU WEEP?

I look at your piercings and your tattoos and your hair and I still have to tell you: You are nowhere near EXTREME ENOUGH. The outward appearance will not do.

The time is coming when an army of young warriors will hit the streets – fearless and bold beyond anything we have ever seen. Even death itself will hold no fear. They will cry to the church “REPENT” and to the comfortable, “SELL what you have and GIVE TO THE POOR”. They will be hated and despised by religious authorities. They will openly decry the TV preachers and eschew the watered-down pap that passes for ‘gospel’ in our day. They will reject sin and love people – even the homeless and the very least. Utterly pure of heart, they will befriend the prostitutes and the gang bangers. They will look and sound just like Jesus.

With great daring and ruthless aggression, this army will make war on the devil and the darkness. Their music will be hymns of battle. Their sound will ROAR over the crowd. Truly these shall be the ‘Sons of Thunder’.

Christian Youth of America, can you not hear the call of God in this hour? All heaven awaits the moment when you will arise and ACT on behalf of your generation.

To the Christian Youth of America I say:

It is time to get “EXTREME”.

God bless you all.

-Andrew Strom.

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