Refreshing Needed I’m fairly sure that I was experiencing a God-initiated visionary trance. In the final scene I was a member of a platform committee that had the assignment of scheduling speakers for massive conferences. Many ministers who wanted breakthroughs in their ministries were gathered in hopes of being chosen. They were called upon one by one to describe their unique aspects of ministry. Many were heard and when none were chosen, one asked a needed question. What exactly are you looking for? I felt my lips and tongue moving as I gave this answer before snapping out of the trance. “What we are looking for is ministries that bear heavy witness that they are on the brink of being the fountainhead of a time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. (Act 3:19-21) God periodically uses not yet high profile ministries to uncover new truths and/or to restore lost truths to the Body of Christ. This will continue through various seasons of refreshing until all that God intends is functional in his Church.” What I outlined doesnt in any way minimize the importance of ministries that emphasize one or more aspects of what the Lord has restored in previous outpourings. Nonetheless, the ministries that God chooses to be new fountainheads of refreshing carry an anointing that is most definitely uncommon. This does not infer that ministers given this aspect of grace have greater prayer lives, preaching ability, and so forth than those bypassed. It is simply a matter of God’s sovereign choice that often confounds those of the opinion that God has conventional criteria that determines who and what he will and will not bless. There is a key sign of this type anointing. Laypeople and ministers touched by it at its source carry embers of the anointing back to ignite their own locales with the unique flavor of what God is restoring. In turn, their home churches become ember sources and thus the new and restored truths spread worldwide. I’ll give some examples. The visitation of the Holy Spirit that became known as the Father’s Blessing Movement started in Toronto, Canada. During the first 10 years, multiplied millions from around the globe visited to be touched by what God was doing. Hundreds of thousands carried highly combustible saturations of soul back to inflame their home churches with the glorious benefits of encountering sensations of Father God’s extravagant love. I have questioned churchmen worldwide whose churches emphasize the value of intimacy with God and that also frequently have people exhibit hints that they are experiencing the Father’s loving embrace. Almost all whom I have questioned either dated their anointing back to visits to Toronto or a church that had carried an anointed flame from it. Much the same is evident in fellowships that have key people who have visited and/or have been trained at Bill Johnson’s Bethel Church in Redding, Ca. Wherever their ministers travel, the vision for laymen to effectively minister their style of “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” is imparted in regard to physical healing. Chuck Smith of the Calvary Chapel Movement was granted success along similar lines. Smith was given a pattern for church services methodology that has a distinctive ability to foster exceptionally large churches. My guess is that Calvary’s ratio of mega-churches is greater than any other American denomination. The phenomenal growth rarely comes to churches even though they wisely incorporate the basics of Calvary’s pattern and might perhaps copycat the Calvary Chapel name. For God’s own reasons, the huge growth comes to fellowships that operate under the direct auspices of what God initiated through Chuck Smith. With this particular example direct lineage seems to be essential. I don’t know why this is so, but it is my observation. Many of us have prayed for years for revival in our nation. My suspicion is that it will come clothed in numerous closely spaced periods of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. I believe it would be appropriate to specifically ask the Lord to spring forth new fountainheads of visitation. What say you?
Posted on: Wed, 09 Apr 2014 02:55:50 +0000
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