Basics of Revival — Glenn Meldrum

For more messages by Glenn Meldrum and in his presence ministries, go to www .IHP M-i-n I-s-t-r-y Dot-com. You are welcome to make additional copies of this CD for free distribution. A message.

I have this evening.

I think is extremely important for the church. But it's going to take a little time for me to get to my point. And so I'm going to ask that you listen through because it's going to take a little bit of building and I'm have to put some Thoughts there in the midst of it.

Trusting God Rather Than the Arm of Flesh

I'm going to deal a little bit for your information. About some aspects of revival. And so as God leads I will deal with some of these issues. But before we actually begin. Let's look the Lord in prayer.

Father we come before you now in Jesus name. Lord, we pray that you'd open our understanding. That you give us ears to hear dear God. Lord, let your grace and your presence right now fall upon each individual here.

That you might accomplish the good work that you desire to do in their lives. In the precious name of Jesus we ask turn to Jeremiah 17 beginning in the fifth verse. This is what the Lord says. Cursed is the one who trusts in man.

Who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord? He will be like a bush in the wastelands. He will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert in The salt land where no one lives.

But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes its leaves are always green.

It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit. There's a contrast that's brought here between the one who trusts in Man, and the one who trusts in God now. It's a very difficult thing for us to come to the point to actually trust in God and we're gonna you know, that might sound Untrue but it is it's difficult for us because God is spirit and we can't just reach out and just touch him.

You know. We can't go to church and see him in essence sit on a throne up there and come before him and say, you know Hey Jesus what's going on? We don't have that ability to confront him in such a manner.

Where this world and the things of this world we can touch we can handle we can see we can possess. We can sell we can buy we can have all the things of it but God is not like that and. So trusting in him is difficult.

Trusting in the world is easy. When trouble comes what do we do? It becomes easy to trust in our own strength in our own intelligence and our own experience in the past and and the experiences of other individuals and counselors or or doctors or anything else that would might be it's easy to trust in the arm of flesh it Comes very natural.

It's easy and we've got to see how easy it is to trust in God is very difficult. It is not an easy thing to trust in God now. We can say that very simply says Oh, yes, I trust in God, but you've got to see how difficult it is and see are you trusting in God?

Are you trusting in God the way that you should? Because like I said, it becomes so natural for us to trust in the flesh. It becomes so natural. Israel was called to be a people of God. They were called out of the world to be a community of faith as A community of faith they were separated that God was to be their God their king and their ruler.

But they wanted to be like the rest of the world because the rest of the world had Kings that were tangible. Israel had a king that was invisible a King that they could not go up and touch and beseech when there was a dispute.

They couldn't go before this king in the same way that you do before a natural King. So what did they want? They said send us a king. God give us a king somebody that we can see and somebody that we can touch.

But God said this is okay. You can have your king. But he's gonna take the best of your men and they will go and fight for him. They will take the best of your crops. Because you have to feed their army and though they take the best of your your women because he'll want him for his wife.

And so they wanted to trust in the arm of flesh. And lo and behold what happens when an enemy comes? It becomes very difficult for us to sit down and say, okay, here's the enemy. They've come against me.

They're gonna fight against me. They're gonna destroy me. They're gonna annihilate me. Sitting there and trusting in God seems absolutely absurd seems idiotic on A natural basis. It has no it makes no sense at all because here's the army.

What do you do when the army comes you get your army together and you hope your army is big enough to beat that army very natural how he makes Great sense from a natural viewpoint what Israel did time and again was very natural very typical.

What the majority of people would do and nations would do they put there are they put their trust in the arm of flesh rather? Than in the arm of God. But how does this affect the church? We have to see that God has called us to a work that is not physical but that is spiritual.

Though it works in the in the physical realm. We don't minister to ghosts. We minister to people but they are spiritual creatures. And so he's called us to a spiritual work in the sense that a person cannot come to Christ except that he draw them.

But he made it a little more complicated. He says I am going to use you as the agent in which that I will draw people. So you must speak and not just the aspect that you must speak. You must be full of me to be able to accomplish the task.

So now I dealt with this somewhat in the morning of the powerlessness of the church and Why the church is so weak, but I'm gonna want to focus on this. Because what ends up happening is we are trying to do a spiritual work through the arm of flesh.

The 70s the 80s, you know. Especially the 80s and early part of the 90s had a zillion and one programs on how to make your church grow. It was a pastor 16 years. I have a portion of my library and to be very honest I have them all packed away in a box on how to grow how to make your church grow.

You know all kinds of books church growth books and you know, they have some good points but with something that God did with an individual and who says he's gonna do with anybody else and not just that as many churches have been built not from the aspect of the Spirit of God, but because of good management.

Good management. I Remember service. I heard recently There's a pastor from Sunderland, England and Sunderland England would be the equivalent of the Toronto in North America so it was a renewal movement that was going on within the church and This church was in the slums in Sunderland in a bad area.

They built a beautiful building. But because they were having their cars and everything broken and the place was being built broke in they built a big fence all the way around it to protect it but in the speaking to the community of saying you are blocking us out and so spoke very loud to the community and the church grew became very large became prominent and all sudden one day God confronts the pastor and Says this Church I have not built.

You have built it. You have kept the people out that I wanted to win. You have built walls of separation. I'm removing you from the pastorate. Another man is going to take your place. God told him says you are building your own kingdom.

You're building your own church. He says I did not call you to do this. I did not call you to build this. What is done is not of my will. God moved him out humbled him and eventually moved him into a different ministry.

But it's very scary thought that Christians can build their own kingdoms that they can do what God calls them to do. Through the spirit do it with the arm of flesh and then God looks at it and says I have no part of this.

Revival Cannot Be Manufactured

Now equally as much of he's called us to do something through the spirit. We have to see that there is no possible way that it may accomplish through the arm of flesh. You do not have a program that is going to save people.

Because no program no plan. No idea is going to save an individual. We cannot have some particular plan that is going to make people get healed. It's just not going to happen. I Remember hearing of this one.

I believe he was an Episcopal pastor and the Episcopal Church would be the equivalent to the Anglican Church over in England and God was moving and and was using this brother as a in in a in a gift of healing.

And so he didn't understand the Pentecostal way and so he didn't do it in the Pentecostal thing. He went in his church and took a piece of tape and Ran the tape all the way down the altar. And then he says anybody who wants prayer you come up here and you put your toes on that tape.

Because he wanted everything done in order he go through and pray for me. God would just knock him down nice little order. He wanted to make sure it was all done. So he put a little order to it, but when God begins to move It's not the arm of flesh.

It becomes the arm of God. Now why isn't this church full. I'm gonna be just very honest how many times have you asked that a couple back here that some friends they were here in the time where I attended the church and they saw what the services were in the old part of the building over here.

They were packed in. Not just packed in you would take Chairs and they would put chairs right up to the altar if you were in that front row your knees were touching the altar. And then they'd have chairs down both sides of the center aisle chairs down the side aisle.

Chairs all the way up along the back and people would still be standing outside. It was packed. It was packed with young people. It was packed with young people that were coming all over the place. And you know the revival that took place in this church.

Could have been a thousand times more powerful if people would have understood what was going on and done something with it. God was merciful and saved many young people. Many miracles. Steve walked in back here and just as you know, I'm one of the miracles of this church.

What happened see when God begins to move? One thing that revival is is the moving of individuals out of the way and God coming on the scene. When God comes on the scene, he doesn't need showman. He doesn't need super evangelist.

He doesn't need people that have have television shows and talk shows on the Christian networks. He doesn't need that. When God comes on the scene people need to step aside and say let the true star be seen let him be known but when he's not there we substitute it with the arm of flesh and.

So this becomes an important thing for us to begin to understand is the church operates in the arm of flesh. Except when it comes to paint a place that it's revived and then it begins to step aside and allow God to do it.

Prayer as the House of God

So, why isn't the church full why isn't the church full. We can come up with all kinds of things this happened that happened. There was problems in the church and so on. But it's not full because the arm of God has not been revealed.

Plain and simple the arm of God has not been revealed. And so ultimately that ends up meaning that the arm of flesh has. Does this make this church unique? No, I'll tell you what you go through every other church.

There is not one church. I know of in Detroit where revival is in existence. Now people might have their signs out there. They might say it's out there. It's not out there because it was out there Detroit would be changing.

It's not out there. Why isn't it isn't that God doesn't love Detroit or is it that there's something in this area that is stopping the move of God? And the Saints aren't battling the spiritual strongholds that is against the church.

That they're not in in passion and desperation before God to see something happen. Because what we what do we do we have another book that comes on the market the pastors, you know. It is snatch it up and figure this is gonna be the answer home groups.

That's the answer. No church girls seminars. Those are the answer. This is the answer that thing's the answer and Once again, they go to the arm of flesh rather than a place of Desperation which is only manifested at the altar.

Because that is in essence the type of situation. Here's the army out there. They're marching against us. They're thousands upon thousands. And what do we do? We run to an altar. How foolish in the eyes of the world, but how foolish in the eyes of the church?

The church thinks it ridiculous in essence because if it thought it important. Then why is prayer meeting so scarce? Why is it that God called his house a house of prayer? But go to the majority of churches and do a pie chart and Figure out the amount of time that is spent on particular activities in the church.

What percentage is on prayer. Now, let me ask you a question. Is your church a house of prayer? It's a difficult thing to ask. It's a difficult thing to look at but that's what it really comes down to be is that we have to be willing to look At it and say is the church what God has called it to be.

And if the church isn't what it's God's called it to be then we have to get ourselves in a place to align ourselves with what he's asking. If We're resting in flesh. We're resting in programs and not in the presence of God then we have to change something.

Human Powerlessness and Genuine Repentance

A thing that God has been doing in my life has Been helping me to come to the point to understand that I Can't do it. I can't do it. I Don't have the ability. I Cannot save one individual. I cannot heal one person.

I cannot renew an in a believer. I do not have the ability. Now I might be able to to become a a very good speaker and in speaking. Well, I might be able to move the emotions but you know You can move the emotions and people come to the altars and they can be the same identical individual when they're gone.

Because it can only be the Spirit of God that can move the emotions to the point of of godly sorrow that brings genuine repentance and brings Transformation. Only godly sorrow brings transformation. The sorrow of the world that can be produced through through guilt.

Does not ever produce transformation because people remain the same. How many times that people sorrowed over something they come to an altar. They leave and to the same identical individual they had a worldly form of sorrow not a godly sorrow that brought them to repentance because it is not in the ability of an Evangelist or in the ability of a pastor or in the ability of anybody to convict.

We cannot it is only in the presence of God. Now conviction is not within the church. And if the world is not being convicted of its sin, then what is the conclusion of it? And so these are some hard things that I'm trying to present to you.

But they become so important for us to be able to look at where God really wants us to be. I just want to take a couple of minutes and touch on a few points before I go on from here. What are some of the things that hinder revivals?

Tradition and Resistance to New Movements

I'm not going to deal with the pastoral aspects because I'm not dealing with pastors, but I'm gonna deal with the congregational aspects what is the thing that hinders the move of God and stops the arm of God of being Made bare and when scripture refers to his arm being made bare.

The idea is that he's coming out in strength. He's showing his strength. He's showing his power to save and to deliver. Why is not that arm made bare? The first thing is is congregations love tradition.

God doesn't move because tradition becomes so important now. Guess what tradition you have. You have a Pentecostal tradition and you can be as heaped in your Pentecostal tradition as some very, you know traditional type of churches.

The Pentecostal tradition can be as much of an obstacle to the move of God as any other tradition. Why? Jonathan Edwards ended up bringing this out. He warned the the seniors and those people who were older saying you can be major Detriments to the move of God because you can say this is the way it happened to me.

So it must happen like this if it doesn't happen within what I think God should do then it's not going to happen at all. And so they end up stopping it. But God is a God of change that does new things and if we don't allow him to do it.

Then we will stop it. I mean it was good for me to come here and to see the worship so different what it was than when I was. When I was young here. Because often what we do is we say this is the way I worship and so anything that's going to be a move of God.

It must be the same identical worship, but God does new type of things and worship changes. I mean the worship of of of Charles Wesley and the stuff he wrote he took barroom tunes. Your hymns so many of your hymns in your books are barroom tunes that he took and he changed the lyrics to.

Why did he do it because they were things that they already sung? And so he just changed the lyrics because they were gonna keep singing them and they would remember. But see we don't remember that we think that these are so sacred.

So holy they are wonderful wonderful lyrics. But does that mean that we have to sing songs that are 400, you know, three four hundred years old or two hundred years old. Because God wants to do new things and fresh things.

He wants to work in a way where he touches lives and transforms lives. But if we love tradition, we're not going to let it happen because when God visits he blows apart everything. You want a visitation of God you have to let him in and you have to let him blow apart your church in essence.

You have to let him change the pecking order. And what I mean by the pecking order is certain people have your positions right now. But what happens if a hundred people come into this church and they get saved that holds order changes all of a sudden.

You don't have the same position now you're not the star that pastor talks to every time after service because now there's so many other people he might not get to you and All sudden people start getting angry because they say well pastor didn't talk to me today.

Well, there's a hundred new people in the church. You want growth. You want to move of God? You have to say God you break into our world you break into our church and you change what has to change. But that's scary.

Change is scary. Change is very scary. The next thing is love of brevity a Big thing that is harmful to revival are these little thingies we put on our wrists. Because we end up saying God you've got to work within my timetable.

Preaching the Word Beyond the Timetable

I ended up leaving this church and Starting a church in Detroit and it was a wonderful experience. God Used that church. We saw a lot of people saved a lot of people out of crazy lifestyles. We had bikers saved and so on all kinds of things.

It was great. But you know, there's something that was interesting about our our experience is that our church was different. Because I was so engrossed with what God was doing on the streets in Detroit with what was going on.

I wasn't out in the Christian world. And so we weren't affected as much by what was going on in the Christian world. And so we had some very good worship in our church. God was moving. He was saving people and and so on.

I resigned the church and I went to one church after another church after another church and The worship was so dead. It astounded me. It set me back. I couldn't believe it. I Mean my church in Detroit had great worship and I'm out there and all of a sudden going this is dead stuff.

They were worried about getting the people out by noon. That was most important. I mean 20-minute song services. That's it. Then you're gonna go and you're gonna have the announcements offering, you know.

And maybe a half-hour preaching and gonna make sure you're out because if you don't you're gonna be told it by some parishioners. I Mean as evangelists, I can't tell you how many times I've gone in and somebody has made sure that they've told me said well good sermon passed.

You know brother, but it was pretty long. Well, sorry I come and I submit to to the pastor and what his desires are. But the Word of God needs to be preached and you can't always say what needs to be said in a half hour.

But not just that is what if God wants to visit when you look at the situation of Brownsville. Look at the situation of Brownsville. Here's this church. That's in the middle of a poor area, but more of an affluent kind of church.

They're not they're praying for revival, they're seeking revival. But you know, even when you pray and you seek you don't expect it. You're not thinking it's really gonna happen. And so the pastor was getting burnt out.

He was just wore out getting discouraged and so on. You know, he had You know a couple thousand people in this church, but he's getting discouraged. He was at a point. He says man. I'm sick of church.

I'm sick of playing the games. I'm sick of the status quo says I want some life. I want something that's real happening. And so because he was discouraged he heard that Steve Hill was in town and they've been longtime friends and the guy had preached many Times at his church, so he called Steve Hill and says would you minister?

I'm just not in the mood. I just don't have anything on my heart. I'm tired. Not an attitude of what you're expecting for revival. And it's Father's Day much less and the mentality is, you know Father's Day.

We'll just get the kids. We'll go out get something to eat. You're not expecting any move of God. Not expecting nothing to happen and lo and behold the evangelist gets up there and more than likely he wasn't expecting anything and God fell.

He had an altar call and a thousand people came forward and the pastor's just there going. Not on this day not on Father's Day. I was just gonna go to lunch. We're not gonna pray for all these people and be out of here by by, you know, twelve one o 'clock.

You know I mean he was just dumbfounded at what's going on and then he moves over to the other side of the altar and he just Feels the presence of God rushed through like a river and next thing, you know.

The guy's knocked down and God knocks him on his back and he's there for hours. While God can takes over the service. Because see when the arm of God is manifested. He doesn't need individuals in the same way.

He wants individuals to be servants, but he does not need us. But if he comes it comes to the point where we become desperate for him. And when we begin to get desperate for him, then he will start making himself.

No, the problem is we become comfortable where we're at. The other thing is the love of the comfortable. We come to a point where we don't want God to upset our church because if we upset it We don't know what we're gonna face.

I mean things are gonna be different people are gonna come in and you know, it's just gonna be a big mess. Well, you know when revival broke out at Brownsville. Some interesting things happen. Well there went Sunday school for a while and there went went Royal Rangers and all the other programs because things started happening so much they didn't know What from down and they're just trying to keep their head above water.

There's sometimes getting out it at sunrise out of church at sunrise, you know, they just don't know what's going on. They're just trying to handle things until eventually down the road. They started getting the wind and trying to get some pace and they could start doing things.

But man, it just blows everything out of the water. You want it comfortable forget revival. Forget it. Because God isn't gonna visit and make things comfortable. Not just that is when he visits he shines a light on us and we have to deal with our sin.

Because he wants to get deeper and deeper when people come to the Lord he deals with the Outward sins, you know their alcoholism there, you know drug addiction or their sexual perversions or whatever it might be.

He deals with the outward things but as it continues he gets deeper in the heart. He gets deeper inside and wants to get deeper because that light shines. Brighter and brighter and it gets more into the problems of the individual and of the church.

Respectability, Radical Discipleship, and Revival

Another problem is the love of respect. You know churches want to be respectable, you know when the Pentecostal movement began and God poured out in the revival of 1906 and Azusa Street on Azusa Street in Los Angeles, California.

They had awful things written about it. And not just that as the Pentecostal movement spread you had Pentecostal preachers that were tarred and feathered. Churches were bombed and burnt. They were not respectable, but you know when you go into the Pentecostal movement, there has been no evangelistic movement like the Pentecostal movement.

World evangelism has been greater from the Pentecostal Church than any other time in history. It has been phenomenal what the Pentecostal movement has done. Phenomenal, but yet it was rejected. Lo and behold, guess what?

If I'm not mistaken the chaplain of Congress is an assemblies of God minister. Not saying that's bad. What it says is we're acceptable now. We've arrived. So we want to make sure we look good. Keep everything just right.

Don't rock the boat. You know, that's why you're having a growth of problems in the Pentecostal churches. Well, we don't want to speak in tongues the gifts, you know home group type of things but not in the church.

Because we're respectable. God doesn't care about respectability. Jesus didn't care about it. He was a radical. We don't understand how radical he was because we read him from 20th century mindset. This man was radical.

He shook his world upside down. He didn't leave Israel the same and Not just that there he brought upon them a guilt. From his radical lifestyle and from his sacrificial living and from his death on the cross.

He produced a guilt upon them because they rejected who he was. He didn't make it safe nor did he make it easy, but when we want respect. Plain and simple. God's not going to show up. Because sometimes he does things that is kind of crazy.

Sometimes he does things that just don't fit in our little little world. I mean, here's Jesus going and spitting in mud taking months slapping on some guy's eye. I mean that is not respectable how Unsanitary.

We were going to say what a kook what a nut, you know, what's he doing something like that for? Jesus was not out to win respectability. He was out to manifest the glory of God and If that becomes our ambition Then we don't care what the world thinks and let me present another thing with this.

Why should the church allow the world to tell it what it should be anyway? It should be God telling us what were to be not how the world thinks if the world says well This is what it should be. They have it wrong anyway but yet we're so prone to be influenced by what the world thinks.

Prayerlessness, Faithfulness, and the Cost of Revival

An Incorrect understanding of revival. I Don't want to take the time on that but so well many times people do not understand what revival is. I will say the majority of the church doesn't understand what revival is.

Another thing is prayerlessness that hinders revival. If a church isn't praying forget revival. How desperate are you for revival. How desperate are you really to see all these pews filled. It's going to depend on how desperate you are to get to the Psalter.

If you're not desperate to get to the Psalter and Not just give nice little prayers, but cry out to God in passion saying God Please bring the lost and bring them in do a work and start weeping before God for the souls of individuals.

You're not gonna see him come in. You're not gonna see him come in. You then will be reaping what you sow. Nice little biblical thing. You'll reap what you sow. Prayerlessness produce barrenness. You'll reap what you sow.

Prayerfulness will produce Fruitfulness. You want to see something happen. You have to get on your face before God. Another aspect comes down to be that hinders revival is faithlessness. Charles Finney brought out the situation that one thing that stops the move of God within a After it begins is that people get tired and they stop being faithful to it.

And so if God goes to do something, I'll tell you what he's gonna call you as individuals to be a part of it. You want a move of God you better consider the aspect of saying am I willing to invest in it?

Am I willing to do it for the long haul or do I just want some new feeling and you know? When the thrill is gone and the work really gets down to be nitty-gritty. Well, I'm just gonna kind of check out of things.

But God wants people for the long haul and he looks at the church and he'll say these people are willing or these people aren't another thing that I want to touch on just real quick and I feel this is important is Rebellion is a cause to stop God from moving.

Rebellion, Church Authority, and Unity

I'm gonna relate this because this is serious. This is a burden on my heart. I weep before God over this issue because I see it across America. It is a disease in the churches rebellion. God has placed a man as pastor of this church.

And I'm gonna say something bold here. You speak against that man. You speak against God. You gossip about that man. You are in blatant rebellion against God. Okay, there's no maybes about it. Scripture proves it time and again.

If that man's not supposed to be here you leave that to God. Somebody gossips. You're a partaker if you don't stop it and What you really need to do if they start gossiping you grab their hand you take them to the pastor.

Don't let it be a curse upon your church gossip. Rebellion is a curse and when God wants to move and God begins to move and starts preparing the people to move people who don't want want revival become those who begin rebellions and The devil uses it and I'll tell you what gossip.

Spreads it can take things that a good individual and slander them when they've done nothing wrong and people will believe lies. It's powerful stuff. The devil uses it. That's why it brings a curse upon a church.

There needs to be Correct submission to a pastor. You may not always agree with him. That's fine. God didn't say you had to. But you need to always follow. Because he has placed him in authority and you're not always going to see what God's wanting to do that man as.

The pastors of the church is around here. They're the man of God for that place. They should be having the vision for it. You're not always going to see it and you're not always going to understand it and you got to let the pastor fail.

You got to let pastor Mike make a mistake. He's gonna make mistakes. He's human. Let him fail occasionally. And so he does something and he falls flat on his face. You know what you need to do as a church rather than go and say I told you so I knew that wouldn't work.

You go and run and you pick him up and you say brother. We love you. Thank you for trying. Thank you for forgiving it an effort rather than belittling and condemning as what happens so often. And so you want revival?

Unity. Behind leadership is important. There's more I could say, but I don't want to take any more time on that particular issue. Turn to Jeremiah to. I've kind of gotten behind in what I was trying to do.

Forsaking the Fountain of Living Water

Jeremiah 2 in the 13th verse. This is my people have committed two sins. They have forsaken me the spring of living water and have dug their own cisterns broken cisterns that cannot hold water well what people did in the Middle East a cistern was something where they dug a hole and They would let it fill up with rainwater and so on.

It would be deep enough that the Sun wouldn't get to it. And so the water would stay there and they'd be able to have water until it was down and hope that rain would come and Fill it back up or sometimes they dig deep enough and they would hit a stream underground stream.

What he's saying is that Israel has forsaken the true living water to make their own cisterns. We're gonna make our own efforts our own ability to supply what is needed within the church. That's what he's speaking about.

Now it goes back to the idea that we rest upon the arm of flesh. We figure that God's not moving. So let me see what I can do. But if God's not moving do we sit down and say what is wrong with me? What is wrong with the church?

Why aren't you moving but often what we do is instead we just kind of go on and we say well. Let's see what we can do instead, you know, God's not moving. So so let's try this new program. Let's try this new thing and we approach it totally wrong.

We rest upon the arm of flesh rather than upon the arm of God and Isaiah 53 in the first verse. It says who hath believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed and it goes through then Jesus and his whole sacrificial thing the arm of God was revealed in Jesus Christ to take away the sins of the world.