Why Most Christians Will Go To Hell
II Thessalonians 1:9: "Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power."
“Is the world crucified to you or does it fascinate you?”
--Leonard Ravenhill
When God Calls You to Isolation
Daniel 10:7-9: "And I Daniel alone saw the vision: for the men that were with me saw not the vision; but a great quaking fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves. Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength. Yet heard I the voice of his words . . ."
“Tell me what time you spend alone with God . . .
and I’ll tell you how spiritual you are.”
– Leonard Ravenhill
This is from the Baptist Press:
By Brandon Porter
WILMORE, Kentucky. (BP) – Revival fires may be stirring again at a small college in rural Kentucky near Lexington. Services, filled with preaching, singing and personal testimonies, have been ongoing at Asbury University and Theological Seminary since Feb. 8.
According to university accounts, a similar 144-hour revival broke out at the campus in 1970.
Alexandra Presta, a student at Asbury wrote in The Asbury Collegian, the campus newspaper, on Feb. 8, “Peers, professors, local church leaders and seminary students surround me— all of them praying, worshipping, and praising God together. Voices are ringing out. People are bowing at the altar, arms stretched wide.”
She wrote that in the midweek chapel service campus minister Zach Meerkreebs led an invitation for personal confession and testimonies.
“Wednesday chapel speaker Zach Meerkreebs admitted to those in attendance he didn’t know what the call of confession would look like, but this morning he spoke about seeing God not only as a Father but as a friend. Someone who won’t abandon you. Someone who will be there when you need to cry, mourn, rejoice, dance or anything in between,” she wrote in the Asbury Collegian.
Bill Elliff, founding pastor of The Summit Church in North Little Rock, Arkansas, attended a portion of the services on Feb. 10.
“Within the first hour, I had moved from a spectator to a humble participant,” he wrote in a blog on his website.
“There are wise leaders from the University who are helping shepherd the moment. I’m sure they have learned from the past movements how to steward this best,” he wrote.
Elliff has been a student of prayer and spiritual awakening and has written more than 50 books on the subjects.
“In some ways, it is a worship-based, Spirit-led, Scripture-fed prayer gathering. It is just what we should be doing all the time: waiting before God, worshiping Him, praying to Him, listening to Him, responding to Him, and being shepherded by wise leaders who see themselves merely as facilitators of God’s activity,” Elliff wrote.
Elliff said the 1,500-seat Hughes Auditorium was full on Friday night (Feb. 10). Reports indicated it was overflowing on Saturday night (Feb. 11).
Eric Allen, Kentucky Baptist Convention missions team leader, attended a portion of Saturday’s meeting and reported a similar experience.
“Sherry (Allen’s wife) and I had only been there a few minutes singing music when we were both moved emotionally and in tears because the presence of God was so real in that place. We could feel it,” he told Baptist Press.
“There was genuine praise and worship. Everything pointed to God and was very Christ-centered,” he said.
He said that while there was freedom in the meeting, there was also order.
“One of the things I noticed was that there was spontaneity and order to what was happening. It wasn’t a stifling or restricting kind of order because there was also a freedom for people to testify, sing or pray and the freedom was never wild or without order,” he said.
Elliff made similar observations.
“It is not weird. Everything is extremely orderly but vibrant, spontaneous, and powerful,” he wrote.
Graci Bradley, an Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) student from Shelbyville, attended the Friday night service.
“Seeing people from every nation, tribe, and tongue, and from all different generations, was a glimpse of heaven. It was very encouraging to see that everyone was there for one common goal – to give God glory,” she told Baptist Press.
“He is worthy of it all, and in Him we are united,” she said.
Bradley, an active member of the Baptist Campus Ministry at EKU said in written comments, “What is happening at Asbury is something pleasing to God, as His children are uniting to sing His praise.”
That is a similar theme to the 1970 revival at Asbury, where 2,000 witness teams were sent to 130 colleges to share of their experience. On Saturday afternoon, campus ministers hosted a dinner for college campus student leaders to hear of how they might share in a similar event at their campus.
Kenny Rager, church evangelism strategist at the Kentucky Baptist Convention, attended the service on Saturday night.
“I was encouraged to see the staff shepherding the revival movement,” he told Baptist Press. “They are keeping order, giving instructions, and announcements but still encouraging the freedom of the spirit,” he said.
Rager said there were many testimonies shared while he was there, but there were also sermons.
“I was very encouraged that the preaching of God’s Word is happening. Lots of expressive worship and testimonies but there was also good preaching of the Word by the staff,” he said.
He says he understands some people might be skeptical of the events taking place at Asbury.
“I understand why people may be skeptical. I was a little, too. We have seen a lot of movements fizzle out or even drift into heresy,” he said.
“Honestly, time will tell if this bears lasting fruit. But I went. I felt the Lord’s presence. I saw people worship. I saw people praying. I heard the Word preached. I met new brothers and sisters in the Lord and I felt the Lord speak to me about some issues,” he told Baptist Press in written comments.
A hunger for God permeates the people we’ve talked to who have attended.
“People are hungry to see God at work, and I think that’s what draws the crowds. They want to see God do something great in our lives and in our midst,” Allen said.
Bradley added, “…it’s my hope and prayer that it doesn’t stop at Asbury, but that it extends all over – we are called to be sent.”
“I believe these meetings are being driven by a desire to see a fresh outpouring of the spirit,” Rager said. “So many people want to see their churches wake up. Programs, plans, and strategic places can never replace the Holy Spirit,” he said.
Elliff called on other believers to pray for what is happening at Asbury and to pray that God would bring it to their church, campus, and city.
“As I spoke to the hotel receptionist this morning, she told me they were sold out of rooms. ‘We were not prepared for revival,’ she said. May it not be true of us,” he wrote.
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The Idolatry of Intelligence - Leonard Ravenhill
Revival Watch - personal testimony by Pete Greig
Obedience to the Promptings of the Spirit (1904 Welsh Revival)
UNLEARN the Lies: Response to Asbury Revival Critics - Revival Watch 23
From Israel: A Spontaneous Release of the Holy Spirit in the UPPER ROOM
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“We have built the altar and laid the wood in order and have prepared the offering. We have only to wait for the fire.”
--Evan Roberts
"You never have to advertise a fire. Everyone comes running when there's a fire. Likewise, if your church is on fire, you will not have to advertise it. The community will already know it."
--Leonard Ravenhill
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| Wilmore, Kentucky |
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| People from all over the world are coming to the Asbury Revival (Credit: Eliza Crawford, a student at Asbury) |
“Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven…”
Matthew 18:3
The exceptions of God are non-negotiable. Apart from the new birth, we are bereft of the power to become child-like. His coming into our hearts is the means of our conversion and growth into the wonder of His kingdom. Childlikeness is the nature required to enter the depths of the kingdom of heaven.
Simplicity of trust is the bedrock of a faith that glorifies our heavenly Father. Too many have missed the call of God through their own reasoning. Like Naaman in his own wisdom almost reasoned himself out of God’s healing, we too may miss God if we do not learn to be weaned of our own understanding and inclinations.
“Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.”
2 Kings 5:12
The stipulation for Naaman’s healing was bound to his compliance with the Word of the Lord. Its fulfillment was hidden within the simplicity of God’s way. So, it is with us. God often hides His power within the mundane. The five loaves and two fishes, the oil in the widow’s house, and the walking stick of Moses became the means for the display of God’s power.
To the widow who was about to lose her son to the creditors:
“And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil.”
2 Kings 4:2
The Word of the Lord to Moses:
“And the Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses fled from before it.”
Exodus 4:2-3
The salvation of God is offered freely to all who in sincerity of heart call upon His Name. However, entering the Kingdom of God is an entirely different matter. There is a cost involved, a deep work of His Spirit within, by which we enter its dominion. Read afresh the Parables of Jesus; they hold the keys and truths of His Kingdom.
There is something both unnerving and awe-inspiring in God’s ways. It is to the pure and the humble in heart that He chooses to unveil His majesty.
“but to this man will I look,
even to him, that is poor and of a contrite spirit,
and trembleth at my word”
Isaiah 66:2
The heart is the lens through which we “see” God.
His work of grace is to purify, humble, and transform us from the wisdom and pride of this world into the same mind that was in Christ Jesus, who “humbled Himself” and became obedient to the will of the Father (Philippians 2:5). Only a true child of God can obey the heavenly Father.
“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ”
Romans 8:16-17
May we read anew the language of God and feel within His Words the invitation to become child-like in the reality of our hearts!
See Related Post: “Seeing God”
“Simplicity is the secret to seeing things clearly… You cannot think through spiritual confusion to make things clear; to make things clear, you must obey. In intellectual matters, you can think things out, but in spiritual matters, you will only think yourself into further wandering thoughts and more confusion. If there is something in your life upon which God has put His pressure, then obey Him in that matter. Bring all your “arguments and…every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” regarding the matter, and everything will become as clear as daylight to you (2 Corinthians 10:5). Your reasoning capacity will come later, but reasoning is not how we see. We see like children, and when we try to be wise we see nothing (see Matthew 11:25).
Even the very smallest thing that we allow in our lives that is not under the control of the Holy Spirit is completely sufficient to account for spiritual confusion, and spending all of our time thinking about it will still never make it clear. Spiritual confusion can only be conquered through obedience. As soon as we obey, we have discernment. This is humiliating because when we are confused we know that the reason lies in the state of our mind. But when our natural power of sight is devoted and submitted in obedience to the Holy Spirit, it becomes the very power by which we perceive God’s will, and our entire life is kept in simplicity.”
--Oswald Chambers
Brian Troxel
The Glory of God - Leonard Ravenhill
Psalm 84:7: "They go from strength to strength, until each appears before God in Zion."
“Most of us hate to be under-rated. We may not seek to head the parade, but – and this is our pitiable weakness – we must be in the parade.”! (Leonard Ravenhill)The ‘University of Silence’ separates us, not only from the world, but often from broad fellowship with believers. God desires an intimacy that comes from separation – often a separation unto Him brought about by loss and suffering. Why separation? Why loss? Why suffering? Why should our hopes and expectations be on hold?
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| Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 1821-1881 |
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| Prophet Elijah |
"Let a thing here be noted, that the prophet of God sometimes may teach treason against kings, and yet neither he nor such as obey the word, spoken in the Lord's name by him, offend God."
--John Knox
“If ye were not strangers here, the dogs of the world would not bark at you.”
--Samuel Rutherford
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| Enoch |
