Suddenly!

Alright, I know this piece breaks all of the rules of “blogging.” It is too long to hold the attention span of most of our generation. If you don’t like long articles, this one lends itself to reading in pieces as it is composed of four parts, so read it all at once or one part at a time - but read it.  

I was awakened out of a sound sleep. There was no noise - no loud bang, no voices - but I sat bolt upright in my bed. I was awakened by the voice of God (not aloud, it was in my spirit, but it might as well have been audible) I heard God speak. In my spirit I heard a single Word: “SUDDENLY!”

In those pre-dawn hours of the morning I reached for my little brown notebook that I always keep nearby and started to write down the thoughts as they flooded my spirit. I heard God’s voice as clearly as the voice of my waitress at breakfast this morning when she said, “Good Morning!”

SUDDENLY

I was awake instantly the same as if someone had stuck their head in the door of my bedroom and shouted, “Wake Up!” I wasn’t drowsy or sleepy. I wasn’t befuddled or disoriented. I was wide awake, alert - Of all the things I know, I know when I’ve heard God’s voice and during the night watch of that day I heard His voice.

I knew it was important. 

I knew it was prophetic.

I knew it was a word for this day, for this hour. '

Four passages of scripture came to mind as I began to jot down the thoughts which that single word had ignited.

The first one was Acts 2: When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested[a] on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

In the early morning hours of Shavuot the disciples were gathered into an upper room. There was a sudden outpouring of the Holy Spirit. As they had stood upon the mount of Olives just 10 days before, Jesus instructed the disciples to go to Jerusalem and wait - to wait for the promise that would come from the Father. They didn’t really know what they were waiting for. They didn’t know what it would look like, or sound like, and they didn’t know what the outcome would be. They just knew that Jesus had told them to wait. I believe they were waiting with a great sense of expectation when suddenly, there was the sound of a mighty rushing wind.

It didn’t come from the temple. 

It didn’t come from the priests.

It didn’t come from the altar of sacrifice.

It didn’t come from the King. . .it didn’t come from the government, and it didn’t come from Caesar - IT CAME FROM HEAVEN. 

And when that wind came, it blew them out of the building and into the streets. A new friend of mine recently said this: The early church prayed in the House of God, but they preached in the streets.

Many of us are praying for revival. I hear it all over New England and all over the country. But I want to tell you this - when revival comes it will drive us out of our buildings out of our buildings into the streets. It will drive us out of our comfort zones into uncharted territory. I am praying for revival in the church. I am believing for it; and I am convinced that when it comes it will be outrageous, it will be shocking, it will be unprecedented - and it will come suddenly! 

I hear many of my brothers describing what this coming revival will look like, what it will sound like, what will be the results, as if somehow, we are in charge. 

My friends - we are not in charge of what God is doing, we don’t get to put limits on it, we don’t get to put boundaries, or expectations, when it comes it will come from Heaven. The next wave of the Spirit will come suddenly and it will come from Heaven. 

It won’t come from the White House, or from Congress, 

It won’t come from a pulpit or from a preacher

It won’t come from a prophet, or a healer, or a miracle worker

It won’t come from a televangelist

It will come from heaven - directly from the Throne room. No man will control it, no group will manage it, no one will make a new CD and market it. No one  will understand it, comprehend it, explain it, or copyright it. 

2. The next scripture that came to my mind was from Acts 9: But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.  Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing.

We have too many believers who have gotten saved to a church, saved to a preacher, saved to a worship style, saved. . .but they haven’t been transformed. Saul of Tarsus fell to the ground because of a sudden appearance of the risen Lord. The man who stood up was not Saul of Tarsus, but Paul the Apostle. He was a man who had been transformed.

They know Bible verses aplenty - but they haven’t been transformed. They know all the worship songs - but their lives are not transformed. They go to church, they stand at the right time, they sit at the right time, they show up for all of the meetings, they know all of the rules - but they haven’t been transformed.

When we pray for revival - we often envision great meetings, packed churches, crowds flocking to hear our preachers. But when the next wave comes - we are going to see men suddenly transformed. We are going to be different. We are going to be different husbands - different fathers - different mothers - different preachers - different elders - different deacons - we are not going to be simply “saved” - we are going to be transformed into the likeness of Christ.

There was another scripture that settled in my spirit. It is found in Acts 12:  Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. And behold, (dare I say SUDDENLY) an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his hands.  And the angel said to him, “Dress yourself and put on your sandals.” And he did so. And he said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him. When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.”

I live and work in a community of prisoners. Our community is filled with men who are imprisoned by drugs, alcohol, sexual perversion, occult practices/witchcraft, humanism, the philosophies and wisdom of man. They are imprisoned, just like Peter was in prison. 

These men and women don’t need therapy. They don’t need counseling, group sessions, or alternative addictions that amount to the same thing, only different. These folks don’t need a hand out, they don’t need a government check, or free housing - they need to be released from their prisons.

Peter didn’t get a visit from a prison chaplain, or a social worker, or the prison psychiatrist. He did not receive a New Testament from a Gideon and he wasn’t given anger management sessions or classes on how to control his sexual urges. No, an angel of the Lord came to him right in the midst of his prison. He had a holy visitation by a holy ambassador, sent directly from the Throne of Heaven. His chains fell off, the prison doors opened, the guards - those that would keep him bound were unable to see it or stop it. Peter was powerfully, completely, suddenly released from his chains. 

I’m not casting blame toward anyone. I'm not pointing any fingers to anyone. . . .else. I’m shouldering this thing on myself. I’m sick to my stomach that I often feel so powerless, so inadequate, so bound up in my own unbelief, that I can’t walk up to an addict, slap him on the shoulder and say “Come on, we’re getting you out of this prison!”

I am praying, begging, pleading with God to come upon us suddenly with great power, with great anointing, with great Holy Ghost confidence, with a holy boldness to go in where only angels have trod -  set the captives free!  

I am fully confident that I can’t “work this up.” I need something from Heaven to fall on me SUDDENLY to break the chains of my own religious bondage, to set me free from my own self-righteous, religious chains - What I need will only come from heaven.  Men and women are dying in my town every day, and often I stand before the Lord and say, “Our programs are not enough - our food programs are not enough, our outreach programs are not enough. GOD! WE NEED A SUDDEN EXPLOSION OUT OF HEAVEN. 

The last scripture that came to my mind  is found in Acts 16:  About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bonds were unfastened.

SUDDENLY, there was a great earthquake. The place shook, the doors fell open and their chains fell at their feet. Paul was in trouble. Paul was in chains. He was in shackles. The doors were locked. The prison was formidable but when God shakes the house every fetter will fall at your feet, every hindrance will melt away, every opponent will turn and run, every blockage will dissolve, every fear will turn to faith, and every anxiety will morph into courage.

I believe there is a great time of release coming, a great harvest is almost upon us. There are rumblings of revival all over New England. When the Holy Spirit came on Pentecost it was sudden.

It was outrageous. It was shocking, unprecedented and it was outside the accepted boundaries of religious practice.

I want to be like the little boy who was the only one who showed up with an umbrella to the prayer meeting where the community was praying for rain to end the drought. I want to be like the farmer who was late to the meeting because he was plowing his field, getting ready for rain. 

We are preaching revival. We are praying for revival. But are we EXPECTING revival?

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