[Lesson Index] [Prayer-School Mini-Series Index] [Prev Lesson] [Next Lesson]
Many of us think that revivals are just healings and miracles and resurrections. In one sense, yes, this is revival. But to me, it is more than just that. I have seen so much of those things. I've seen the blind, the beaten down, the crippled, the lepers healed and the dead rise from the dead and all kinds of things. When I went in to do a follow up with those people, I found that 65 to 75 percent had turned their back from the Lord. They are not the people who walk closely with the Lord. They are people who are very far from the Lord and they don't even want to hear about God. Their hearts had become hard and numb and in the end it was like a rock that's been in the sea for a thousand years, but when you find it and break it down it is still dry.
So I have come to the conclusion that revival is something that takes place in the heart. A pure heart that is hungry after God is the miracle I am pursuing in these days. I want to find a pure heart, completely pure from the top to the bottom -- pure minded, and pure of soul. This is the sort of miracle I pursuing.
When Jesus healed the ten lepers, only one came back to thank Him and the other nine turned their backs on Jesus and went away. So, I am pursuing the heart. I'm not saying I'm not still hungry to see the healings. I still pray for the people, I'm still preaching, I'm still doing all kinds of things. I'm still fasting and I'm still seeking His face. I still need to see the people raised from the dead for His glory, not for my glory. I still need to see great miracles taking place because that is His glory.
Our statistics show that about 75% to 80% of the healings are for major impossible healings and they are for nonbelievers. God seems to do most of the miracles either for people who didn't believe in miracles or who didn't believe in God. So I sat down and began to analyze why this was happening.
One day we went to pray for a pastor and he didn't get healed. Then we went and prayed for a person who doesn't believe (doesn't know God) and he gets healed. I didn't understand this, so I asked God why this happened. God told me that the party was not for the people who were already in the house, but for those who were coming to the house. When the prodigal son came back home, his father prepared a big feast for him. But the son who had been with his father daily did not have anything special done for him. And even though the lost son did not have a ring on his finger, he got a new gown, he got new shoes, and a big fatted calf and a ram were slaughtered for him.
If this parable explains how it is now, then I need to make it my job to search for the lost sons and daughters. I need to do this so that the feast will not cease, but it will continue. So this is my task now, to search for the lost son and daughter. And when I bring that lost son and daughter into the house of the Father, the Father will continue His feast. If you sit down in your house with relatives and friends and neighbors and do not search for your lost, the party stops. But as we search for our lost brothers and sisters, churches are being planted daily. That is why you see the number growing up to 6,000 churches, because the feast in His house must not stop.
We must continue the feast, that's why we continuously keep searching and looking to bring them into the house. We are leading people to the Lord and the feast can continue in heaven. And we must keep moving forward, looking for the lost soul, looking for the lost son and daughter. Then the feast will continue at home and we are happy when the feast continues at home. The sick are getting healed because the feast continues at home. That's what is happening!
Be hungry for God. Connect yourself to the Lord, walk together with Him. And in the places where you don't understand, ask Him, "Please give me understanding. How can I go into these places?" Say to Him, "Yes, Lord, let's walk together, but give me understanding. How can I pray in this place? How can I open this door? Please give me understanding."
God sometimes hides Himself from His children so they will begin to look for Him. It's like a game of hide and seek. God is hiding for a purpose, so His children will seek Him more and more everyday.
Be in a position of seeking, because the Bible says, "Seek My face, seek My face. If you seek My face I will heal your land." He is always telling us to seek His face and He will provide for us, seek His face and He will walk with us. Seek His face He will give us understanding and wisdom. If we seek His face, He will be with us forever. If we seek His face, He will hug us. And it goes on and on. Never cease seeking the face of the Lord because we've already seen whatever we needed. We needed to see miracles and we saw miracles, so that means we have already seen the face of the Lord, but we never stop seeking His face. We grow as deep as we can.
It is okay to also seek God for other things, especially for things that equip you to bring lost sons and daughters to the Father's house. It is good to ask God for more. You must use what you have before He can increase it. You come to God and ask Him to fill you and impart into you. But you don't go use it. Instead you come back the next day and ask God for more. And He gives you more. But you don't go and use that either. Instead you go back and ask God for more. And why should God keep giving you more when you don't even use what He has already given you?
Start using it! Look to continue the feast. Use what God has already given you to bring the prodigals into the house. If you run into limitations as you do that, this is the time to ask God for the "more" that you need. The way to get more is to use what God has already put in you, then it will begin to grow.
But remember that the true fruit of revival is a hunger and a passion for the Lord. Pursue Him. Seek Him. Look for Him and cry out to Him. Enjoy His presence, but continue to seek Him fervently. At times that involves fasting as well as prayer. Don't be afraid to fast as you seek Him.
I enjoy Him so much. Sometimes in Africa we fast and we never fast when there is no food in the house. We fast when we have just come from the store and bought groceries, when there is food in the house. When we see there is no food in the house, we search for food, we work for food. We will go to the bush to get wood and take it to the town and sell it so we can buy food. So we never fast when there is no food in the house, but when there is a lot of food in the house, then we fast.
I am encouraging you here in America that this is really a time to seek the Lord with fasting because you already have food.