Revelation 22:1

And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

Ezekiel 47:1-12; Rev 22:1-3

God was gracious and generous to answer the desperate cries and prayers for revival a number of years ago.  That cry did not come from just one place, but began to reach the throne of God from the nations of the world. 

I know for myself, sitting week after week in our church in Clatskanie, Oregon, I became totally dissatisfied with the level of movement that was taking place.  It was the same Sunday after Sunday; the people of God had gotten into the rut of religious duty and service, creating stagnancy in all of us.  And also sin had entered the House of God through compromise with the world.  I began to speak of my dissatisfaction to my pastor husband again and again, saying, “I am so bored with what church has become; there has to be more.”  I was surprised to discover later that it was the exact same cry and the exact same words coming from the mouth of others just like me.  God put a holy dissatisfaction into the hearts of the people of the nations…

It wasn’t that multitudes heard about a revival that had broken out in some place and became hungry; it was that multitudes were hungry for more of the Lord and heard of revival breaking out in some places. 

Hunger for something more than what we had become gripped many, many people all over the world.   When we heard God was moving, it was like a magnet to our soul.  We were inexplicably drawn by the Spirit of God.  So many others did not understand the quest that captured us to go until we found that breakthrough place in God we were longing for.

We had to leave our shallow waters and find the depths of God’s river.

In spite of naysayers who felt it was “a lot of emotionalism” or a “lot of to-do about nothing,” I became immune to the concerns and accusations around me.  I became smitten by God in my spirit, so smitten that I could not help but go.  So, I went and I found what my hungry soul was longing for – a place to repent, to refresh and revive.  It was life to me and countless people who found an altar where God’s glory was moving. 

Folks, God’s glory was not moving in every church in such a wave of revival as was occurring in other places. 

·         Every altar around the nation of the world was not equal in the sight of God. 

·         Every message was not filled with the call to repentance so needed in the church world. 

·         Every messenger was not right in the sight of God. 

·         Every church was not a prepared place where God could even get a foot in the door. 

But, we found such a place and it was glorious!

For some of you this occurred in your life 12-15 years ago.  You experienced a wave of God’s glorious presence as He moved into key places.  There was an urgency in your heart to seek God wherever He could be found, in light of the fact that many churches around you were quite satisfied with status quo – so you got up and went to seek Him.  Many dead and dying religious people prompted you to not go, that God could be found where you were.  Yes, He could have, if anyone was seeking Him in a fresh move of His Spirit to once again sweep over the church – but few were.  Many were satisfied right where they were.  But you were desperate in your stagnancy.

God came to breathe life back into His Church by a work of His Holy Spirit and He came to bring the sword of His Word upon the flesh of His people.  He did a quick and decisive work in multitudes all around the nations of the world, as people ran to the altars of repentance and consecration.

·         And yes, the power of God was very real in the altars wherever a people set their hearts to seek Him. 

·         And yes, there were manifestations of His Spirit as God began to exercise the power of the sword by the Spirit of God. 

People shook with conviction and shook with deliverance and yes, people danced with joy as they were set free.  The religious world mocked it, but God was doing a great work in people’s lives.

We all knew it was more than outward manifestations as God dealt with us in the core of our hearts.

But today, as the wind is once again beginning to stir, there is a different kind of urgency in my heart.  It’s just as valid as my early quest for “more of the Lord in my life.” 

But…it is different this time.

We have had those last 12-15 years to allow God to mature what He planted in us in the beginning of revival.  With that awesome wave of revival came seeds of repentance, seeds of holiness, seeds of intercession, seeds of worship, seeds of hunger, passion and desire to go after God with everything that was in you. 

You laid it all down to have that moment in history impact your life – and it was so very real.  You were transformed, awakened, revived and hungry.

By now those seeds of principles, virtues, core value disciplines, godly character and Christ’s nature should be set in stone.  You should be solidly establish upon the rock of obedience to the Word of God and attuned to the Spirit of God.

There should be a maturity in your life that has born the Fruit of the Spirit. This is the most valuable work the Spirit of God can do in a person’s life to prepare them for purity in the Gifts of the Spirit.

Yes, time has lapsed into years; and God once again is beginning to stir the waters.  There has been an army of prayer warriors who have been praying for years for a different kind of breakthrough – not for revival for us – but breakthrough into the harvest field; breakthrough into the realm of the miraculous; breakthrough into a plethora of strongholds coming down; breakthrough into transformation of regions by an awakening. 

Those prayers have not gone unnoticed and unanswered by God – no more than He ignored the first wave of prayers for revival years ago.

There are many people who have stayed focused, in spite of difficulties, on the cause for which they have been chosen.  And yes, it’s been so hard at times to keep plowing in prayer, seeding in intercession, holding the ground in warfare, but many of those that came out of the fires of revival have stood fast for the promises and vision God has given them.

The long, maturing, revolutionary processes of God have been at work in our lives.  If you’ve remained yielded to God’s Spirit and embraced His Word with a passion and in obedience, you should have experienced a phenomenal personal reformation by now. 

God did not do all this so we could feel good – He did all this so He could use us.

A bunch of clean plates and drinking glasses sitting stacked neatly in closed cupboards serve no use, until someone reaches in and takes them out and sets them on a table.  They serve no purpose until they are filled with food and served to the hungry and thirsty.

The church in pre-revival was dirty dishes and post revival is clean dishes – but the majority of the plates and cups are still in the cupboards.

Now tell me what purpose does it serve anyone to take all the clean dishes, cups and utensils down and keep putting them in the dishwasher over and over - So they can feel the stirring of the water, experience another moment of manifestations?

Would it serve the purposes better if someone would fill the plates and cups and give out the utensils so someone could eat?

An even more foolish thought is that the clean and filled plates and cups should be put into the dishwasher for another exciting moment of movement, as if seeking that moment supersedes the need to serve the food.

And then there’s the final error that in addition to seeking the spiritual manifestations, the plates of food never feed anyone but those in the house – teachers teaching teachers; preachers preaching to preachers; anointed ones laying hands on anointed ones.  The error is us if we just keep putting the food on each other’s plates and filling each other’s cups, over and over, while the hungry and thirsty starve outside our doors.

We swim in the depths of the River of God in our churches; we dine at the table; we drink to overflowing; but we soon find we are losing our appetite and cutting edge. 

We’ve eaten and drank so much we’ve become passive and lack-luster in our spiritual appetites.

Why?

Because we’ve eaten portions that belong to others.

It is like this:  If I make the most elaborate dinner equal to Thanksgiving, with all the trimmings and call it revival, and call everyone to come and eat, the smells, tastes and experience would be wonderful.  But if I call you day after day, month after month, year after year, to come and eat turkey dinner with all the trimmings, you would soon grow disinterested because you are so full of the same thing, over and over.  But what if I say, eat some and give some away to another hungry person or run a feeding program in which you give others the turkey, there would be a sense of accomplishment in seeing others eat what you have had so freely. 

Folks, there’s enough of God’s Word and His Spirit in you to feed the masses.

There’s just not enough passion in God’s people for them to move past their own needs to focus on the desperate needs of the masses.

We hear about “revival’ breaking out somewhere here and there, and suddenly, it’s all about us again, another chance to put our clean plates and cups into the water and get rinsed off again and again.  Every movement of God’s Spirit sends the revived church running to get their plates and cups filled and then run back to their church and fill those there, but it stops just short of its purpose.

I have no problem at all with any revivalist finding a place of refreshing, a place of refilling, but that cannot be the “end-of-all-things.”  Yet that is what happens time and again; those going after another “movement” lack discernment and rush to the excitement and thrill of the manifestations and energy of the crowds. 

People are still looking for someone to impart something to them.

You were not just destined to be filled – you were called out to be emptied – poured out to a lost and dying world.  We have the filled part down good, but we don’t have the emptied part down very well at all. 

It’s immoral for the church to keep filling and filling their own plates and cups and diving into the fullness of God’s rich resources while others are starving to death and dying of thirst.

I am ready for another stirring of the waters, but where the first wave was for me – let the next wave be for others.

The River of God is at flood stage at harvest time, and it’s ready to cross the threshold of the Temple of God.  It’s an “Out of your Belly shall flow rivers of Living Water” time for the revived church! You are the Temple!  You have a threshold!  Whatever you get in God in this next season of God’s Spirit stirring the waters, get filled to be spilled.

·         I do not believe God is interested in another “in-house” “all about me” revival.” 

·         I do not believe God is interested in a platform; a man’s hand revival.

·         I do not believe God is interested in people running to a spot to get another “Holy Ghost hit.”

o   I would be the first to admit, I need a season of refreshing.  I have no problem with people seeking a place for that purpose, but it has to move further than that…especially this time…

o   If what God is stirring the waters for is not discerned, we will go after it all for us.  We will keep saying, “More Lord!” when so many have never had a drop or crumb of Him to satisfy the gnawing in their soul.

What I believe is this – the hour is too serious and God’s people are not prepared to be the church in the Last Day’s harvest awakening.  If God is moving to touch His people, seasoned believers, once again, I don’t believe it will be as it was on the Day of Pentecost as recorded in Acts 2, for, but it will be as it was when they were all refilled in Acts 4.

Yes, we need another refilling of the Holy Ghost, but it is for Holy Boldness [Acts 4:29] in a changing world of great turmoil, opposition and harvest. It is for the preaching of the gospel when you’ve been told to shut up.

God’s Spirit is not coming this time to make you drunk – He’s coming this time to make you sober!

We would all be better served to get out from under man’s hand of impartation and stick our heads in an old-fashioned altar and cry out to God to fill us to prepare and empower us once again for the days ahead. 

Quote: “Perhaps the greatest barrier to revival on a large scale is the fact that we are too interested in a great display. We want an exhibition; God is looking for a man who will throw himself entirely on God. Whenever self-effort, self-glory, self-seeking or self-promotion enters into the work of revival, then God leaves us to ourselves.” - Ted Rendall

It’s a use it or lose it time.

·         How many would run to an altar to rend their hearts before God?

·         How many would change their focus from themselves to others?

Would God not desire to see a people who no longer want another wave of revival to feel good, but a people who in feeling good have their gaze fixed on the cause?

I believe God is looking for a “for this cause” people, those who know why their plates and cups are clean and filled to overflowing; who know the joy of eating and drinking from the Lord’s Table; but also know the joy of feeding others and quenching their thirst. 

I believe with all my heart this Last Day’s revival will be a “Threshold Revival” – one in which those who are freshly refilled with the presence, purpose and power of God will be willing to release what God has placed in them. 

The threshold must now feel the water of God’s power to save, heal and deliver thundering over and out to the city, to the nations of the world.

I am convinced that even what is stirring right now around the nations is not the full manifestation of what God desires to do.

If this “in house” move is the end of it all, we will miss it - then what’s the point to it all?

Unless revival crosses the threshold and goes to the city, it will end without fruit beyond our own manifestations and excitement.

The field laborers cannot keep having “barn dances” while the harvest is dying in the field.

John 4:34-35- Jesus said unto them, “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. Say not, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest?” Behold, I say unto you, “Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.”

For the Love of Souls - Esther Seaton Dummer - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it