Riding the Waves

revival and reformation

I was teaching a Church History class this past Saturday at our Bible school on the different revival movements that have taken place in the Modern Church Era, and some things became clear to me. First, that the church is messy and highly imperfect and will continue to be, but Jesus is Faithful to continue to love His Bride and to wash her in His Word to prepare for Himself a glorious church—holy, and without blemish. In every era of church history, we can see a separation between the visible, structured church and the invisible, unstructured church.

What do I mean by that? That even when the church that was culturally visible, at any given moment in history, was not representing the person of Christ accurately and was living contrary to the Word of God, there have always been remnants of men and women who remained faithful to the Word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ. These people were then often persecuted by the structured church. Why? Because people who are not on fire for Jesus have a harder time letting go of the past to embrace the new that God is doing.

You and I have a choice. We can choose to remain in our comfort zones and when God starts to move in ways that make us uncomfortable, start persecuting the ones who are moving with Him. OR we can choose to keep our eyes on Jesus and embrace the waves. Waves stop being fun when our eye is not on the horizon and they catch us by surprise. But if our eyes are on Him, and we are ready to surf the wave of the movement of His Spirit, it will be a wild ride. What is important though, is to keep our eyes on Him, even when we are riding the wildest wave of our life, because one thing is sure—the wave will end. A wave of revival must be sustained by the teaching of the Word of God for revival to become reformation in that specific context. If revival doesn’t cause a change in government, education, science, family, art, church, or business, then I would venture to say it has not done what God intended for it to do. And that’s not on Him. That’s on us.

“Keep me paced with the times, Father.

Not just here locally, but globally, as well.

Give me understanding of the times.

To walk with discernment and revelation of what You are doing in the earth and what my role is in that.

I want to ride the waves with You. This wave here in Peru and every other wave You will move in the earth in my lifetime that You desire for me to be part of. I have conviction of this—You desire for me to join You. So include me, Father, in the middle of what You are doing in the earth. Whatever that may be, wherever that may be, with whomever that may be.

Count me in.

Heme aqui, enviame a mi (here I am, send me).”