The year was 2008. I remember getting up early in the morning to watch the news about Hurricane Ike, set to make landfall in the Texas coastal area. As I watched the devastation unfolding, I remember asking the Lord some questions. Clearly this was His judgment on that region and I wondered how He could judge the middle of the country. The coastlands seemed obvious. But I was living in the northern Midwest at the time and we hardly ever had bad weather that could cause such calamity. I know these seem like strange questions and thoughts. But if you know your Bible, you know the Lord uses calamity to wake us up and turn our hearts to Him. So I asked Him, how would you judge this region, the one I’m living in? I was just talking to Him, honestly. It was just a question, curiosity. It’s how I talk to Him. I did not expect to get an answer. But I did. Within 48 hours that storm hit Cincinnati with 70 mph winds and brought devastation to our region. 750,000 homes without power. Some of those homes didn’t get it back for days or even a week. Trees down everywhere. It was a bad storm to say the least and yes, I was shocked at how He answered me. This was in September. Fast forward to January 2009.
I’m sitting in church one Sunday. The preacher is preaching. The Lord begins to speak to me so loudly that I couldn’t miss what He was saying to me. I heard Him say to me, “just like that hurricane came through this region and not one home was left untouched, so my spirit will roar through this region, and not one home will be left untouched by my presence.”
I wasn’t sure what to think of what I heard. It confirmed other words I had heard from the Lord, and also from many prophets who had spoken similar things in times past. But as with most words spoken by the spirit of God, there is always a time of waiting for that word to come to pass. Years went by. Truthfully, I began to doubt that I had heard Him. Maybe, I had just imagined those words out of my own heart. Maybe, I wanted revival so badly, that I had made it up. But did I?
The end of 2019 was not good. There were many false prophets who prophesied things over 2020 that were not true. They all spoke revival, packed stadiums with people hungry for God, good things about to happen. We all know how that ended. Not well. Many people became disillusioned about prophets and rightly so. Instead of revival, we got lockdowns and closed churches.
I became so disillusioned with the whole prophetic movement that I stopped going to charismatic churches. The funny thing was, I still believed in prophecy. I still believed in the gifts of the Spirit. But I no longer knew who to believe or what to believe about these things. It seemed so confusing. But I also knew that confusion is not of God.
During this season I began to listen to Christian teachers or pastors who talked about end time prophecy. They talked about the rapture and the tribulation. They talked about the second coming of Jesus Christ. They made a lot of sense, because what was happening in the world was in fact lining up perfectly with what Daniel and John, and even Jesus Himself, had prophesied would happen at the time of the end. I could see end time prophecy unfolding before my very eyes. But there was always that nagging thought, how about that revival I had heard so much about?
I saw there were two camps in the church. One believed that the end was near, the only revival they thought would happen, no, could happen, would be during the tribulation when millions would get saved because they finally realize that the Bible is true. But there was also the other camp, insisting that revival was coming. I could see little pockets of revival happening, some of them in prayer groups, others in universities or schools. And there was always those words that I had heard personally from the Holy Spirit, that He would pour out His spirit on all flesh. Slowly it dawned on me what that meant. Joel 2:28 says this: “”And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh”. Notice it says all, not some. All flesh. Not the church. All flesh. In other words, the whole world!
Now why would the Lord do that? I asked myself that question because I was still trying to reconcile, or marry the two different beliefs that the two camps held. Are we in the end times? Or is revival coming?
It’s been my personal experience that when there are two different doctrines, for want of a better word, in the Bible, it’s probably both. For example, predestination and free will. It’s both, people! Some things are predestined to happen, like the first coming and the second coming. There is a day and an hour! Nothing will change that. But, the Lord also says He will have mercy, and He will pour out His Spirit on all flesh. Why? Because, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9
He doesn’t want to send people to hell. He wants to give all of us, the entire world, a chance to repent before He raptures His church and pours out His wrath on the earth, as shown in the book of Revelation.
It’s funny how things make no sense, and then one day, a light bulb goes on in your mind. Yes, it’s both. Perhaps you have struggled, as I have. Perhaps the shenanigans in the church have left you disillusioned and confused. You’ve watched the scandals unfold over the past year, you’ve heard the false prophecies that did not come to pass and you have grown weary of it all. Let me encourage you with this. Your faith is not in your pastor, some teacher or some internet prophet. Your faith started with Jesus Christ and it ends with Him! He is the author and finisher of your faith, not some man or woman. Seek Him. Seek His word. Get grounded in the Bible. It is the foundation of your walk with Him. When you know the word, it is harder to fool you.
When the disciples asked Jesus in Matthew to tell them about the time of the end, “Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you.“ Why would He make this the first warning? Because that’s the number one sign to watch out for, deception! So be encouraged my friend. Revival is coming, but so is your redemption. He’s coming soon. Be comforted and know that He who has promised is faithful.
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