SERMON NOTES: Revival

REVIVAL Pt. 1

Prophetic Roadmap for 2019

2019 is a year… 

1. That will rise and fall on our prayer lives.
2. To step out into new things that God is doing in your life.
3. For a new level of maturity.
4. To grow in and develop our faith and to exercise our faith
5. To stand with our church family members who are believing for spouses
6. For us to focus our prayer/action on the upcoming National Elections
7. For us to contend for revival

Current Focus: REVIVAL 

I want to take some time to focus on Revival and the call for us to contend for it.

Acts 19 – Here is Acts 19 we see a powerful move of God in Ephesus with the following characteristics:

• Started small (Paul + 12)
• People were baptized in the Holy Spirit and the prophetic
• Within a two-year span, all in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord
• God released a flow of extraordinary miracles
• All people were awestruck, there was a fear of the Lord and the authority of the name of Jesus was exalted
• People confessed their sins publicly and destroyed things that were keeping them from God
• “The power of God caused the word to spread, and the people were greatly impacted”

What would it look like for God to do something in TCC where:

• There was a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit that touched every person?
• There was a flow of extraordinary miracles?
• Within a two year span, every person in Toronto had heard the word of the Lord Jesus?
• All the people of the GTA were awestruck, have a fear of the Lord and the name of Jesus was exalted?
• People were confessing their sin and repenting?
• People were destroying anything that was keeping them from God?
• The power of God caused the word to spread, and people were greatly impacted? 

This is what I believe we are called to!

• Prophetic Vision: Fire all across the city that spread to the nations of the world
• Prophetic Word: Multitudes. Miracles. Millions.
• Prophetic Word: We are called to steward a historic revival

So what is Revival? 

Definition of Revival (Websters) –

1. Return, recall or recovery to life from death or apparent death
2. Return or recall to activity from a state of languor (feebleness, dullness heaviness, exhaustion) 
3. Recall, return or recovery from a state of neglect, oblivion, obscurity or depression
4. Renewed or more active attention to religion; an awakening of men to their spiritual concerns

• ”Revival is a sudden manifestation of the Spirit of God that brings miraculous manifestation to all who come in contact with it” – Sean Smith
• “Revival is the eruption of God’s heart on a life poured out.” – Lou Engle 
• “Revival is the visitation of God which brings to life Christians who have been sleeping and restores a deep sense of God’s near presence and holiness. Thence springs a vivid sense of sin and a profound exercise of heart in repentance, praise, and love, with an evangelistic outflow.” – J.J. Packer
• “Revival is a divinely initiated work in which God’s people pray, repent of their sin, and return to a holy, Spirit-filled, obedient, love-relationship with God.” – Henry Blackaby
• “Revival is a renewed conviction of sin and repentance, followed by an intense desire to live in obedience to God. It is giving up one’s will to God in deep humility.” – Charles Finney
• “Revivals begin with God’s own people; the Holy Spirit touches their heart anew, and gives them new fervor and compassion, and zeal, new light and life, and when He has thus come to you, He next goes forth to the valley of dry bones… Oh, what responsibility this lays on the Church of God! If you grieve Him away from yourselves, or hinder His visit, then the poor perishing world suffers sorely!” – Andrew Bonar
• “Revival is falling in love with Jesus all over again” – Vance Havner
• “Revival is not just an emotional touch; it’s a complete takeover!” – Nancy Leigh Demoss
• “Revival is when God’s people return to God and God returns to them, and everyone sees the difference.” – Henry Blackaby
• “When God shows up” – Steve Osmond

Toronto City Church: WE NEED GOD TO SHOW UP!

When God shows up:

• People repent from sin.
• People are healed from sickness and disease.
• People are delivered from bondage and addiction
• There is freedom.
• Depression and oppression are shattered.
• There is supernatural provision.
• People’s lives are transformed.

Isaiah 64:1-4 (NLT) ^[a]Oh, that you would burst from the heavens and come down!
    How the mountains would quake in your presence!
² As fire causes wood to burn
    and water to boil,
your coming would make the nations tremble.
    Then your enemies would learn the reason for your fame!
³ When you came down long ago,
    you did awesome deeds beyond our highest expectations.
    And oh, how the mountains quaked!
⁴ For since the world began,
    no ear has heard
and no eye has seen a God like you,
    who works for those who wait for him!

 Question: why would we talk about ‘God showing up’ when He is everywhere? 

• We need to understand the difference between God’s omnipresence and His manifested presence
• His omnipresence refers to the fact that He is everywhere… there is nowhere that God’s spirit is not. There is a difference though between his omnipresence and His manifested presence.

He manifests His presence when:

• He is invited 
• He is welcomed
• There is hunger
• There is honour
• There is holiness
• There is worship
• There is prayer
• There is faith 
• There is expectation

The question: Will be a be a people who will welcome the manifested presence of God? Will we be a people who invite, welcome, hunger for, prepare for, pray for, believe for, expect and learn to steward revival?

“As long as we are content to live without revival, we will” – Leonard Ravenhill

Where do we start?

The Life of Rodney “Gipsy” Smith

Rodney Smith, better known as Gipsy Smith, was a renowned British evangelist in late 1800s – early 1900s. Born to gypsy parents several miles northeast of London, he put his trust in Jesus at the age of sixteen after his father, Cornelius, heard the Gospel from a prison chaplain. After teaching himself to read and write, Gipsy began to practice preaching. Biographers suggest that he preached his first sermon to a field of turnips!

In his early twenties, as his gift for communicating the Gospel was recognized, Gipsy accepted an invitation from The Salvation Army to travel and preach. Crowds of hundreds, then thousands, began to gather wherever he taught. Thousands put their faith in Jesus following his magnetic and compelling communication of the Gospel.

As his ministry and renown grew, Gipsy began traveling extensively between Britain and the US, and around the world, leading revival gatherings and evangelistic crusades, stirring thousands to faith in Christ. It’s estimated that he made fifty transatlantic journeys in his lifetime, stoking the fire of revival in countless souls worldwide.

When asked the secret to such successful, large revival gatherings, Gipsy responded, “Go home. Lock yourself in your room. Kneel down in the middle of the floor, and with a piece of chalk draw a circle around yourself. There, on your knees, pray fervently and brokenly that God would start a revival within that chalk circle.”

“Revival begins when you draw a circle around yourself and make sure everything in that circle is right with God.” – Anne Graham Lotz

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