Our greatest revival is not behind us; our world's greatest revival is in front of us. It's in the twenty-first century. God is giving it to us now and we are stepping into it right now.
In the parable of the Great Supper (Luke 14), the invited and qualified guests declined the invitation. They were preoccupied with life and the cares of this world. The parable takes an unexpected turn: the master invited guests and for some reason they did not want to cooperate. "So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, "Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind." (Luke 14:21)
The world's greatest revival is sitting in front of us. "And yet there is room." (Luke 14:22) The endtime revival is greater than we think.
Sometimes we think our opportunity is limited. Sometimes we think our church is saturated. Sometimes we think our community is burned up and will not hear anymore, but yet there is room! There is still room for a greater revival than we thought. We need to expand our thinking. We need to realize the best is yet to come. There is still room for revival.
It is time to send out laborers. If we want to see the world's greatest revival, we must think outside the box. Go in the streets, go out in the lanes, and go to the poor and the disabled.
If we want to see the world's greatest revival, we have to stop thinking in our traditional little terms of who is ready to receive the gospel. Find the poor, find the disabled. Go out to the street and lanes. Go out into the highways.
Somehow we need to get out in the public and in the hedges. Who are you going to find in the hedges? No telling who you are going to find. But that is where the world's greatest revival comes from. We have got to think more creatively and more effectively.
How are we going to reach the minorities? How can we reach the poor? How can we reach the disabled that cannot come under ordinary circumstances? How can we go in the highways and in the public? How can we go to the hedges, where nobody thinks to go?
Where in the city is no one going? Where in the city have you never gone before? What populations are untouched or under reached?
If you want the world's greatest revival, it cannot be business as usual. We have got to think outside the box. I am not talking about changing our message. I am not talking about changing our separated lifestyle. And with all due respect, this is sometimes where charismatic or emerging churches have missed the boat because they think if you change the message, that is what will bring the world's greatest revival. That's not what I'm talking about. We are talking about changing our thinking. Innovative methods, greater vision for souls, bigger than we thought, wider than we thought.
I want to bring them to the Apostolic doctrine, the Apostolic message, lifestyle, worship, gifts of the Spirit, and way of life. That is what I'm trying to convert people to.
(David K. Bernard is the General Superintendent of the United Pentecostal Church Ineternational.)
Reprinted from the Superintendent's Communique
No comments:
Post a Comment