The last two years I have spent myself planting the seeds of revival deep into one local church. Through the unapologetic preaching of God's Word and crying out to God to do something which can't be explained by marketing strategy or creative engineering, I have watched God bring spiritual awakening in the lives of individuals and families who previously were unimpressed with the massive weight of God's glory.
I feel totally inadequate to lead the organizational challenges of launching a new church. I rarely know what the next step should be in building the programming required to minister to the people that God is bringing to our church. But I delight in (and labor tenaciously at) simply opening God's Word, explaining its message, and calling people to surrender themselves to it without reservation.
I have spent 18 weeks walking our congregation verse-by-verse through the book of Colossians (which takes about 11 minutes to read). I still have about 5 weeks before I finish preaching through the book but I regularly hear people in my church tell me, "You are going to fast."
During those weeks I have seen God rescue people from the debt of their sin and publicly proclaim their new life in Christ. I have heard a 7 year-old tell me how God gave him a new love for His Word in the middle of a worship song sung with passion by our congregation. I have seen God turn the heart of a drug addict back to the lordship of Christ and to his 4 year-old daughter. I have met with a man who spent 17 years serving in a well-respected church who admitted he had never been challenged to believe the gospel. His heart is now exploding with faith and he is sharing it with everyone in his circle of influence. An engaged couple who began attending our church surrendered their relationship to Christ to ensure purity and begin their marriage on the solid foundation of God's plan. In the process they have been new life in Christ. I had the privilege of officiating their wedding two weeks ago.
God continues to weave people of all generations and backgrounds into one body unified around the urgency of worship and witness. And to humble surprise, the Lord has just graciously given us 10 acres of property and a facility positioned for unlimited growth for gospel-driven ministry.
God is doing so much I had to take a day just to step away from it all and say with the psalmist, "Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!" (Psalm 96:3)
The spiritual awakening that I am seeing in the lives of a few is just a tasted of what I want to feast on in the days ahead as God's glory penetrates the darkness in our community of Granger, Indiana (South Bend, Notre Dame). Could this be the beginning of a revival among God's people resulting in a spiritual awakening in a community saturated with the glory God!
Last year I had the opportunity to lead a Revival Conference at The Moody Church in downtown Chicago. Pastor Erwin Lutzer kindly recounted what God did in the 4 days we met together. As you listen, Join me in believing God for something bigger than we can imagine as He awakens a people longing for his glory.
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