CoFI Media Partner Series—The Bullhorn Conference

Brand NEW, powerful series for CoFI Media Partners—The Bullhorn Conference!

We are thankful for our CoFI Media Partners! You are helping ensure the message of prayer and revival is broadcast to the nations!

Bullhorn ConferenceWe have a brand new resource available for you!

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THE BULLHORN CONFERENCE

John boldly declares the call for truth to be preached and for a strong stance against the spirit of the age to become the norm again. Messengers of God must open their mouths and communicate fearlessly.

It's time to set our face and prophesy against the spirit of the age!

Watch these intense messages from the Bullhorn Conference in Poplar Bluff, Missouri.

Included Messages:

  1. Set Your Face
  2. Revelation Driven Prayer
  3. The Church is Almost Homosexual

 

If you are a Media Partner, you can watch or listen to this powerful series right now, right HERE!

If you have yet to subscribe as a Media Partner, you can do so for $10 per month or $99 per year HERE!

Special, limited time offer: 13 part series—Ten Threats to Revival

The series Ten Threats to Revival was just completed! You can watch the entire series FREE for the next 7 days!

The final two teachings are now available to watch or listen to, along with the entire 13 part series AT NO COST for the next 7 days HERE!

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Threat #9: Seeking an Enhanced Life

People generally want God to make their current lives better. They want an enhancement, an upgrade. However, the demands of revival include the willingness to embrace a fire that won’t warm your flesh—it will consume your flesh. Evan Roberts called for people to gather—but not all people—only those who were willing to make a total surrender.

Revival doesn’t enhance lives, it crushes them. If we attempt to advance with a semi-surrendered people, the fire simply will not fall. It’s not that blessing won’t come…but there are a lot of people who are looking for an enhancement to lives that are actually on agenda to be broken, not built up.

We don’t want life as we know it to become better! We have to lay that life on the altar and trade it for the cross!

Threat #10: Lack of an Immediate Response

We must develop a ‘drop everything ‘culture. An ‘all hands on deck’ culture.

There will be regular calls to prayer, calls to action… monthly, weekly, that will require a ‘drop everything’ culture.

Joel 1:14 Consecrate a fast;
    call a solemn assembly.
Gather the elders
    and all the inhabitants of the land
to the house of the LORD your God,
    and cry out to the LORD.

When prophetic instruction is received, the entire region must know about it right away, and the people must respond.

If we are mostly focused on our local, personal ventures, we’ll stay disconnected from the greater, regional mission. The response won’t be what is necessary and revival will most likely never come.

Watch both teachings, along with the rest of the series, free for the next seven days here!

CoFI Media ministry update

I’m working hard at building a smooth running media ministry machine!

I wanted to give all of you an update on the plans for our growing and developing media ministry. So many of you have written me expressing your appreciation for the message and the opportunity to connect with us. The feeling is mutual!

imageWe are currently getting settled in our Branson, Missouri home, and some of the necessary projects have been more time and energy consuming than we had anticipated—so, the daily CoFI Break videos have not been, well, daily!

The contractors are here as I speak putting the finishing touches on a fairly big job in the basement which includes rebuilding a wall in my studio. In addition to that some additional construction is ahead of us in the studio as we continue to make it ready. We’ll also be setting up the stage, adding new cameras, lighting, and other equipment soon (hopefully VERY soon!) so the broadcasts will continue to be more sporadic than I’d like.

I know it’s important to stay consistent and it wont be long before almost daily videos will be arriving in your inbox.

MEDIA PARTNERS

Another project that I’m working on that is taking longer than I would have hoped is our media archive.

The goal is to have all of our past audio and video teachings available for our Media Partners to access.

The most recent 30 days of audio and video teachings are available to anybody at no cost. For those who want to go back further they will have the option to subscribe at $10 per month.

We will also be adding several new downloadable audio teachings that you can buy and keep on any of your devices.

SATURDAY COFI GROUP

Tomorrow you will have access to the first teaching of a brand new series titled Four Fires. You DON’T want to miss this series.

You will discover how to burn hot for Jesus every and and how to grow deep in preparation of revival!

You can access it (tomorrow) and other teachings here: www.thefurnace.tv/media.

ILLINOIS

Parker and I are about to head out to Collinsville, Illinois for a weekend of meetings. Pray that the fire falls as I communicate the life altering message of Jesus!

If you’d like to host me at an event in your region, it’s EASY to do so! Go to www.johnburton.net/booking and fill out the form. I’ll be in touch right away!

Today only: John Burton Ministries Master Collection Download

John Burton • Master Collection

Order and immediately download the John Burton Master Collection for ONLY $50 TODAY ONLY!

During checkout, enter code DOWNLOAD50 and then you can download nearly 8GB of powerful materials!


USB Drive Master Collection containing TEN of John’s books PLUS MUCH MORE! OVER 180 RESOURCES!

For less than the price of the print version of John’s books, you get:

  • Ebook version of ten of John’s books:
    • Revelation Driven Prayer
    • 20 Elements of Revival
    • The Coming Church
    • The Terror of Hell
    • Six Enemies
    • Piece of Cake
    • Covens in the Church
    • Pharaoh in the Church
    • There’s a Book in You
    • Carry Like Mary
  • Special videos with additional related teachings
  • Over 100 powerful, full length MP3 teachings
  • PDF outlines of key teachings that you can study and use in a small group or church setting
  • Additional bonus material

ORDER RIGHT NOW, RIGHT HERE: www.johnburton.net/usb

Extravagant Intimacy | Watch last night’s service | Powerful soaking in God’s presence

Watch last night’s service NOW! Extravagant Intimacy

imageWe had audio issues last night during the live stream, but they have been resolved. You can watch the worship and teaching NOW, and it sounds great!

The presence of God was so sweet, and I’m sure you’ll feel that as well as you watch.

WATCH HERE: theFurnace – Extravagant Intimacy Part 2

theFurnace – Extravagant Intimacy Part 2 from John Burton on Vimeo.

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Join us THIS MONDAY at 7pm for worship, teaching and some great discussion.

We are currently in a video series by John Bevere. Trust me, it’s GOOD.

If you aren’t in the Detroit area, you can, as always, watch online at www.thefurnace.tv/live.

Fresh prophetic message: I’d like to strongly encourage you to head out to Revival Church tonight…

If you are local, join us at Revival Church OR if not, stream LIVE tonight at www.thefurnace.tv/live!

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I will be bringing a sudden prophetic message that God deposited into my spirit last night.

I’ll discuss two spiritual giants who were wildly successful in their missions—but who were both disqualified because of their hearts and emotions.

I believe you will be set free from struggles that have locked you down as God brings this piece of revelation to life for you!

Revival Church is located at 26091 Sherwood, Warren, MI 48091.

Prayer begins at 6pm (join us!) and the service at 7pm!

MEDIA

A major emphasis and focus of our ministry is to reach the nations with the message of revival.

Even locally, everything is setup to minister in a primary way to those who are listening and watching to our various events online. This ministry in Detroit is focused on the cities and nations of the Earth!

PLEASE head over to www.thefurnace.tv/live TONIGHT at 7pm and listen to our worship, intercession and this key teaching! The event is intentionally fast paced and broken up into two teaching segments, with worship and decrees before and after! It will rock you!

See you tonight!

New Teaching: Witchcraft, judgment, conflict and eradicating a victim mentality

This is a MUST listen teaching! I share remarkable stories that make it clear that we must embrace conflict and judgment!

A shocking shift hit us last night at Revival Church!

I’ll include my notes from the entire series below.

Here some bullet points from last night’s teaching:

  • You have to know that ministry that is born of God and prophetic in nature is designed to bring friction!
  • People will love you until you don’t give them what they want and do give them what they don’t want!
  • Since ministry is all about change, friction should be expected, and if you are adverse to friction, you are not ready for ministry!
  • So many are content with just learning more and more who they are and what they get as Christians, and their goal is to attempt to live in this happy, positive realm.
  • Teaching that attempts to reveal who we are in Christ without resulting in a revelation of what we do for Christ has miserably failed.
  • When the world was crying out for relief, Jesus brought conflict! Friction! What greater friction could there be when Jesus was on the cross? The nails as they were driven through his flesh-friction! The hatred and mocking-friction! His closest friend, his Father, turning his head—friction!
  • Nehemiah was fervent and he initiated friction…and the fire returned.

Fire: Fervency & Friction

I.                    A call to provoke

a.       A goal is to be the most fiery, fervent, passionate body of Believers in Detroit—not because we are trying to build the Revival Church brand, but because we want to simply live according to the Biblical norm!

                                                               i.      We want 1000 people who are burning, on fire… praying non-stop, moving against resistance, taking dominion!

                                                             ii.      A remnant is rising up, bold prophetic messengers who will fear God, preach the cross, call to repentance & emphasize the reality of Hell.

                                                            iii.      This will result in a great provocation!

                                                           iv.      A key problem with communicating reform in the church is that most presume it will enhance the familiar, not eradicate it.

1.      What this means is that our comfort and what we like is at risk of demolition!

2.      We are the initiators of this great reform!

b.                              When we have a great understanding of who we are in Christ, we will not only stop fearing conflict, but we will joyfully seek to initiate it.

c.       There’s simply no way we will be able to stay silent! Carriers of fire are constantly provoked!

                                                               i.      With a spirit of great love and deep concern for those in darkness, our confidence in the power in our lives will result in action!

                                                             ii.      That provocation, that friction, that fervent spirit will result in an atmosphere of fire, of awakening in our generation!

                                                            iii.      Our goal as a prophetic people is not primarily to make people feel good! It’s to bring the trouble that’s hidden under the surface, to the surface for the sake of freedom.

1.      The great counterfeit won't come to you as a counterfeit. He'll come to you as the Holy Spirit. Howard Pittman

                                                           iv.      A spirit of religion doesn't restrict personal freedom, it emphasizes it…and violently reacts against anything that would threaten it.

1.      A spirit of truth will cut, prune, trouble…before it liberates.

2.      That’s why it’s so resisted… until someone hits rock bottom! That’s why calamity has to come to a nation before repentance is shouted!

3.      It’s time to violently shake the sleepers, and warn the wicked, and trouble the church!

4.      Ephesians 5:8-14 (ESV) 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10 and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. 13 But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, 14 for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

5.      In a spirit of great humility and love, we must expose darkness, and that requires that we are OK with friction.

6.      Though many of you are entertained by my Facebook posts, I really do have a mission in mind.

a.       As a prophetic messenger, my intent is to provoke people by the Spirit of God to a fresh level of discernment.

b.      On Facebook, Twitter, on my blog, in these audio teachings, on XPmedia, etc. my only goal is to fervently create friction that results in fire in people’s lives.

d.      Now, clearly, we talk a lot about fire around here, and that’s by design.

                                                               i.      To create a fire you need the right conditions. I’m going to talk about two of them:

1.      Fervency

2.      Friction

e.       When you rub two sticks together, you have to get the sawdust that is created heated up to 800 degrees before it will start glowing.

                                                               i.      Below 800 degrees it will give off a little smoke, but little else.

                                                             ii.      We cannot afford to be a ministry of smoke.

                                                            iii.      Anything that prevents the sawdust from reaching 800 degrees will interfere with fire making.

                                                           iv.      Interestingly, the finer the sawdust is, the lower the temperature necessary for it to ignite. Fervency + friction = fire.

                                                             v.      Problems:

1.      If you don't have enough muscle power then you won't be able to raise the temperature high enough. Remedy: teamwork. Have someone else help you.

2.      If the structure of the wood is such that it disintegrates before it reaches 800 degrees then it is a wood that should not be used.

3.      Volatile substances such as water or resin in the wood. Evaporative cooling will prevent the sawdust from reaching the critical temperature.

4.                              Someone said: What makes me feel even better is getting a group of people to contribute towards the starting of a fire. I can think of no better way to bond a group of people.

5.                              Someone else said: Starting a fire is a sacrament.

II.                  Fervency

a.       Don't let the best you have ever done be the standard for the rest of your life.

                                                               i.      It’s time to urgently go after the dream!

                                                            ii.      Emerson said, “Nothing great was ever accomplished without enthusiasm.” “Every great movement in the annals of history,” said Emerson, “is the triumph of enthusiasm.” Hegel propounded the same truth. He said, “We affirm absolutely that nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.”

1.      We can’t be so focused on personal experience that it’s to the detriment of personal accomplishment.

                                                            iii.      Romans 12:11 (ESV) 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.

                                                          iv.      Ephesians 5:15-17 (ESV) 15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

1.      Make the best use of our time!

2.      24/7 church of urgent, fervent fire!

                                                            v.      Isaiah 59:17 (ESV) 17 He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak.

1.      Jesus put on zeal!

2.      There is a reason to burn! To be fervent! To have an urgent spirit!

b.      Nehemiah 1:1-3 (ESV) 1 .. one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem. 3 And they said to me, “The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.”

                                                               i.      What should the response be??!

                                                             ii.      Nehemiah 1:4 (ESV) 4 As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

                                                            iii.      Nehemiah hit his face and cried out and repented.

                                                           iv.      If we are looking for personal comfort, we will actually resist the brokenness and grieving that will result in a fervent response!

                                                             v.      “The desire for comfort can be your enemy. If the source of your comfort is not The Comforter, false comfort will eventually destroy you.”

                                                           vi.      If moving in the spirit doesn't include a yearning for holiness, it's not the Holy Spirit we are moving in. We must strive for holiness!

                                                          vii.      Hebrews 12:14 (ESV) 14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

c.       We must be always on…always alert. Fervent. Striving. Rending our hearts.

                                                               i.      The word “strive” in the Greek literally means to fight, to contend, to labor fervently.

                                                             ii.      We must strive, be fervent! Urgent!

                                                            iii.      “God has called us to be the sworn enemies of sin. We are to wage war against it and strive to give it no opportunity in our lives.” ~ William Wilberforce, Real Christianity

                                                           iv.      There is a fervent, striving spirit that we must get used to in our lives.

                                                             v.      The culture is a sinful, destructive culture, and we have to fight against it!

                                                           vi.      No more simply seeking out comfort and relaxation! We must go hard!

1.      The code word for ‘pursuing Jesus hard' is “legalism!” Don't be intimidated by these false arguments. ~Mike Bickle

2.      A false grace message will result in a lack of motivation to respond in wholeheartedness. ~Mike Bickle

3.      Charles F. Kettering of General Motors once said that he didn't want any fellow “who has a job working for me.” Kettering wanted a fellow whom a job has. The job must get the fellow, not the fellow get the job. That job should get hold of this young man so hard that no matter where he is the job has got him for keeps. That job should have him in its clutches when he goes to bed at night. In the morning, that same job should be sitting on the foot of his bed telling him it's time to get up and go to work. When a job gets a fellow that way, he'll amount to something. —Donald Grey Barnhouse

4.      Even entering rest requires fervent striving! Hebrews 4:11-13 (ESV) 11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

5.      Rest only come as we allow the breaking, refining process to hit us.

6.      Deliverance story… the man manifesting, both me and him striving, warring… until he was free. Daniel for hours until freedom came.

                                                          vii.      We also have to be fervent regarding our salvation!

1.      Luke 13:24 (ESV) 24  “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.

                                                        viii.      Our missions require striving.

                                                            ix.      We so often hear the expression “the voice of an angel” that I got to wondering what an angel would sound like. So I did some research, and discovered that an angel's voice sounds remarkably like a person saying, “Hurry up!” Until the time I took over, research had been blocked because it was based on the delusion that the voice of an angel would always be beautiful. The words “Get up” are rarely beautiful, never less so than at 7 a.m. Yet that is what the angels always say when they talk to men, as reported in the Bible. I can't think of anything an angel ever said but “Get up and hurry!” An angel comes to Peter in jail and says, “Rise quickly.” An angel says to Gideon, “Arise and go in this thy might.” An angel says to Elijah, “Arise and eat.” An angel appears to Joseph in a dream, when Herod is slaughtering the infants, and says, “Go quickly.” An angel appears to Philip and says, “Arise and go.” Really, the angels are monotonous talkers! They always say the same thing—”Arise, hurry!” But so is a fire bell monotonous. It might be a good idea to allow an angel to occupy the pulpit on Sunday. —The Christian Century

d.      Cover to cover in scripture we see stories of fervency, of war, of battle, of advance.

                                                               i.      To know God requires that you know him as a fervent, aggressive God!

                                                             ii.      If our understanding of God is limited to knowing him as “Daddy,” we are missing the wonder of his fearful shock and awe.

                                                            iii.      When the people cried out Hosanna for Jesus to save them, to comfort them, he gave them a crisis—the cross.

                                                           iv.      He was fervent in his perfect expression of love!

                                                             v.      This is why a foundation of our strategy includes deep groans of intercession!

1.      There’s an urgency in the spirit that will awaken as we allow God to groan through us!

e.       1 Timothy 4:6-10 (ESV) 6 If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. 7 Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; 8 for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. 9 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. 10 For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.

1.      Wesley: Train thyself up in holiness of heart and life, with the utmost labor, vigor, and diligence.

2.      Life Application: “Training” emphasizes the point that spiritual development does not happen by chance. An athlete is focused and committed, constantly training, refusing to let up, always striving.

a.       I’m fervent for many reasons…one of which is that I know I am not guaranteed Heaven. I can’t even imagine not being with the one I’ve fallen in love with! We need to fervently exhort, to call each other higher!

3.      Hebrews 3:12-13 (ESV) 12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

III.                Friction

a.       When you go hard for God, when you fix what others don’t see as broken, when you threaten other’s comfort zones, there will be friction!

                                                               i.      You have to know that ministry that is born of God and prophetic in nature is designed to bring friction!

                                                             ii.      People will love you until you don’t give them what they want and do give them what they don’t want!

                                                            iii.      Since ministry is all about change, friction should be expected, and if you are adverse to friction, you are not ready for ministry!

b.      The gospel means conflict and confrontation, and all who stand for righteousness will be resisted. DR  Michael Brown

                                                               i.      If a key motivation for you is to be liked and for resistance and friction to be at a minimum, it will require disobedience to God to accomplish that.

c.       Mission Manitou

                                                               i.      Friction will find you if you advance against the enemy, if you advance the Kingdom of God.

                                                             ii.      Mission Manitou: God called us to transition from ministering to people to ministering to God.

1.      This was resisted like you will never know!

2.      The people who expected to be the center of our attention rose up against us and brought some serious wounding to Amy and myself… God bless them!!!

3.      But, most revealing was how the enemy reacted!!!

I’m sending this to a few men and women of God who walk in great authority.  We are undergoing a significant attack, and I’m doing my best to draw as much attention from churches and intercessors to this city as possible.

A pastor actually told me, “Manitou Springs is a God forsaken city.”

Not so… but, it has been greatly forsaken and forgotten and feared by so many believers in this region.  We are standing strong here, but are in desperate need of reinforcements.  The mission is both at great jeopardy AND at the brink of unbelievable advance.

Since we’ve moved into our new Mission Base, and have begun 24/7 intercession, the enemy has reacted harshly and quickly.  I have received many emails over the last 3 weeks from people in Manitou Springs and as far away as Egypt.  Everyone from the “worshipful master” of the Masons to the earth spirit pagans to the twelve tribe cult has contacted me.  A city council member visited us as well.  It’s been prophesied many times that a huge season of demonic resistance would hit us.  We’re in the beginnings of that season, and we are vulnerable.  We need much help and intercession.

Here are some snips of emails I’ve gotten lately:

  • Today I am inspired by you to organize people myself.  You have wakened the giant.  May Lilith find a way to show the way.- Child of Lilith
  • If it's a “spiritual war” you want, you'll get one, as we WILL defend our home.  You begun a battle you cannot possibly hope to win.  I look forward to crushing your little assault beneath our collective, spiritual boots.
  • I do not want your prayers, and neither do any of the other people.  Yes, you have the freedom to do so, but it is not wanted.

These emails are just the beginning, and they are the result of nothing more than 24/7 prayer.

4.      Are you ready to take Detroit! Are you ready for the fight? 24/7 prayer must happen now! We need a property now!

d.      Story of “I’m going to get one more senior than her.” (a witch for 22 years)

                                                               i.      Many opposed the vent including a witch and a satanic priest.

                                                             ii.      A spiritual conflict was about to cause problems, and freedom!!!!

                                                            iii.      During prayer- God is going to visit people in the city.

                                                           iv.      At the vent, someone came to me and shared a strange word that “heads are going to roll.”

                                                             v.      Right after that, someone else had a word that was shared publicly “God wants the heads, specifically in the local ranks of witches.”

                                                           vi.      A senior witch of 50 years had a visitation of Jesus!

1.      I’m writing my next book, The Coming Church, and one of the key changes to the church is a loss of the fear of man and apostolic teaching that causes as much trouble as help.

                                                          vii.      So many are content with just learning more and more who they are and what they get as Christians, and their goal is to attempt to live in this happy, positive realm.

1.      A revelation of God will always result in a revelation of our own wretched condition—and this is good news!

a.       We want this conflict!

b.      After Isaiah sees God, he sees himself!

2.      Isaiah 6:1-4 (ESV) 1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.

3.      Isaiah 6:5 (ESV) 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

a.       If you want to see God, get ready for conflict!

b.      Get ready to be commissioned!

c.       Get ready to receive your assignment!

                                                        viii.      Teaching that attempts to reveal who we are in Christ without resulting in a revelation of what we do for Christ has miserably failed.

1.      Titus 2:11-15 (ESV) 11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. 15 Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.

a.       Renounce! Zealous for good works! Declare! Exhort! Rebuke!

2.      And, what we do for Christ will cause great trouble!

3.      We are called to be peace makers, not peace keepers!

4.      That requires conflict and friction.

5.      What you are called to do will threaten what others are trying to do.

6.      This is the spirit of religion. This is what causes churches to resist one another! This is what causes jealousy!

e.       Nehemiah 4:1-3 (ESV) 1   Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews. 2 And he said in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, and burned ones at that?” 3 Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, “Yes, what they are building—if a fox goes up on it he will break down their stone wall!”

                                                               i.      Resistance! Mocking! Anger! Rage!

                                                             ii.      How did Nehemiah respond? He prayed for friction!

                                                            iii.      Nehemiah 4:4-5 (ESV) 4 Hear, O our God, for we are despised. Turn back their taunt on their own heads and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives. 5 Do not cover their guilt, and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders.

1.      Jameison-Fausset-Brown: The imprecations invoked here may seem harsh, cruel, and vindictive; but it must be remembered that Nehemiah and his friends regarded those Samaritan leaders as enemies to the cause of God and His people, and therefore as deserving to be visited with heavy judgments. The prayer, therefore, is to be considered as emanating from hearts in which neither hatred, revenge, nor any inferior passion, but a pious and patriotic zeal for the glory of God and the success of His cause, held the ascendant sway.

f.        The next five words are brilliant: Nehemiah 4:6 (ESV) 6  So we built the wall.

                                                               i.      Nehemiah 4:16-17 (ESV) 16 From that day on, half of my servants worked on construction, and half held the spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail. And the leaders stood behind the whole house of Judah, 17 who were building on the wall. Those who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other.

g.       We must be in conflict and building!

h.      The greater you advance in God, the more threatened the religious will become!

                                                               i.      Nehemiah 6:1-3 (ESV) 1 Now when Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall and that there was no breach left in it (although up to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates), 2 Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, “Come and let us meet together at Hakkephirim in the plain of Ono.” But they intended to do me harm. 3 And I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?”

1.      I talked with one of Sid Roth’s guests and he said the greatest and most fierce demonic resistance explodes out of people when he deals with the false grace message. The walls we are called to build, to restore the biblical church, will result in a ferocious demonic assault.

                                                             ii.      It happened with Jesus too!

1.      When the world was crying out for relief, Jesus brought conflict!

                                                            iii.      Friction! What greater friction could there be when Jesus was on the cross? The nails as they were driven through his flesh-friction! The hatred and mocking-friction! His closest friend, his Father, turning his head—friction!

                                                           iv.      I teach in my book Covens in the Church on resisting spirits against the move of God.

1.      One of the steps, under the direction of God, is to pray for judgment.

2.      Shaking! Building in Manitou! Fiery prayer revealed the dissenter. His motives were soon revealed.

3.      A pure spirit of love will agree with judgment and friction… if I would have done nothing, people under my care would have been poisoned!

IV.                Conclusion

a.       Now get this… here’s the goal: The fervency and the friction will result in a fire.

                                                               i.      Nehemiah 7:1 (ESV) 1 Now when the wall had been built and I had set up the doors, and the gatekeepers, the singers, and the Levites had been appointed…

                                                             ii.      Leviticus 6:12-13 (ESV) 12 The fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it; it shall not go out. The priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and he shall arrange the burnt offering on it and shall burn on it the fat of the peace offerings. 13 Fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; it shall not go out.

b.      Nehemiah was fervent and he initiated friction…and the fire returned.

Joseph Prince, false-grace and two key threats to revival

Listen to the final two threats to revival in my teaching series, Ten Threats to Revival. There’s a false-grace message that’s promoted by people like Joseph Prince that is threatening a move of God.

imageFirst, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Our gift to you? A completed series on revival that you can listen to and share with your friends right now! Listen to this teaching here: http://media.johnburton.net/6014999

The final two threats to revival that I address are:

  • Seeking an enhanced life
  • The lack of an immediate response

I’ll post the notes below so you can follow along, but I also wanted to share a couple portions from my book Covens in the Church.

Someone asked me about the call for an immediate response. What if we don’t feel that God is calling us to respond? Here’s my reply:

That’s a great question!

Here’s my response that includes what I wrote in my book that addresses this directly:

Most of the time, our response can’t be attached to our feelings. Basically, we’ll have to move contrary to feeling quite a bit.

We see in the Gideon story that God did release those who were feeling afraid… but, then, they disqualified themselves from participating in the mission.

The key story is Joshua. Under Moses, people didn’t respond to their authority rightly, so they didn’t enter the Promised Land and most of them died in the desert.

Under Joshua, there was precision and immediate response. Nobody stayed back. The call was troublesome and inconvenient, yet everybody was immediately responsive.

The most important first step is to answer the question of whether you are under the person’s authority or not. If someone regionally makes a call and I am legitimately not under their authority, then I can go to prayer and respond how God leads.

But, if I am under their authority, there’s no prayer necessary. I simply respond.

Here’s two sections from my book that deal directly with this:

As the leader of Revolution House of Prayer I have people who God has appointed as my authority. We call them overseers and they

are leaders of ministries and people with a mature walk with the Lord. Like the centurion, I am a man under authority.

Let’s say, for example, I, along with the leadership of Revolution, decide to hold a conference. We go through the tedious process of

securing guest speakers and figuring out how to administrate the event.

We spend thousands of dollars promoting the conference on TV, radio and in print. I am a key part of the process as well as the actual event.

I’ll be teaching in several of the workshops and facilitating the week of activities. A week before the conference I receive a phone call from

one of my overseers. He tells me he needs me to fly to Alabama to help a church work through a transition from one pastor to another. Their previous pastor just repented of indiscretion and resigned suddenly.

The problem? It’s during the same week as my conference. I would have a dilemma. Honestly, I don’t want to go to Alabama. In addition to the upcoming conference I have a wedding to officiate among other important tasks. My integrity and reputation, along with my own personal comfort would be at stake. What’s the correct approach to take?

  • Refuse to mention my disagreement with my overseer with anybody–including my wife. There is power of life and death in the tongue. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. I’d have to allow God to break me and cause me to have a pure heart in this matter.
  • Put to death any of my own desires and prepare to surrender to the wishes of my overseer however inconvenient they may be.
  • Meet with my overseer and honestly share all of the concerns and issues at stake. Inform him that I’d prefer not to go and if he could find someone else, I’d really appreciate it.
  • Submit. After a healthy conversation, my overseer states that he appreciates my concerns but he still needs me to go. So, I go.

I don’t have to pray about my decision. I don’t have to talk with anybody else. I have no option according to God’s established government in my life. I fly to Alabama with a smile on my face. God’s authority has spoken.

The enemy has caused many to believe that we can’t experience freedom while being submitted. This is simply not true.

Freedom from authority is rebellion.

Freedom in the absence of authority is anarchy.

Freedom under authority is liberty.

The process of response to my leader described above not only must take place between a pastor and his overseers, but also between a youth pastor and his pastor. Also, between the ministers in the pews and their leaders. We’ll eventually see the city Church established once again and pastors will be submitting to apostles in their city. It’s a process that is quite foreign to most.

The 100% Church and the Call to Corporate Mission Advance

This issue of pastors becoming salesmen has forced the rapid growth of para-church ministries. Leaders of para-church ministries have a greater ability to call those people who have partnered with them on their mission field into a position of readiness and response.

The success of the mission is at a lesser risk as all hands are on deck and ready to go. Pastors don’t always have it as easy.

For example, a pastor may hear God tell him to gather his flock together and fast from all food for 3 days. In God’s government, there would be no resistance, complaining or negativity. 100% of the participants in the church, who had already made up their mind to be unified and ready to press ahead as warriors for God, would immediately embrace this God given mandate. All would fast. If someone had a concern with the directive, that’s OK. A good servant won’t simply ignore the plan of action, but will rather make the effort to talk to the leader. A good leader will certainly listen to their concerns with compassion.

Much dialogue can occur. However, at the end of the discussion, the two would be ‘agreed’–moving in the same direction. The events of 1988 in Baton Rouge changed that considerably.

Now, the process that poor pastor must go through when the need to call the troops to action is enough to cause him to resign!

  1. He studies endlessly in the Word so he can ‘cover all of his bases’. He is already preparing his heart for resistance–the resistance that was perpetuated back in 1988.
  2. Due to this certain impending resistance, he prays long and hard for God to help him cast vision and sell this strategy to the church by giving him ‘the words to say’.
  3. He shares his impression that God wants this three-day fast with his leadership team, hoping to gain support. He knows he’ll need it.
  4. He looks at the schedule to make sure he doesn’t offend anybody by scheduling the fast during a time when someone else has already planned his or her own event.
  5. He prays again asking God for more insight as to the purpose of the fast. He wants to make sure he has enough info so as to effectively sell this idea to the people.
  6. He stresses out when God doesn’t give further insight.
  7. He starts to guess how many will actually respond so he can devise a plan to effectively make sure those who don’t respond don’t feel alienated. After all, an affirmed and happy family is very important.
  8. He then shares how he ‘feels led’ that God ‘would like’ the church to fast. Those who also ‘feel led’ should sign up in the back as they leave.
  9. The same five or six people who show up for everything sign up and the rest of the sheet is left blank. It’s a monument of a failed mission.
  10. The next time God says something, the pastor will be even less zealous in sharing the dream.

Here are my notes from last night’s teaching:

  1. Threat 9. Seeking an Enhanced Life

1.       People generally want God to make their current lives better. They want an enhancement, an upgrade.

2.       However, the demands of revival include the willingness to embrace a fire that won’t warm your flesh—it will consume your flesh.

3.       I wonder if the church would listen to “prophetic words for 2013” if they included extreme surrender & death to self instead of benefits.

1.       We should certainly understand that the great and terrible day of the Lord is at near! We are living as in the days of Noah.

2.       “I Thess. 5:2,3 …the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, “peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them…”

1.       “Just as false prophets of old fraudulently forecast a bright future, in spite of the imminence of God's judgment (Jer.6:14, 8:11,14:13-14; Lam.2:14; Ezek. 13:10,16; Mic. 3:5) so they will again in future days just before the final Day of the Lord destruction.”

2.       Ezekiel 13:15-16 (ESV) 15 Thus will I spend my wrath upon the wall and upon those who have smeared it with whitewash, and I will say to you, The wall is no more, nor those who smeared it, 16 the prophets of Israel who prophesied concerning Jerusalem and saw visions of peace for her, when there was no peace, declares the Lord GOD.

3.       Matthew 24:36-39 (ESV) 36  “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. 37  For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38  For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, 39  and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

3.       I was chatting with a pastor from Quebec… he said people call him the ‘death pastor’… because he is unrelenting in his call to die to self.

1.       What??!

2.       Somehow it’s a derogatory thing to call people to lay down their lives?

3.       Messages of personal benefit are rampant. Joseph Prince is teaching a very dangerous message.

1.       No confession, no repentance, no way to lose salvation.

4.       Evan Roberts called for people to gather—but not all people—only those who were willing to make a total surrender.

1.       Revival doesn’t enhance lives, it crushes them. If we attempt to advance with a semi-surrendered people, the fire simply will not fall.

2.       It’s not that blessing won’t come…but there are a lot of people who are looking for an enhancement to lives that are actually on agenda to be broken, not built up.

3.       We don’t want life as we know it to become better! We have to lay that life on the altar and trade it for the cross!

1.       It’s the same thing that was happening when the money changers were in the temple.

1.       They wanted a better life.

2.       It’s the same thing that happened at the triumphal entry.

3.       Matthew 21:8-9 (ESV) 8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

1.       Hosanna literally means: Save us now!

2.       They wanted an enhanced life!

3.       Jesus decided to answer their cry, but when they realized it wasn’t what they wanted, they turned on him!

4.       That spirit is in the church everywhere!

5.       Matthew 27:20-23 (ESV) 20 Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. 21 The governor again said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.” 22 Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said, “Let him be crucified!” 23 And he said, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified!”

5.       Since I’ve been in Detroit I’ve heard a lot about revival. It seems the whole region is crying out for it. However, this is where the root of the disturbance in my spirit exists.

1.       Most every time revival is mentioned, the intent of that desire is to experience some sort of breakthrough, blessing or restitution.

2.       It’s time we STOP crying out for God to revive the economy, for resolved issues, for racial tensions to subside, for a fixed city… and START crying out for God and God alone!

3.    God is jealous and he won’t allow Detroit to be satisfied by money, security or anything else until we are satisfied in Him and no one or nothing else!

4.    Jesus’ own disciples fell into the trap too… they focused on the enhancement instead of the mission!

1.    Acts 1:6-11 (ESV) 6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

6.       DO NOT expect revival until we return to our first love and lay down our lives daily. It WILL NOT COME! In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if the situation in this region got dramatically worse. The choice is ours, however.

7.       It’s absolutely shocking to me that so much emphasis is placed on the pursuit of breakthrough yet the call to breakthrough into a pursuit of God falls on deaf ears.

8.       Will we only gather and pray if we have a hope of personal blessing?

1.       Where are all of the hungry people in Detroit? The stadiums should be filled with zealous, praying people every night of the week! Have the cares of life and entertainment so bewitched us that we have become convinced that being with God is not worth it?

9.    I propose starting a movement of encounter which only has one goal—to be fully satisfied in enjoying and responding to the Lover of our souls. Nothing else matters. If we all have to live in a cardboard box on the streets of Detroit to encounter God, so be it! Our goal is not financial! It’s not selfish! It’s to be with God! That is all!

  1. Threat 10. A Lack of Immediate Response

1.       We must develop a ‘drop everything ‘culture. An ‘all hands on deck’ culture.

1.       There will be regular calls to prayer, calls to action… monthly, weekly, that will require a ‘drop everything’ culture.

2.       My intercessors know this… if I send them an issue, depending on the severity, they drop everything… they get on a conference call… they pray.

3.       If we have fallen into the trap of seeking an enhanced life, we won’t respond to the inconvenient call!

1.       This is a major danger in the church today!

2.       We’ll say, I don’t see how my life will be enhanced by participating, so I will hold back.

3.       This is why we teach people in theLab to be alert… to always be on time… we don’t break for holidays… we don’t excuse people for vacations… it’s a drop everything culture of consecration.

4.       This model isn’t just for theLab!!!! This is the life of the Believer!!!!!

5.       Christmas morning at IHOP is just like any other day of the week! They stay on the wall… they don’t relax the mandate.

6.       Let me set you free from a Christian cop out.

1.       When called to action, don’t ever say, “I’ll pray about it”… unless you are truly going to invest some hard core prayer and then report back exactly what God said!

2.       To say that we’ll pray about it… and then do what we want to do instead of exactly what God said to do whether we pray or not… is taking the Lord’s name in vain!

1.       If we tell people that God said that we aren’t to do something when God never said that at all is taking his name in vain!

2.       Most things don’t require praying about… and we’re a praying church!

3.       In a drop everything culture where the prophetic calls are constant, if everybody just stopped everything to pray about whether they should respond or not nothing would ever be accomplished.

4.       Check out a couple passages in Joel:

2.       Joel 1:14 Consecrate a fast;
    call a solemn assembly.
Gather the elders
    and all the inhabitants of the land
to the house of the Lord your God,
    and cry out to the Lord.

3.       And in Joel 2:

1.       Joel 2:15-17 (ESV) 15 Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; 16 gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber. 17 Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep and say, “Spare your people, O LORD, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”

1.       The people are saying “Where is their God!!!!!!!!”

2.       Connecticut! Where was God!!!! Church!!!! Are we so asleep that we don’t see this?

3.       We have to gather!!!!! Be together!!! Be instant!!! Pray!!!! Always!!!!!!

4.       At 5pm every Sunday, be in the prayer room!!! Cry out to the Lord!!!

2.       We live in a day where there's Twitter, email, Facebook, video and more… in every house in the city!!! We have phones that are many times smarter than the computer that took a rocket to the moon!

3.       There is no excuse to not hear and respond to the prophetic decrees moment by moment!

4.       We must be alert and ready! Alarms are being sounded, yet are any hearing?

5.       The call a couple of years ago was for every church to gather at Fire in February. Few responded. The same thing with The Call. Few responded. The prophets are calling the church of Detroit to respond, and immediately!

4.       This is one reason why church schedules must be flexible.

5.       It’s also a reason why daily meetings are critical.

6.       When prophetic instruction is received, the entire region must know about it right away, and the people must respond.

1.       The Manitou way of doing things… continual data, continual response.

2.       Luke 9:59-62 (ESV) 59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60 And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

3.       We have to learn to do two things:

1.       Embrace key prophets in the region

2.       Stay tuned in, stay in your email, stay ready for an urgent message that just may require you respond in hours time!

7.       In Joshua 3, the instructions were clear, and everybody responded in unison.

1.       Consecrate yourselves today…for tomorrow!!!!

8.       There’s no way to fulfill this mighty mission if we are only together one day a week (actually 2 hours a week!).

1.       There’s way too much work to be done!

2.       As an example, Mike Bickle recently called an urgent meeting. Most of the departments at IHOP in Kansas City were immediately closed and the people all gathered together to receive an urgent prophetic message.

3.       In Detroit, we must promote extreme alertness and flexibility so we can respond moment by moment to the demands of regional revival.

4.       If we are mostly focused on our local, personal ventures, we’ll stay disconnected from the greater, regional mission. The response won’t be what is necessary and revival will most likely never come.

God’s judgment, a flaky prophetic movement & the problem of the local church

Ten Threats to Revival: Listen to parts one and two online now and get ready to get rocked!

Yesterday’s teaching was part two in the series, and it will provoke you to prepare for judgment and to align yourself for revival.

Go to http://media.johnburton.net and listen right now.

imageYou can follow along with my personal notes here. I hit on the first threat to revival—the local church.

TEN THREATS TO REVIVAL

I. Revival

1. We have to understand what revival is.

1. The simplest definition is wide scale calibration to biblical normalcy.

2. The stuff you read in the Bible will regularly manifest and be a part of our identity.

1. Acts 2:17 17 v“ ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,
wthat I will pour out my Spirit xon all flesh,
and your sons and yyour daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams;

2. Acts 5:16 Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed.

3. Acts 5:19 19 But during the night tan angel of the Lord uopened the prison doors and brought them out, and said,

4. Acts 2:41 So those who received his word were baptized, and zthere were added that day about three thousand souls.

5. Acts 4:31 31 And when they had prayed, hthe place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and ithey were all filled with the Holy Spirit and jcontinued to speak the word of God with boldness.

3. Arthur Wallis defines revival this way: It is God revealing Himself to man in awful holiness and irresistible power. It is such a manifest working of God that human personalities are overshadowed, and human programmes abandoned. It is man retiring into the background because God has taken the field. It is the Lord making bare His holy arm, and working in extraordinary power on saint and sinner.

1. Does it not bother anybody that we are at great risk of living our entire lives outside of the normalcy of irresistible power?

1. We live in a day where most Christians have not be blown away by the supernatural force of the Holy Spirit!

1. Brownsville!

2. Toronto!

3. Lakeland!

4. An invisible God was encountered!

5. The spirit of revival will awaken an entire nation!

2. One day when you Google “Detroit revival” the results won't be about the economic revitalization. It will be about the dead being raised.

1. Douglas Shields wrote in 1905 ‘There is a theory that all social and moral advance may be traced to religious revivals. If these comments are true then seeking continuous ‘revival’ should be the major aim of every Christian, in every church and in every age. Revival should be at the top of our prayer lists and preaching programmes. It is how God works.

3. This breakthrough has been prophesied! However, we must handle prophecy correctly.

4. Julia Palermo: “Prophetic words are not automatic guarantees but invitations from the Lord. Faith and obedience bring the manifestation of the promise.”

1. We must go after God and surrender all!

2. Our current calendar, our current focus is insufficient!

3. We can't just hope to show up at an event and see revival break out!

4. Michael Brown: You can no more “hold a revival” than you can hold a hurricane, and that you can no more “schedule a revival” than you can schedule an earthquake.

5. First, consider this quote by Evan Roberts, the hero of the Welsh Revival, as he shares the simple formula for revival: “Congregate the people who are willing to make a total surrender. Pray and wait. Believe God’s promises. Hold daily meetings.”

1. We must give our entire lives to revival!

2. That's what theLab is doing—calling the remnant, the revival hungry people who will make a total surrender!

3. We have come to believe that we can squeeze the hope of revival into our busy lives. We cannot.

4. Revival will reform calendars. The remnant will initiate this reformation by forcibly changing now.

5. Acts 1:4 And while staying1 with them ghe ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5 for hJohn baptized with water, hbut you will be baptized iwith1 the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

6. Everything changed not by the power of the Holy Spirit at that point, but by intentional and sudden change of life.

7. It's worth it!

5. Brian Edwards-A true Holy Spirit revival is a remarkable increase in the spiritual life of a large number of God’s people, accompanied by an awesome awareness of the presence of God, intensity of prayer and praise, a deep conviction of sin with a passionate longing for holiness and unusual effectiveness in evangelism, leading to the salvation of many unbelievers. Revival is remarkable, large, effective and, above all, it is something that God brings about.’

II. Threat 1. The Local Church

1. This first threat is a bit provocative.

1. I love the local church!

1. I love pastors and honor their missions!

2. And, we must have an extreme level of devotion to our local church missions!

2. However, the alarm must be sounded. We must be on the ready to lead people throughout the city to tend to the various fires of revival that will star sparking.

1. This is one reason theLab will be moving from Tribe to Tribe each week… we'll be fanning the flames of revival all over the city!

3. The leadership of Revival Church has their radars on, and we will be leading you into the fire, no matter where or when it is!

1. 40 days of fire! We were there every night! I took only one night off! I was disturbed when I heard rumblings of resistance against what God was doing there through Brian Simmons, who is emerging as an apostle to our city.

2. Keep in mind, in scripture the church, when mentioned, referred to the church of the city. We must be city minded always.

3. Acts 5:11 Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.

1. That wasn't a local church, it was the church in the city.

2. Acts 9:31 Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened; and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord.

3. We also see the seven churches in Revelation.

1. To the church at Ephesus

2. To the church in Smyrna

3. To the church in Pergamum

4. Not to first Baptist church, to Revival Church, etc.

4. Since we are the church of Detroit, we must understand our role on a city level.

5. the fear driven competition between so many churches in Detroit is an embarrassment to this city. And we think revival is near? Not until repentance is deep and unity is strong.

1. I believe its time that we are willing to lose our people, lose our salaries, lose our reputations, lose it all for the sake of blessing other churches and ministries in Detroit.

2. We must stop building our own kingdoms.

3. Brian Ming wrote a chilling worship song that included these words: God forgive us for building kingdoms of man on doctrines of demons in your name.

III. Threat 2. A Belief in Fate

1. Many people tend to believe that they have little effect on whether revival breaks out or not.

1. They may say things like, “Nothing will stop God if he wants to pour out in a region,” or “If God wants to bring revival, he will.”

2. A belief in fate minimizes the radical importance of our participation.

3. Additionally, the many prophecies that have been revealing God’s plans for an outpouring in Detroit are conditional.

1. In order to see them come to pass, we must involve ourselves in the process.

2. As Mike Bickle says, “Prophecy isn’t a guarantee, it’s an invitation.”

3. The Great Commission!

4. Matt 28:18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

1. From cover to cover in scripture, man had to do it!

2. We are commissioned and empowered by God to do it!

1. Noah had to build the boat.

2. Moses had to confront Pharaoh.

3. Paul had to start churches.

4. Peter had to preach.

5. The churches of Revelation were indited because of their lack of works.

1. We have to pray, serve, feed the hungry, win the lost, do the work.

2. If you are called to translate the Bible like Brian Simmons, you can't just sit back on the couch and wait for the biblical knowledge to overtake you!

3. You study!

IV. Threat 3. Taking a “Wait and See” Approach

1. Many are sitting back waiting to see if this current outpouring in Detroit is in fact a move of God. The problem? God’s moving is largely dependent on you and me! We have been instructed to tend to the fire, and in our unwitting arrogance we have reassigned that job back to God!

1. We believe God is to do our job of keeping the fire burning when he explicitly requires us to do it. If we don’t build the fire, the fire will go out—even though God’s prophesied plans are to bring the fires of reformation to Detroit.

2. Are you so sleepy that you aren’t active and vibrant enough in the spirit to hear the alarms? Wake up! Wake up!

3. Never again treat the call to battle casually. Never again participate in your local church casually. It’s time to awaken and advance with an alert and ready spirit! If you don’t know how to connect, ask! Ask again! Show up! Be a warrior! Serve!

4. Acts 1:4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with[a] water, but in a few days you will be baptized with[b] the Holy Spirit.” 6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. 10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

1. No more waiting! No more gazing! Go!

V. Threat 4. The Scattering Movement

1. We are in the end-times, and it’s clear in scripture that we must gather together even more during this historic season.

2. Satan’s plans to overthrow God were well on track as the greatest movement of unity in history was advancing. 

3. Gen 11:4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” 5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.” 8 So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused[a] the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.

1. That unity gave strength to the building of a tower that would reach the heavens.

2. God realized the threat and initiated ‘operation scattering’.

3. The language was confused and they scattered all over the Earth.

4. Now, Satan is using God’s own strategy against the most powerful governmental system on the planet—the Church.

5. Instead of gathering in unity that would be strong enough to overthrow Satan’s kingdom, we are being scattered. We are not together.

6. This is why stadiums will be critical in this next season. We must have the city church literally together, in the same place, consistently.

7. Remember, a key element of revival, which is emphasized by Evan Roberts, is daily meetings. Yes, it will be normal for people to be in church, together, under apostolic leadership most every day of the week.

VI. Threat 5. The Seeker Sensitive Movement

1. I’ve often told the people in my church that I will never tone down the activity of the Holy Spirit out of respect of those less hungry.

2. We need burning churches that result in people falling to their faces and crying “Holy!” when they walk through the door.

3. 2 Chron 7:7 As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. 2 And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord's house. 3 When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the Lord on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.”

4. It’s arrogance to presume that our human strategies are more potent than the supernatural capabilities of the Holy Spirit.

5. When people are in desperate need they don’t look for Clark Kent, they are don’t want someone who looks just like them to come to their rescue. They need to experience the superpowers of the Burning Holy Spirit.

VII. Threat 6. A Lack of Intercession

1. Evan Roberts declared that revival hinges on our obedience to pray and wait.

2. The call in Detroit is for 1000 intercessors to gather together in the same place every Friday night as we release fire and cover this great mission. If we don’t respond, we probably don’t want the consuming fire of revival to come. We won’t be prepared for such a fearful burning.

3. The Tribes are being formed in response to this mandate.

1. We need YOU to start a Tribe!!!!

2. After the 2 Chron 7 fire that hit the temple, we have the famous passage in 2 Chron 7:11-14:

1. 2 Chron 7:11 Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king's house. All that Solomon had planned to do in the house of the Lord and in his own house he successfully accomplished. 12 Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. 13 When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, 14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

3. We must pray!

VIII. Threat 7. Fear of Loss

1. A key reason pastors don’t advance their churches into the experiential realm of encounter with God is that the risk of losing people, money and their reputation is high.

1. It’s clear that a instituting a marginalized church culture is a much less risky option to develop a growing church in America. However, it’s also clear that  such a culture is void of power and miracles.

2. The world isn’t looking for another man-made system to join. In fact, the world does a much better job of building humanistic kingdoms than the church does.

3. We’ll only see revival when we have the guts to call people into the wilderness of extreme encounter where the Fire and the Cloud leads them into a supercharged adventure.

1. Fear of loss must be replaced by an expectation of loss!

2. I surrender all! It's not, “I hope I don't have to surrender all!”

3. I die daily! It's not, “I hope I can avoid the death part of the program!”

4. I take up my cross! It's not, “I take up my blessing!”

IX. Threat 8. Unbelief

1. Evan Roberts reveals one of the elements of revival is simply to believe God’s promises.

2. It’s stunning how little the church believes in the supernatural. Healing, freedom, power and abundant life are tragically rare.

1. A barometer of our position in Christ has to be whether we can hear or not!

1. John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

2. This is the only way we can believe!

3. Rom 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

4. The only way to be united with Christ in the pursuit of revival is to hear and believe!

5. Heb 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

6. We can't just wait around in doubt, it's time to move!

3. Its no wonder that people are avoiding the church today. We are a people who are living on the wrong side of the Ascension.

4. In Acts 1, the disciples were waiting for Jesus to snap his fingers and work more wonders. They wanted him to establish his Kingdom. But Jesus gave them clear instructions that would shock them to their core. They weren’t to wait and hope for something to happen (hope deferred makes the heart sick)—they were to do it themselves!

5. They transitioned from disciples on one side of the Ascension to apostles on the other. Now, they, as ‘sent ones’, were to believe and act.

6. They were to be the answer to people’s impossible situations. They waited for the necessary power to change the world, and when they received the Holy Spirit, they went everywhere in fiery belief healing, delivering and preaching the Kingdom.

X. Threat 9. Seeking an Enhanced Life

1. People generally want God to make their current lives better. They want an enhancement, an upgrade.

2. However, the demands of revival include the willingness to embrace a fire that won’t warm your flesh—it will consume your flesh.

3. Evan Roberts called for people to gather—but not all people—only those who were willing to make a total surrender.

1. Revival doesn’t enhance lives, it crushes them. If we attempt to advance with a semi-surrendered people, the fire simply will not fall.

4. Since I’ve been in Detroit I’ve heard a lot about revival. It seems the whole region is crying out for it. However, this is where the root of the disturbance in my spirit exists.

1. Most every time revival is mentioned, the intent of that desire is to experience some sort of breakthrough, blessing or restitution.

2. It’s time we STOP crying out for God to revive the economy, for resolved issues, for racial tensions to subside, for a fixed city… and START crying out for God and God alone!

3. God is jealous and he won’t allow Detroit to be satisfied by money, security or anything else until we are satisfied in Him and no one or nothing else!

5. DO NOT expect revival until we return to our first love. It WILL NOT COME! In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if the situation in this region got dramatically worse. The choice is ours, however.

6. It’s absolutely shocking to me that so much emphasis is placed on the pursuit of breakthrough yet the call to breakthrough into a pursuit of God falls on deaf ears.

7. Will we only gather and pray if we have a hope of personal blessing?

1. Where are all of the hungry people in Detroit? The stadiums should be filled with zealous, praying people every night of the week! Have the cares of life and entertainment so bewitched us that we have become convinced that being with God is not worth it?

8. I propose starting a movement of encounter which only has one goal—to be fully satisfied in enjoying and responding to the Lover of our souls. Nothing else matters. If we all have to live in a cardboard box on the streets of Detroit to encounter God, so be it! Our goal is not financial! It’s not selfish! It’s to be with God! That is all!

XI. Threat 10. A Lack of Immediate Response

1. Joel 1:14 Consecrate a fast;
    call a solemn assembly.
Gather the elders
    and all the inhabitants of the land
to the house of the Lord your God,
    and cry out to the Lord.

1. We live in a day where there's Twitter, email, Facebook, video and more… in every house in the city!!! We have phones that are many times smarter than the computer that took a rocket to the moon!

2. There is no excuse to not hear and respond to the prophetic decrees moment by moment!

3. We must be alert and ready! Alarms are being sounded, yet are any hearing?

4. The call a couple of years ago was for every church to gather at Fire in February. Few responded. The same thing with The Call. Few responded. The prophets are calling the church of Detroit to respond, and immediately!

2. This is one reason why church schedules must be flexible.

3. It’s also a reason why daily meetings are critical.

4. When prophetic instruction is received, the entire region must know about it right away, and the people must respond.

1. We have to learn to do two things:

1. Embrace key prophets in the region

2. Stay tuned in, stay in your email, stay ready for an urgent message that just may require you respond in hours time!

5. In Joshua 3, the instructions were clear, and everybody responded in unison.

6. There’s no way to fulfill this mighty mission if we are only together one day a week (actually 2 hours a week!).

1. There’s way too much work to be done!

2. As an example, Mike Bickle recently called an urgent meeting. Most of the departments at IHOP in Kansas City were immediately closed and the people all gathered together to receive an urgent prophetic message.

3. In Detroit, we must promote extreme alertness and flexibility so we can respond moment by moment to the demands of regional revival.

If we are mostly focused on our local, personal ventures, we’ll stay disconnected from the greater, regional mission.

Audio: A major prophetic word for the church and fervent prayer for Ellen DeGeneres

Last night I delivered what I consider one of the most important prophetic messages of the hour. It ended with wild intercession for Ellen DeGeneres.


Here it is. Last night was one of the most critical in the life of Revival Church, and I believe the message I delivered was a key message for every single church in the nation.

You can listen to a very clear, biblical and powerful call to repentance here: http://media.johnburton.net/2710877

I believe there is a mighty wave of deliverance and undeniable love that is scheduled for the homosexual community. As the church responds to the call to repentance, we will have the honor of participating in this great revival!

And you can follow along with the notes here:

Almost Homosexual

I. Come Full

a. One of the traps of being involved with a ministry based on prayer is that we can unwittingly use the ministry for our own personal edification.

i. We can minimize our own life of prayer in the hopes that the activity at church will make up for it.

ii. It won’t.

1. We must become well accustomed to praying fervently, alone.

2. Romans 12:11-12 (ESV) 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

a. Fervent: hot, boiling

3. Romans 15:30 (ESV) 30 I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf,

a. Fervent, urgent

4. James 5:16 (KJV) 16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

a. Fervent: To be active, to be mighty in, to work

iii. E.M. Bounds: Our Lord warns us against feeble praying. “Men ought always to pray,” He declares, “and not to faint.”

iv. E.M. Bounds: The atmosphere about us is too heavily charged with resisting forces for limp or languid prayers to make headway. It takes heat, and fervency and meteoric fire, to push through, to the upper heavens, where God dwells with His saints, in light.

v. E.M. Bounds: While fervency is not prayer, yet it derives from an earnest soul, and is precious in the sight of God. Fervency in prayer is the precursor of what God will do by way of answer. God stands pledged to give us the desire of our hearts in proportion to the fervency of spirit we exhibit, when seeking His face in prayer.

b. When we lose this intimate and active encounter with God, we unwittingly embrace spirits that are out for our destruction.

II. Almost homosexual: A crisis in the church

a. I had a dream. Email to Ellen:

i. Here's a strange story for ya! I'm a pastor & author, and I had a dream about you last night. It was crazy long and detailed and the first two part dream I've had (I got up to go to the bathroom in the middle and the dream continued after I went back to sleep). You aren't someone I think about often at all (sorry!), so I have a feeling God may have dropped that dream on me. It started with you at the Academy Awards (or something similar) and you called me on stage from the audience. I was overwhelmed with grief and whispered to you, “Please forgive me for judging you.” Later, you went on to share with me from your heart about some pain and you talked about your mom. Later on I met your mom and your brother at their home. (I didn't realize you had a brother until I googled it just a moment ago.) There were other pieces to the dream, but I thought I'd leave it at that for now. A little about me; I may appear to fit the stereotype as I do believe any lifestyle that embraces activities that God, in his wisdom, deems unhealthy must be avoided. Homosexuality included. However, what's also included is pride, which the Christian church is often steeped in. So is selfish ambition and having cold love. All deadly, all have hit the church at large. Again, please forgive me. After the dream I decided to preach tonight on a crazy controversial message calling the church to repentance titled, “Almost Homosexual: The Church in Crisis.” God likes you, he loves you. Me too.

b. From Kathy Mack: Matt 23:12Whoever exalts himself with haughtiness and empty pride] shall be humbled (brought low), and whoever humbles himself [whoever has a modest opinion of himself and behaves accordingly] shall be raised to honor.13 But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites)! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces; for you neither enter yourselves, nor do you allow those who are about to go in to do so.14 [Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites)! For you swallow up widows’ houses and for a pretense to cover it up make long prayers; therefore you will receive the greater condemnation and the heavier sentence.15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites)! For you travel over sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes one [a proselyte], you make him doubly as much a child of hell (Gehenna) as you are.

c. As I begin this urgent and troubling prophetic message, I must do my best to make several points extremely clear.

i. God is passionately jealous and zealous for his beautiful bride, the church. His emotions are extreme and deep as he yearns for love fueled intimacy with those he laid down his life for. His affection cannot be described by even the most romantic or poetic language.

ii. When I mention the church in this message, I am referring to the global body of Christ. The global bride of Christ. I’m fully aware and thankful that there are many local expressions of the church that are radically surrendered and given to the lover of their souls—Jesus Christ.

iii. The primary points I will expound on have little to do with sexuality, or sexual sin. You will have to intentionally keep this in mind so as to ensure you understand the issues when I deal with the spirits behind homosexuality and how these spirits are being embraced in the church (again, the global church; or, the church in general).

III. Massive Repentance

a. There is a MASSIVE movement on the earth that’s impacting millions of Christians… it’s being fueled by the message that we don’t have to repent, we should not let God reveal our sin to us.

i. It’s clearly unbiblical.

b. Jer 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? 10 I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.

i. This is a powerful verse, and the more time we spend on our face in the presence of God, the more we realize how true it is.

ii. If we don’t allow God to search our hearts and test our minds, we are doomed! We will be dealt with according to what’s in there… so, we must find it and repent!

1. Before we can go any further on this topic of homosexuality in the church, we have to all agree on the above point that is found in Jeremiah 17: Our hearts are both deceitful and wicked.

a. What does this mean? Very simply, it’s possible and common for impure motives to be rooted deeply in us even though we may be devoted followers of Christ.

2. The more time I spend in prayer the easier it is for the Lord to dig deep and bring to the surface issues that wouldn’t normally be evident.

a. My heart has harbored pride at times though at the surface I felt meek.

b. Other times I’ve verbally forgiven people, but then the Holy Spirit revealed to me a deeper reality—that I hadn’t truly done so.

3. This is why we must not only be OK with messages like this one, but we have to eagerly invite God to shine his burning light into every part of our lives.

4. Is 6:5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

5. When God is in our midst, a revelation of our own sin and issues are made known.

a. A key problem today is that God’s manifest presence isn’t with us as He should be!  Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy.  He is the Revelation.  He is the Word.  Where God is, revelation is.  You can’t separate the two.

6. As God, in his burning love for us, reveals our hearts to us, we will find ourselves falling to our knees.

7. God is calling the church to massive repentance.

IV. The Word: Almost Homosexual?

a. God has suddenly revisited me with a prophetic word that shocked me and those I shared it with a few years ago—and he’s added to the revelation.

i. I’ve considered the trouble it may bring.

ii. I’ve also considered God’s thoughts about the matter and I’ve chosen to trust his wisdom that this will free many more people than it will disturb.

1. God’s word and his wisdom must return to the pulpits again.

2. “If Jesus had preached the same message that ministers preach today, He would never have been crucified.”Leonard Ravenhill

b. As I was on the airplane flying into Colorado a few years ago, the Lord surprised me with a strong and striking word for the church. I was shaking.

c. The church is almost homosexual.

i. This is a word that I’m confident is tearing at the heart of God… he’s watching his bride become bewitched.

ii. Question—Is it possible that we in the church are embracing the same spirits that fuel the homosexual agenda?

d. As I was watching the mountains of Colorado draw closer during the final approach to the airport that day, the Lord revealed three drivers of the homosexual agenda:

i. Pride

ii. Identity

iii. Lust

e. Understand—the driver of the homosexual agenda is not same-sex attraction, but rather there are strong deceiving spirits of pride, self-promotion and identity, and lust.

i. I was on a train where two homosexual girls were very visibly hanging on each other, making it very clear that they were together. Their actions were not a result of raging hormones, but rather, they were making a bold declaration, a prideful pronouncement of their chosen identity as lesbians.

ii. They wanted to force affirmation, be noticed and demand acceptance and equality.

1. This same spirit is in the church!

iii. “All of the acceptable sins in church are keeping us sick.”-Steve Gray

iv. “Be careful about what you think is innocent. It may come back and choke you.”- Steve Gray

f. The church has been bewitched by the same spirits that give fuel to the homosexual agenda—and this is a primary reason we have not had success in winning homosexuals to Jesus. We can’t cast out the same demonic spirits we embrace.

g. This is the prime reason we are accused of being hypocritical: Homosexuals are picking up on the reality that the church is fueled by pride, identity and lust just like they are… but they aren’t afraid to admit it!

V. Driver #1: Pride

a. We’ve all heard of gay pride. Pride is a hallmark of the homosexual movement, and, all too often, it’s a driver of the church as well.

b. I hear continually that it’s rare to find a church where the tangible, manifest presence of God can be experienced.

i. I believe, sadly, there are more Ichabod churches than we realize. An Ichabod church is simply a church that is devoid of God’s glory. The ark of God’s presence has been captured. It doesn’t mean God hates that church. Quite the opposite—He is grieved that he must be removed from his lover, his bride.

1. 1 Samuel 4:21-22 (ESV) 21 And she named the child Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel!” because the ark of God had been captured and because of her father-in-law and her husband. 22 And she said, “The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured.”

ii. 1 Peter 5:5 (ESV) 5…Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

1. You may not have thought about it this way, but God, though he loves so deeply, actually opposes, or resists, those who are proud. God’s glory departs.

2. We live in a culture where we fight for success, we jockey for position and we can’t imagine being hidden or failing. Compromise has consumed the church as it seeks success, a larger building, more people, more influence, more money and other demands. Pride has resulted in worship of images made of gold where humility demands the gold is given as worship to God. Pride has resulted in worshiping a packed house where humility calls for laying down our lives for even one.

3. We wonder why the church isn’t having more success in the culture. 

c. I believe a key reason is that we are attempting to attack worldly pride with religious pride.

i. We are actually retaining the services of the very same demons that we are attempting to battle!  A spirit of pride! God resists the proud!

ii. Is it possible that we are attempting to change culture from a position of religious pride all while God is not standing with us?

iii. When humility reigns, the church will have the grace that God promises in 1 Peter 5.

VI. Driver #2: Identity

a. This point is the most burning issue in my spirit right now.

b. I am fully given to seeing people step into their destinies, discover their true identity in Christ and finding freedom from lies and emotional scars that the enemy has given them. It’s a significant focus of my own ministry.

i. However, we have a growing problem.

1. Focus is on self more often that it is on God.

2. Focus is on living more than it is on dying daily.

3. Our goal as humans cannot be to seek and demand our own happiness, but rather to fulfill God's glorious desires.

c. 1 Corinthians 4:10-13 (ESV) 10 We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. 11 To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, 12 and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; 13 when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.

d. Please understand, I believe we are seated in Heavenly places with Christ Jesus.

i. We are kings and priests. We have great authority. We have overcome. We are the head and not the tail, above and not beneath.

ii. But, our identities, when rightfully understood, don’t lead us to focusing mostly on personal benefit.

1. When we embrace the cross of Christ, which is where our identities originate, we are now focused on going low, humbling ourselves, serving with passion and identifying with the scum of the world—so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.

iii. A focus on our own benefits, our own healings, our own identities as it relates to personal gain has actually resulted in us aligning with a key spirit that drives the homosexual movement.

iv. God loves homosexuals and the church too deeply to affirm a false identity—no matter how desirable and convincing that identity may be! God’s wisdom is much higher than ours, and it takes humility to admit that.

1. This is a huge, huge point!

2. When we fight for a false identity that feels so overwhelmingly a part of us, and when our focus is on acceptance, affirmation and human rights, we give up the call to die to our own desires. Suddenly securing our own identity is more important than serving the masses.

a. The discovery of our true identity starts with crucifixion not affirmation.

3. The goal is not to be affirmed, accepted, liked or honored. We aren’t to look for equality. We don’t compare ourselves with others. We can’t make demands when life is unfair. The church is to die so that others may life. Our identity is to be fully and entirely in Christ.

4. An improper attention given to the pursuit of identity (acceptance, affirmation, etc.) causes us to forsake the call to focus on our mission for the sake of devotion to narcissism.

a. This is where the temptation to disobey God and submit to the demands of man can happen.

5. “For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.” James 3:16

VII. Driver #3: Lust

a. Lust is oozing through the church today. Yes, it’s true that sexual lust is rampant as pornography has been viewed by as many as 50% of Christian men recently.

i. However, lust is not limited to the sexual variety.

ii. Simply ask the question, “What causes you to get excited, to come alive?”

iii. Many honest Christians would admit that everything from money to fame to popularity to sex could be the answers.

iv. James 1:14-15 (ESV) 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

b. Lust results in death. It really is that simple. The life is sucked right out of people. Suicide is on the rise. Eternal death is another threat as well.

i. This is a tragic reality in the church today—we’ve lost our first love! False intimacy in the form of lust has take the place of a deep, satisfying, truly intimate and never ending encounter with Jesus! He yearns for us while his beautiful bride is yearning for other lovers!

ii. The church has lost its desire for intimacy with Jesus. Many Christians don’t even know what it is to be overwhelmed by his deep, burning love. Jesus is more of a principle or a foreign character in a book than he is a real, tangible, literal person you can feel.

c. This lack of revelation and encounter in a very intimate, life giving way with Jesus has resulted in one more comparison with the homosexual movement:

i. The bride is becoming intimate with the bride.

ii. What does that mean?

iii. We have become more interested in reproducing after our own kind than in receiving a fresh impartation directly from God himself. How does this play out? Several ways:

1. We become enthralled with a certain stream in the body (Word of Faith, house of prayer, etc.) and want to have a relationship with that stream hoping that it produces life.

2. We turn to other people in the church instead of to God through prayer and study of the Word in the hopes that the union can result in the outcome we are looking for.

3. We are move connected socially to people than we are spiritually to God.

4. We believe our church growth comes through people, so we comprise the mission, cancel prayer, water down the message and get intimate with the body!

iv. An intimate union with God will result in a fresh stream birthing through your ministry!

v. A deep encounter with Jesus will bring the results that a million human counselors never could!

vi. “You can have all of your doctrines right—yet still not have the presence of God.”Leonard Ravenhill

VIII. The Solution

a. Intimacy. Repentance. Falling in love with Jesus. Humility.

i. “A sinning man stops praying, a praying man stops sinning — Leonard Ravenhill

ii. Yes, fervent, zealous prayer must return to our churches again!

iii. 2 Chronicles 7:14-16 (NKJV) 14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 15 Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. 16 For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.

b. We cannot anymore develop systems that enhance our own identities, stroke our pride or fuel our lust for power, recognition or anything else.

i. It’s time again to declare the cross, holiness, humility and passion from our pulpits and on our faces!

ii. The core call is for a movement of humility and holiness.

iii. It’s a call to become broken and undone, desperate and deeply intimate with Jesus.

iv. It’s a call to a fasted lifestyle, to full surrender and complete saturation in the advance of the Kingdom.

v. It’s a call to the deeply humble, yet powerfully bold life of John the Baptist.

c. Are we ready to let the Lover of our souls invade the deepest parts of our inner man? He is wooing his glorious bride back to him…will we respond?

d. Song of Songs 1:4 (ESV) 4 Draw me after you; let us run. The king has brought me into his chambers.