Jer. 51:15-16 “He made the earth by His power; He founded the world by His wisdom and stretched out the heavens by His understanding. When He thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth. He sends lightning with rain and brings out the wind from His storehouses (treasure houses).
Lift up your head, God’s winds of change are blowing from His store-houses once more!
There have been many rich winds of God these last 100 or so years; each of them a little different; and each of them were rejected by those who had already received an earlier outpouring from God.
- 1900s – The Welch Revival – “A call for Holiness” – Modern Day Holiness Movement
- 1906 – Azuza St – “Tongues and Spiritual Gifts” – Penticost. This was a minister motivated movement.
- 1940s – Latter Rain – “Renewal of Spiritual Gifts and Healing.” Several splinter Pentecostal-type movements primarily. This was a minister motivated movement.
- 1960s – Charismatic Renewal – “Renewal of Koinonia Fellowship.” This was an ecumenical movement based on a wider releasing of God’s Spiritual gifts. This was a whosoever will revival, but also a minister motivated movement.
- 1980 & 90s – The Anointing – “Renewal of the Entire Church and not just the minister.” The key component of this revival is how transferrable it is. This was a renewal of the entire church in ministry and not just of a minister in ministry.
Historically, each organized religious group touched by the winds of God, have essentially rejected the next wind of God.
- The Holiness Movement is scarcely in existence today.
- Pentecost has rejected all 3 of the last 3 winds of God.
- The winds of God rarely fit established doctrine.
The winds of God are not for organized religion. They are for those who are hungry for God.
DO NOT MISTAKE ANY RELIGION WITH THE WIND OF GOD THAT BIRTHED IT. GOD IS PROGRESSIVELY REVEALING HIMSELF TO THE WORLD!
Each wind of God brings with it “New Truth.” It does not negate “former truth,” it enhances it!
Do not reject what God sends from His treasure houses!
Luke 19-41, 42 “And when He was come near, He beheld the city and wept over it, saying, ‘If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes.”
“Dear God, please remove from us any and everything that would cause us to miss what you are doing on the earth. (Neither religious pride, or foolish sectarianism can stand in your way!) Show us the things that belong to our peace, and may we be able to give this renewal to those who follow us!”
We serve a God of constant change. Get in the flow.
Religion, wherever it is allowed to stand will never permit what God is doing to be handed off to the next generation. Why not? Because:
- Religion will not accept the changes God wants to implement in the church for His changing world.
- Religion has believed its own lies – that it is the custodian of God’s truth
Perhaps the most misunderstood verse is Heb 13:8. Many infer that verse to mean that neither God, nor His will, ever changes.
What never changes about God is that He moves in ways that are never the same.
- How many have heard God speak? Did you put out the fire in the burning bush first?
- How many have received the Baptism of the Holy Ghost? What did you do about the tongues of fire on your head?!
- How many have ever been healed? How many times did you have to dunk in the river?
Our God never changes. He is ALWAYS new and fresh!
Throughout the word of God, our never changing Lord has proven that His will is not static, (It does not stand still, stagnant, immobile, or motionless) it is always living and moving! Get with it church!
***We need to move with God now, as He leads
*** This generation is called to lead the charge to Holiness now! Who knows what will come next. Let’s trust that we will have the courage to follow.
Lam. 2:11-19. Read carefully:
a. (Vs 12) The life of the children ebb away as they cry, “Where is the bread and the wine”
b. (Vs 14) The ungodly scoff and mock, “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, and the joy of the whole earth?”
c. (Vs 17) The Lord has done what He planned. The Lord said Jerusalem would be His city forever, decreed its destruction, without pity!
God is not married to a system of religion; a manner of prayer; a kind of sacrifice; a style of worship! PLEASE DON’T MAKE A RELIGION OUT OF THE EXPERIENCES YOU HAVE HAD IN GOD!
Our job is to take the best we can find in all of the winds of God and flow with it.
Man sees the glory of God on something, studies it awhile, and when he learns how to copy it – makes a deadly doctrine out of it. Does this sound like something out of God’s treasure house?
Bishop Houston (Nashville, 1994) “God said, Tell those preachers to give me back my church!”
Zech 9:9-13 Let’s get in the flow and agree with God
(vs 9) Rejoice greatly – your King is coming
(vs 10) God will destroy our weapons and will proclaim peace.
(vs 11) God’s blood covenant will free us from our waterless pit
(vs 12) We are prisoners of hope, so look for the double blessing
(vs 13) God has caused us to become His bow and His sword.
Don’t miss God’s wind of change trying to revive religion! There is nothing sacred in your past, except the Lord Himself.
Isa. 8:11-22 God’s strong hand was on Isaiah warning him not to follow the way of the people.
- Don’t call conspiracy what the Lord is doing
- Don’t fear or dread what the people are afraid of
- Remember, the Lord is Holy – Fear and dread him, He is your santuary (not yesterday’s religion)
- What was, will be a stumbling block, a trap, and a snare. What was will cause many to stumble, fall and be broken, be snared and then captured.
- Let this be your testimony: I will wait for the Lord, and although God is hiding His face from the house of Jacob, I will put my trust in God!
Isa 8:18 “Here I am, and the children the Lord has given me. We are signs and symbols (signs and wonders) from the Lord.”
The signs and wonders are here . . . Let the winds blow! “Change any and every thing about me you want changed, O Lord! Lord we are open all the way to you!”
- If God blesses us for following Him
- If God blesses us for obeying His word
- If God blesses us for trusting Him more than trusting in man’s efforts to create a religion out of what He is doing
WE WILL BE A PEOPLE CALLED FOR HIS NAME’S SAKE!
We will be like those Isaiah referred to in Isa 9:2 “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.”
In The Message (Matt 4:16) Jesus, quoting this passage, said, “People sitting out their lives in the dark saw a huge light; sitting in that dark, dark country of death, they watched the sun come up.”
May our eyes see your sunrise. Let your dawn rise up on us in this desperately dark place, in all your glory Lord Jesus. O, Let your wind blow over us again Lord!
Even so, come Lord Jesus!