Answer : The one who has been called the prince of Preachers, beloved Brother C. H. Spurgeon beautifully explains the meaning of the word "revival" by saying that, "The word "revive" wears its meaning upon its forehead; it is from the Latin, and may be interpreted thus—to live again, to receive again a life which has almost expired; to rekindle into a flame the vital spark which was nearly extinguished." Knowing that revival is the infusion of the life of God within the living organism of the Church which is gasping for the breath of God, I believe that there is going to be a unprecedented final great awakening revival because of the following reasons that I give from the Scripture.
1) DO NOT BE TROUBLED, JESUS HAS ALREADY SPOKEN WHAT IS HAPPENING — First of all, Jesus has never told the saints to despair of what is coming upon the Church but upon the world that will try to deceive the true saints of God if possible in the end times (Matt 24:23-24). Instead the message that He gave the hopeless disciples just hours before He died is the same message that Jesus will give us if He were present physically with us, "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." (John 16:33). In other words, all the Tribulation we face in our life now are under the sovereign control of Jesus who is seated in spiritual authority over all the world of Satan and the demonic spirits which rule in disguise through deceiving the minds of people (2 Cor 4:4). Jesus is in perfect orchestration of all events of the end time and that includes the deception that is coming upon the world, thus allowing it for His purpose to be fulfilled. Who can be able to prophesy two thousand years ago what could possibly happen in our generation if Jesus had not received the information except from God (Matt 24:32-35)? Jesus is the one who runs the show of God's plan for the end time, in this we can be confident. Jesus dwells among the saints and therefore where the Presence of the Lord is there will be revival (2 Cor 6:16-18; Heb 13:5; Rev 1:12-16, 20; 2:1; Psa 16:11).
2) THE ALREADY REVEALED TRUTH OF DECEPTION — The deception that is spoken by apostle Paul in 2 Thes 2:3 is not a new deception that will come, but is the same deception that Jesus warned all the saints to be careful before and during the time from the day Antichrist will make a 7 years peace covenant with the children of Israel (Dan 9:27; Isa 28:15, 18; John 5:43). The real Church does not have to worry about deception but just need to be closely connected with Jesus through watching and praying to know in each of their individual spirit-man the true signs and seasons of our times and receive the strength to overcome it (Luke 21:36). Such prayerful life will give understanding of the present times and seasons, to know and warn what the Israel of God which is the Church ought to do like the sons of Issachar had understanding of what Israel as a nation ought to do (1 Chr 12:32; Gal 6:15-16). All the end times plans of God has already been revealed through His apostles, nothing is hidden by God even to finishing line of the old heaven and earth in which all of it will be burnt by fire (2 Peter 3:10, 12). This is the reason Apostle Paul confidently said, "1 But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. 2 For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. 3 For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. 4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. 5 You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. 6 Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober." (1 Thes 5:1-6). The world will not escape the Tribulation but the Church will escape through the rapture if we are obedient to the words of Jesus and are careful enough to watch and pray. A revived Church because of revival fire will obey Jesus' command to watch and therefore will be raptured on to be with Jesus in their glorious bodies.
3) RISING GLORY UPON THE CHURCH — God has promised in Isaiah 60:1-2, "Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. 2 For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; But the LORD will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you." What does this mean? When the darkness of Satan reaches the highest point in the world at the end of time, the glory of God will arise over the people of God and will touch the highest point so that all the world will be able to see the glory of God upon them. Because of the world seeing the glory of God upon the people of God, it will turn towards the Lord and be saved. All the political people who only see chaos and gloom for the future of the world will begin to approach the people of God knowing that they will have the right answers and solutions with them for all their unsolvable problems (Isa 60:3). Revival of the end time will bring the GLORY OF GOD upon the Church to give GLORY TO GOD!
4) FALLING AWAY CLEANSES THE CHURCH — Even through the Tribulation of the end, only those who do not have love for the truth of the word of God and will do wickedly against the covenant will be those who will be corrupted by the flattery of the Antichrist (2 Thes 2:9-12). But those who understand the word of God and know their God shall become strong and will do great exploits by declaring the prophetic Gospel under the power of God in spite of persecution and death for some of them given by Antichrist for professing their faith and saving people from hell fire (Dan 11:31-34; Rev 13:7-10). God will intentionally allow the persecution of Antichrist upon the left behind saints of God to purify their lives (Dan 11:35). The falling away from the faith will never affect the Church of God, instead it will cleanse the Church of false impostors who try to deceive the people of faith within the Church (2 Thes 2:3). God does not say that people who were born again were deceived from the faith, instead a falling away represents people who were not really saved were removed from the real Church which will be raptured for its devotion and watchfulness (1 John 2:18-19). Revival in the Church will continue before the Tribulation starts and will continue in reviving Tribulation saints during the Great Tribulation too.
5) THE GLORIOUS CHURCH OF THE END TIME — Jesus has promised to present Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Jesus wants the Church to be holy and without blemish, which He will accomplish through purification which comes through the revelatory faith in His blood (Eph 5:26-27; Heb 9:12, 14). No saints is better than any other saint of God before God's eyes because all need His precious blood covering to be righteous in the sight of God. The basic question people might raise up against the glorious Church of the end time is, they say that the Bible says that only wickedness and lovelessness will increase at the end (Matt 24:12; 2 Tim 3:1-9), then how can the Church be glorious when only lawlessness and sin increase all around the world? But one thing such logical reasoning miss is that they do not understand what God has already revealed in His word saying, "20 ...where sin abounded, grace abounded much more 21 ...so [that] grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Rom 5:20-21). When sin of lawlessness will abound, Jesus will super abounds with the power of grace to deal with sin of the end times which will make the end time saints to reign over every sin. Praise Jesus! This does not mean a believer will be able to sin freely without feeling miserable for what he has done, as the Scripture says, "1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?" (Rom 6:1-2). It means because Jesus gives us the grace to overcome sin, how can we still enjoy living in the bondage that brought curses and depression in to our past sinful life from which we have died the moment we believed Jesus? We cannot continue in sin willingly, if we continue in sin it will destroy the abundant life of Jesus which he has given in our soul and therefore we should abstain from the every fleshly lust which can never satisfy us (1 Peter 2:11; John 10:10). Because of being born with the water and Spirit (John 3:3-8), a believer in fact cannot freely sin without getting convicted by the Holy Spirit of God (1 John 3:9; John 16:7-13). So what is the point? The point is, revival of all saints in our generation cannot be stopped either by the increase of sin or its activity in all the world.
6) THE LAST DAYS OUTPOURING — Apostle Peter told on the day of Pentecost, that "in the last days" God will pour out His Spirit on all flesh, and especially upon His men and maid servants He has promised to pour out His Spirit specially "in those days" (Acts 2:17-18). So the last days has been going on for the last two thousand years. True to His prophetic word, God at various times in the last two thousand years has specially poured out His Spirit on nations, particular people group and continents. But as this prophecy ends about the time of the Second Coming of Jesus, it says that Spirit of God will begin to be poured out in all the world just before, during and after the Tribulation, that whoever calls on the name of Jesus during this time will be saved immediately (Acts 2:19-21). Is this not a revival? Truly as we are in the ending period of the last days, the best wine of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is stored for the end time Church (John 2:10-11). This revival will touch the world through the Church, you may ask how? Unless God wants to use His men and maid servants to bless the world, why should He anoint them in a special way (Acts 2:18). The anointed men and maid servants of God will rise up and preach the gospel fully in all the world with signs and wonders following their message (Rom 15:19-20; Matt 24:14). Then will the end start with the abomination of desolation. Just after this time and before the Tribulation starts, the Church will be raptured and immediately, then the Gospel will be proclaimed through an angel to all the world who will complete the message that the Church has proclaimed until then (Rev 14:6-7). No matter what deception may come, it cannot stop this God ordained revival which started in Petecost and will only end in the fullness at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
7) JESUS BUILDS HIS CHURCH — Jesus has promised to build His Church on earth which includes the end time Church generation in which we are living (Matt 16:18; 24:34). As the Commander in chief of the Church, Jesus has already defeated all the enemies of God in the ultimate war against Satan and his evil cohorts for the salvation of all men two thousand years ago itself on Calvary where He was crucified (Col 2:14-15). Jesus' promise includes that the gates of Hades shall not be victorious against the heavenly power that is released through the Church to save all the people living in darkness (Acts 26:18). In the olden days, gates are the places where all the political strategist of a city meet and discuss to defeat the enemy forces that comes against them and also defend themselves of their city. So according to Jesus, no political strategy of the devil and his demonic minions from the gates of hades [i.e. a temporary place which consumes all unbelieving souls who die and therefore are kept in torment for the final judgment by God which will happen at the end] can be able to defeat the purpose of God when teh Church of the living God tries to rescue souls from the clutches of Satan's kingdom of darkness through making the unbeliever accept and believe the name of Jesus as the Son of God which transfers them directly in to the kingdom of light (1 John 5:13; Col 1:13). It is the revival of the Church and the strength of Jesus in the body of Christ that will make the end time Church to be victorious against the gross darkness that is coming upon the world (Isa 60:2). It will happen because Jesus promised it. Flocks and flocks of souls will turn to the Lord as the Church of the end time gloriously proclaims the gospel of the kingdom of the coming Messiah in all the world with power (Matt 24:14; 1 Cor 4:20; 2:4; 1 Thes 1:5). May God pour out His Spirit on all flesh for His Glory!
8) THE COMING SPIRIT OF ELIJAH — Finally, a few days ago the Lord showed to me in a vision that the spirit of Elijah is coming upon the Church (Luke 1:15-17). John the Baptist started the Messiah movement with the Spirit of Elijah coming upon him, but in our times the Church will finish the movement to perfection in the spiritual realm through the Elijah's spirit coming upon it. In that vision, I saw the Spirit of God filling me so powerfully that I was able to sense the fear of the Lord, a deep awe and respect for the Lord came in to my heart and filled every fibre of my being as the vision was going on. All these days, the Church has only been preaching on the soft part of the love of God which draws people to salvation, but here comes the mighty power of God's severity coming in the Church and through the Church (John 3:16; Rom 11:22). God's judgmental severity in the first century happened on the ocassion of Ananias and Sapphira lying to Peter the apostle, on the spot they died when the Holy Spirit spoke through Peter revealing their lies and its deathly consequence (Acts 5:1-10). As a result of it a great fear of God came upon all the Church and upon all who heard these things (Acts 5:11). When a magician named as Elymas opposed the preaching of the gospel and prevented an intelligent governor from being saved and also turn tried to turn him from the faith, Paul the apostle spoke a word of Judgment which made the magician to go blind completely for a time (Acts 13:6-11). As a result of it the governor of the province saw this mighty judgment of the Lord with astonishment and believed to be saved (Acts 13:12). This kind of Lord's judgmental signs and wonders that had been seen a little bit here and there in the days of reformation and for the last five hundred years where people who opposed the gospel meetings died on the spot at certain times, will begin to increase and confront the powers of darkness face to face and will bring honor to the Lord in saving many souls to the Lord. Always such astonishing things happen for a purpose, to turn God's people towards a sincere devotion towards the Lord and making the world believe the Lord. Always such things in the Church age are promised by God to first start within the Church and then to the outside world (1 Peter 4:17).
This Elijah power revival fire will be the final move within the Church before the rapture comes. This will turn the hearts of the father to the children and vice-versa before the coming of the Lord for the Church (Mal 4:5-6; Heb 9:28). This will be the final awakening call of God to the Church for the coming of its Messiah Jesus to rescue it from the coming unprecedented Great Tribulation (Rev 3:10). Those in the Church whose names are registered in heaven will be wise enough to watch and pray to know the time of His coming, they will be part of the rapture in which they will all rise up in their glorious bodies and will stand before the Son of Man Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior (Heb 12:2; Php 4:3; Luke 10:20; 21:36; 1 Thes 4:14-18; Heb 12:14).
I felt a power of God coming through me in the dream that I believe have not yet been seen except the first century Church and the Old Testament times. I praise God for all the plans of mercy and grace with which He plans and gives graciously "times of refreshing" from the very presence of the Lord (Acts 3:19). As I got up from sleep in the morning, this very word swelled up from my spirit-man, "John the Baptist baptized people with water unto repentance, but I AM GOING TO BAPTIZE ALL PEOPLE WITH THE FIRE OF THE COMING MESSIAH." (Matt 3:11). I believe that this revival fire that God is bringing will spread the supernatural fire of tongues that is described as the first evidence of a true pentecostal explosion at Jerusalem and thus will spread in to all the world to stir up people with a spirit of prayer, supplication and grace to welcome the Messiah with the shout, "Maranatha, O Lord Come" (Zech 12:10; Acts 2:3-4; 1 Cor 16:22). You can almost hear the trumpet sound of rapture! Praise the Lord!
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