Gotta Get Back to the Glory
Joel 2:12-20
12′Even now,’ declares the LORD, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.’ 13 Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. 14 Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing — grain offerings and drink offerings for the LORD your God. 15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, and call a sacred assembly. 16 Gather the people, consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber. 17 Let the priests, who minister before the LORD, weep between the temple porch and the altar. Let them say, ‘Spare your people, O LORD. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?” 18 Then the LORD will be jealous for his land and take pity on his people. 19 The LORD will reply to them: ‘I am sending you grain, new wine and oil, enough to satisfy you fully; never again will I make you an object of scorn to the nations.
As my husband and I were going down the road listening to a southern gospel group by the name of Sweet Presence, I heard a song that so ministered to my heart, called “Gotta Get Back to the Glory”. Many of us have known great glory in the past but it is so easy to let go and not continue to hunger and thirst and press in for more. I began to weep as The Lord began to give me this message. I trust that it will minister to you as it did to me. I delivered it to our church here in Aberdeen, Washington three weeks ago, as the first sermon of my campmeeting that week. I am going to divide it up into different journals for you over the course of the next few weeks. This is part one. This is a message to individuals, families, and our nation.
The Bible has a lot to say about returning to Him. It is so easy to drift, get luke-warm, apathetic, bitter, and compromise. It is easy to get away from God & His presence. Many begin that process by becoming bitter at His people and “forsaking the assembling of ourselves together” as the Bible speaks of. We quit attending services, are too tired to make it to revival meetings, start skipping mid-week and Sunday evening services.
The Bible tells us that on the night that Peter betrayed The Lord he began to follow afar off. He warmed himself at the fire of the unbelievers. We must be careful who we let comfort us and speak into our lives. He loved The Lord and had no intention of denying Him but began by making compromises and soon he was at the breaking point. The prodigal son knew the father’s love and provision but left the house and eventually lost everything. The Bible tells us that the stories of Israel were given to us for examples so that we would not backslide and lose out with God as they did. Evidently, The Lord knew how easy it would be for us to begin to cool off, even those who have been touched profoundly in revival. All we have to do is look at the lukewarm Laodicean church, all of our preceding church and revival moves, denominations and fellowships, to see that history has a way of repeating itself.
In the beginning we think that our little 1% grade of back-sliding is unimportant. However, a boat veering off 1 degree or a missile veering off the same way will end in world-wide disaster if allowed to continue that way. It will miss its intended destination by thousands or millions of miles in the end. That’s why we need to catch it early.
Revival history proves this out. Every movement that started out in the fire ended up in the ice. I have been reviewing healing revival, Azuza Street, the Kentucky Revivals, The two Great Awakenings, the Charismatic renewal, the Jesus move, the latter rain move, the word of faith, Toronto, Pensacola, our own recent revival meeting over the last twenty years, and others who have been leaders in revival. It’s important to compare these to the Bible warnings and history. It’s easy to see patterns and obvious things that are only obvious in hind-sight.
The children of Israel never thought they’d be left out of the Promised Land, exiled, miss the Messiah, and be cut off from God. They always thought there would be another time to get right with God and that His grace would cover everything. They thought they weren’t that rebellious, stubborn and hard-hearted. They thought it might happen to others but it would not happen to them.
It’s also important to look at the good history in the Bible and in present day moves to find out how others stayed on fire. In the book of Acts we see that we’re still supposed to be living in this book. It’s not finished yet and we are the ones who are supposed to finish it. We see the disciples who were turning the world upside down with mighty signs and wonders, seeing multitudes saved, healed, baptized in The Holy Ghost, delivered and having financial miracles doing certain things. They were giving themselves to prayer, not forsaking the assembling of themselves together, coming back to their own company. They were in one accord, one place, one mind, one prayer meeting, and one soul. They were full of faith & power. They had great signs and wonders operating among them. They were full of boldness. They did mighty miracles. They believed that nothing they had was their own. They remained full of the Holy Ghost. They were a giving church. They fasted, and many were added to the church daily. They continually prayed without ceasing. They were constantly filled with The Holy Ghost. They spoke the word boldly. They were persecuted, imprisoned, lost their heads, were boiled in oil, crucified upside down, exiled, pulled apart, but immovable. They always looked at the bigger picture, the kingdom, not their own lives.
When I look at the history of the Methodist church founded by John Wesley, I am reminded of how quickly we can lose the fire. About one hundred years ago, to be ordained as a Methodist minister, one had to fast two days a week, speak in tongues, and cast out devils. If you study the history of the Quakers you will find a similar fire. They got their name because of the unique signs and wonders, including shaking under the power. We can look at the great Azuza Street outpouring, of which every major Pentecostal denomination was birthed out of and realize how mighty that revival was. Yet again, most of these denominations have ended up as cold as an Alaskan glacier.
I grew up hearing about the fire and wanting the anointing upon my life in a desperate way. I was determined to get it and now am determined to not lose it and even see it increase. I don’t want to repeat the same mistakes others have made in losing the anointing. I am determined that to keep what I have and get more where that came from. Yet, most people think they’ll be different from anyone else in history. We must learn from history and not let revival fire wane in our lives. In the future, we will begin to deal with some of the things that cause hunger to wane, like unforgiveness. For now, I want to encourage you to get hungry all over again. I have an audio series on this subject that I believe will bless your socks off. It is some of the best preaching I have ever done and I believe the best product that we have out. Countless people have told me that they could live the rest of their Christian life with only this series. In any case, get hungry, hungry, hungry!!
