Oh God, Would You Rend The Heavens?

Chapter three, embarrassed by the spirit, don't extinguish the flames of revival. It's gonna be a very interesting chapter and I'm gonna try to add to some of the things that aren't in the book as we go through it. But the key verse that we're beginning this chapter with is Matthew 3.11. I indeed baptize you with the water unto repentance, or actually the, if you're reading the Greek, I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance is how it reads. But he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire, Matthew 3.11. But I wanna clarify up front, as far as the way I read the Bible, what I teach, what I believe, is that there is one baptism of the Holy Spirit where we're all baptized into the body of Christ when we believe as Christians. But there are subsequent fillings of the Holy Spirit and Peter being filled with the Holy Spirit and Paul being filled with the Holy Spirit and you name it, there's subsequent fillings of the Holy Spirit, not to be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit. So the verse here is saying that Jesus will baptize people, overwhelm them with the power of the Holy Spirit, which is often aligned with fire, the fire of the Spirit, the anointing of the Spirit, the unction of the Spirit. I'm not too concerned with what you call it, even though we wanna make sure we have correct theology on this for sure. I'd rather see that you have it. Like R.A. Torrey said, I'd rather miss the exact theological definition and have the power than have the theological term just right and miss the power. You know, it's a constant struggle or desire for many of us to be filled with the Spirit and sometimes we get so caught up in arguing and debating. The bottom line is, have you received a mighty filling of the Spirit, an unction, an anointing that has radically changed your life? If not, I would encourage you to seek that out and recommend a good book, They Found the Secret. No, it's not the secret that's on Oprah or has been on Oprah. It's They Found the Secret, short biographies of Christian men and Christian women who receive this mighty filling of the Holy Spirit years sometimes after conversion. Oswald Chambers, Amy Carmichael, Adonai Judson, Hudson Taylor, John Bunyan. The list is Oswald Chambers. There's a huge list there and it will encourage you as well. But let me just give you some of my background in getting into this chapter. I tend to be safely conservative. I wasn't raised to be emotional. I'm not very emotional, kind of just level-headed and that's where God has me. I use the MacArthur Study Bible. I read Spurgeon's sermons and I enjoy commentaries from the Puritans, Love Anything by D. Martin Lloyd-Jones and so you get the point. Most view me as calm and collected and my father was an extremely hardworking man who grew up on a farm in Oklahoma. As a result, I was raised in a tough environment where crying was not allowed and emotion, except for anger, was rarely shown. In my younger years, I made fun of those who genuinely worshiped God. Sure, I would get emotional while watching the NFL or Mike Tyson hitting someone in the first round, but in church, no way. I believed that I was strong because I could bench press over 400 pounds, drink a 12-pack of beer, and win most of the fights that I was in. I didn't have control of my life. My life had control of me. Sometime later, I began to thumb through the pages of my Bible. I realized just how far I had drifted from the truth. Isn't that interesting when you're prideful, filled with pride, you think that you're pretty spiritual, you think you're a pretty good person, but when you start to compare it with Scripture and the life of Christ, you realize that you are desperate, desperate for more of God, for him to change you from the inside out, and the more humble you become, the more you look to God's word because you realize if it wasn't for the grace of God there, go I. So by God's grace, I put my complete trust in Christ. Joy, happiness, and peace filled my heart. From that came books, speaking engagements, radio programs, articles, and ultimately a church, that being West Side Christian Fellowship in Southern California. In short, God took a small town boy with learning and speech problems, like I mentioned at the beginning of this book. That's why it's ironic that I'm actually reading this book to you on audio, and I've been nervous the whole time because this is not my expertise, and I mess up often when I read, but here we are today showing what God can do with someone who surrenders his life to him. Graduated high school with a 1.8, did not go to college, yet God filled me with his spirit. Over the last two decades, I still remember that special day where I ended up kneeling on the floor, Bible wide open, crying out to God, and just filled completely in tremendous brokenness and pain, emotional pain, but God filled me with the spirit, and there was tremendous joy that I can't explain. The Bible came alive. Worship music was just something I had to hear every day. I turned off my country music. Not that, you know, maybe some artists sing some noteworthy songs, but overall it made me wanna hop on a train, grab a 12-pack of beer, and cast my sorrows to the wind, but not worship music. It makes me come back closer to Christ, and it's amazing. So anyway, although there are many times when I pray and worship when I don't feel like it, amen, we gotta do that, I have received many subsequent fillings of the spirit since that day, whether it's when I'm preaching a sermon or during an early morning devotional. Rivers of water, living water, often pour into my soul. Give me an example. Often I get to church. You know, getting to church can be a challenge. We've got things going on. Things are breaking. The baptismal isn't working, or the heater in the baptismal isn't working, or people don't show up, or the sound system has some glitches. I mean, you name it. When you're leading a church, there is something every single Sunday, and Saturday nights when we do services, and Wednesdays, and so, you know, it's the attitude's there, and I repent, and Lord, I don't feel anything. I don't feel anything right now, and I need your presence. I need your power, but when I get to the pulpit, and we open God's word, and we're there before God's word, and we're listening to worship, a complete change takes place. There's a boldness and a zeal for the things of God, and scripture comes alive, and my preaching just takes on life, and I believe that's a subsequent filling of the Holy Spirit, and Peter when he was filled, and Paul when he was filled, and Shane when he was filled, and your case, put your name in the blank. When Mary, Josh, Mike, Chris, Bill, Luke, Abram, Levy, Susie, Kyla, Ray, Ron, Yvette, Linda, Phil, Kerry, Morgan, Aubrey, you just put your name in the list there. Kind of naming some names here, people I know. Filled with the Spirit. Filled with the Spirit. That's when you begin to do a lot of things for God. Boldness rises up, and zeal for God's house consumes me, and it consumes you, like Psalm 69.9 says, that there is a boldness and a zeal for the things of God, and when I add fasting to this equation, my soul hungers even more for God. So my goal in this booklet really is to fan the flames of revival in your soul as well. Again, if you provide the sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart, God will provide the fire that I can guarantee you. Next section, we mock what we've never experienced. So here's why a lot of people mock a genuine work of the Holy Spirit. My position has always been conservative, theological, wanna lean on Scripture, our grounding is in the Scripture, our foundation is the Scripture, but when God moves, you experience it, and it's not always what you had in mind. Services, extended services, heartfelt worship, people begin weeping, and it's uncomfortable for those whose hearts are not right. I'm just shooting you straight. Now, I have been disheartened over the years when people trivialize and mock deep, genuine experiences that others have had with God. Unknowingly, they are extinguishing the fire of the Spirit that they themselves desperately need. Ian Bounds, famous for his books on prayer, which I will recommend, once wrote about a devout Christian named Edward Payson. I love this story. Payson fueled the fires of revival during the Second Great Awakening in our nation through his persistent intimacy with God. It was said that he would wore grooves into his hardwood floor as a result of many hours and hours of praying. I found this story deeply inspiring, but a famous Bible teacher here in Southern California actually said he couldn't even comprehend that kind of behavior, and I just was left perplexed and confused. Now, you know, you can take anything too extreme, and we're not, oh, look, there's grooves in his hardwood floor. Oh, he must be so spiritual. So I understand that. We don't rate things by grooves in our hardwood floors, but that type of persistence inspired me. See, the problem is many Bible teachers have not experienced the power of the Spirit where they'll spend an hour or two in prayer and worship, and God, these are all consuming fire. They're straight as a gun barrel theologically, but they're just as empty, and I like what D.L. Moody said in his day, and going off memory here, why can't they see, and talking about these Bible teachers, he said they are good teachers, good Bible teachers, but why can't they see that they themselves need this power, this anointing, this unction of the Holy Spirit? So when the Holy Spirit breaks you and fills you, you'll be at the altar. You'll want to worship. You'll want to be in prayer, and stories from Ian Bounds won't threaten you because you've never experienced it. You desire and crave more of that. So how anyone can mock that is beyond me. When I read Payson's story, I feel the complete opposite. Instead of being unable to comprehend his behavior, I was inspired by it, and I prayed, Lord, please bring a downpour of your Spirit into my dry and barren soul. Oh, God, would you revive me again so that I can rejoice in you? Praying fervently to experience the power of God, as Payson did, is not uncommon. Both early believers and persecuted Christians today would be shocked at how little we actually pray. It was said of John Hyde, who left for the mission field in 1892, that he would stay on his face before God until the answer came. John Welsh, the great Scottish preacher who died in 1622, would sometimes spend four to six hours in prayer. John Fletcher, one of the leaders of the Methodist movement, it was said that he stained the walls of his room with the breath of his prayers until he died in 1785. What causes people to ridicule deep moments of prayer and worship? Well, my guess is that jealousy is what is happening. They mock what they've never experienced, that being the overwhelming power and presence of the Spirit. And this is, you can see it divides the church. It's a dividing line. I've seen many times when people say, why are we singing those songs? And why are we singing so many of those songs? And why are we so emotional about these songs? And why are people at the altar and prayer meetings all night, I don't understand this. And so they begin to mock it instead of embracing it. My goodness, can you imagine more people at the altar crying out to God, extended worship, people actually feeling the lyrics that they're singing? Now again, our feelings are the, or feelings, I guess to pronounce it better, are the caboose of the train. They're not the engine. The theology, who God truly is, is the engine. But the caboose follows. Feelings should follow our relationship with God. Be excited about worship, excited about the Word, not stiff-necked, proud, arrogant. I mean, some people, it's like they're at a funeral. It's just sad. But the reason is spiritual pride often follows those who are skilled in the Word because knowledge puffs up. First Corinthians 8, one tells us this. The more I read the Word, the more knowledge I have, the more puffed up I can become if I don't stay humble and broken. And how you do that is you go out and minister to others. You become teachable, wanting to know where people are coming from. You might find yourself at the altar and humbling yourself. And all these are characteristics of someone who is wanting to stay humble in the midst of increasing in knowledge. As a result, though, spiritual pride causes many of these people to discount the experience of others. So that's basically what's happening. Now, I'm not excusing weird behavior. I'm not saying that if it's odd, it's God. But I am saying, in studying dozens and dozens of revivals, that when God's manifest presence hits a place, a building, a conference, a home, it's outside of your box, of your definition of who and what God does often. Again, it all aligns with His Word. It's just more experiential because the heart is engaged. Our heart should be engaged. So when confronted, though, about their lack of Holy Spirit fire, they often snap back in anger. But, but, I'm standing for the truth. Doctrine, doctrine, doctrine. And thank God for the truth. Thank God for doctrine, doctrine, doctrine. I love theology. I stand for it daily. We must also remember, though, that we were created to experience God. So these people who have a lack of experience for God, they're hard and rigid in their homes. They're hard and rigid at church. They're not pliable. They're not teachable. They're not humble. You can have strong theology. Jesus had the best theology ever known to mankind. Yet, He remained humble, meekness. And we just don't see that in a lot of people that are coming against a genuine work of the Spirit. If more men and women sought Him, God, with all their heart and soul, according to the truth, I believe America might actually experience another profound revival. Next section, straight as a gun barrel, but just as empty. Several years ago, I was at a large conservative pastor's conference in Southern California. Most who were present were sensationists, meaning they don't believe that the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the miraculous I guess would say, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are not for us today. So I was surprised when a man who escaped persecution in China told of how the Holy Spirit had prompted him to take another route on his bike. They had this big screen up and this persecuted man who's now in America, I believe is a seminary teacher. He told how the Holy Spirit prompted him to take another route on his bike. He barely escaped being caught by the police. We all applauded and thanked God for his guidance. But if a man from outside their circle had given the same testimony, say for me, for example, many would have said, oh, Shane, he believes that the Holy Spirit is still working in the miraculous today and he's probably hearing voices and God doesn't do that today anymore and so are you confused? So was I. It's interesting, maybe some of those people maybe inside weren't clapping but outside everyone is applauding, praise God. And see, that's all we're saying, the Holy Spirit still does move today. Actually, what this is, it's a word of wisdom, a word of knowledge. The Holy Spirit prompted him via a word of wisdom, a word of knowledge to take another route on his bike. So you can't say the Holy Spirit doesn't do that anymore and the gifts aren't available today yet applaud a man at your conference who gave an example of it. Just mind-boggling to me. But it's spiritual pride. Now again, don't misunderstand. We need sound doctrine. Our motto at West Side Christian Fellowship is times change, truth does not. But we also desperately need the power of the Spirit because as you heard me say earlier, it's possible to be Bible-taught but not Spirit-led, straight as a gun barrel theologically but just as empty. The letter kills but the Spirit gives life. Check out 2 Corinthians 3 when you get a chance and read that whole chapter, specifically verse six. Experiencing God doesn't invalidate theology. You need to catch this point. Experiencing God doesn't invalidate theology. It actually confirms it. If my experience lines up with the word of God, I'm in good company. I'm in God's company. Many pastors spend countless hours preparing sermons, purchasing thousands of dollars in sermon software and buying tons of commentaries and dictionaries but the greatest preparation is in the prayer closet. Before God uses a man greatly, it's been said he humbles him deeply and that's exactly what needs to happen in our churches today. If you avoid emotional worship, you avoid extended prayer, you avoid times at the altar, you avoid fasting for spiritual renewal, you're not running on all eight spiritual cylinders. All these things are marks of Christians throughout the ages. As Charles Spurgeon once noted, nobody can do as much damage to the church of God as the man who is within its walls but not within its life. You know, and I can say I've been in ministry 20 years, pastoring 10 years, that is so true. Those who do the most damage in the church, I would say they are cancerous, they have spiritual cancer, are those who are Bible taught but not spirit led. Those who are, it's all about theology and they love to pound their fists, they love to point out sin, they love to put everything down, they're not teachable, they're not humble, they're not broken, they lead others astray. They are cancer to the church and they will pull those away who are not grounded in their faith or they've never experienced God themselves and this person starts to put doubt in their mind and families begin to leave and I've seen it, I've seen it so many times, it's actually sad and it does not please God. So I'm asking you, are you alive spiritually? Are you hungry for more of God's presence? Are you divisive and combative? Or are you teachable over this topic of the power of the spirit? I mean, that says it all. Sadly, the church splits that I have witnessed again over the years or small groups of people leaving were mainly over this issue. Rigid conservatives at odds with those who want to press in and experience God. Oh, how it must grieve the heart of God. Think about that for a minute. Those of us wanting to press in, press in, get to the altar, get there at the church in the morning, have a couple hours of worship in the morning. These people mock that. They don't go to worship, they don't go to prayer meetings, they're just, they're dead and it is sad. They need to be revived spiritually. A baptism of fire, next section. How is it that so many pastors recommend Martin Lloyd-Jones' fantastic book, Preaching and Preachers, yet they conveniently avoid the last chapter? This is interesting to me. And that chapter is the demonstration of the spirit and of the power. Are they embarrassed that Lloyd-Jones drove this point home in the opening paragraph? He said this, I have kept and reserved this last lecture what is after all the greatest essential in connection with preaching. Think about this, D. Martin Lloyd-Jones in this great book, Preaching and Preachers, he said this is the greatest essential to preaching. I'm wondering how many people glossed over this last chapter. He said this, and that is the unction and the anointing of the Holy Spirit. If you don't have that, you don't need to be in the pulpit because preaching comes through a man who is on fire for God. Actually, it was D. Martin Lloyd-Jones who said preaching is theology coming through a man who is on fire. So have you received this unction, this baptism of the fire that John spoke of in Matthew 3.11? Are you truly desperate for more of God? A.W. Tozer insightfully said if the Lord's people were only half as eager to be filled with the Spirit as they are to prove that they cannot be filled, the church would be crowded out. I sincerely believe that the greatest need in the church today is to confess our sins, obey the word, and to be filled with the Spirit. God put a round in Oswald's chamber is the next section, and this is incredible story, check this out. Oswald Chambers, I don't know if you know who he is, he wrote My Utmost for His Highest, and regarding the time before he received a mighty downpour of the Spirit, he said this, he admitted this, God used me during those years, but I had no conscious communion with Him. The Bible was the dullest, most uninteresting book in existence. Oswald was straight as a gun barrel, but just as empty. A few years later, he wrote, if the four previous years had been hell on earth, these five years have been truly heaven on earth. Glory be to God, the last aching abyss of the human heart is filled to overflowing with the love of God. What happened? God put a round in Oswald's chamber and pulled the trigger. Heaven was rent, and the downpour came to this parched soul. In short, he humbled himself, he surrendered everything, and God filled him with the Spirit. He had sound doctrine, he was teaching there at a seminary, but he missed that experiential relationship with God. Now the decision is yours. Don't extinguish the flames of revival by mocking the work of the Spirit. Fully surrender your life to Him today. Christian history records countless testimonies of those who received a mighty filling of the Spirit years after conversion. The Holy Spirit is in you, but that's not the same as the Holy Spirit upon you. These Greek prepositions make a world of difference. Two of my favorite books, which I mentioned earlier, one of them is They Found the Secret, but the other one is Deeper Experiences of Famous Christians by James Gilchrist. That would be an incredible book to read. Also my article, America's Achilles Heel, Powerless Sermons in Prayerless Churches. Also speaks to this important issue. You can find that at my website. Don't handcuff my emotions. This is the next section. Sadly, many conservatives also chastise emotional and extended worship and avoid it like a plague. To them, fasting is outdated. Lengthy worship is brainwashing, and weeping at the altar is too emotional for them. Boy, oh boy. Is it wrong when prodigals come home and can't contain their emotions? Should we be embarrassed when addicts are weeping because the Savior set them free at the altar? When was the last time you wept over the condition of our churches, families, and nation? If you never have, then you fill in the blank. Let me be brutally honest. Many who show contempt for profoundly deep and moving experience with God have never experienced them for themselves. If they avoid prayer meetings, complain about extended emotional worship, and they never miss a meal for God, are they unaffected by the depravity around them? I mean, what is going on? Are they too mature to go to the altar? Are these people truly filled with God's spirit? I think we know the answer. They love to read the Bible, but they don't want the Bible reading them. Granted, granted, hear me here. There are seasons when we aren't involved in a lot of things, but excuses should not hide our lack of hunger for God. Do we really believe that Jesus would tell us to sit down and be quiet during worship? Would he want us standing like dead men in a cemetery? Not a chance. Our hearts should be deeply engaged during worship. Jesus might rebuke silly trends and sappy worship songs with no theological bearing, but would he handcuff our emotions? I don't think so. Granted, I'm not talking about becoming emotional for the sake of emotions. We can't fake a move of the spirit, but there should be a yearning and a desire to worship God reflected in our actions. If you disagree, you'd be hard-pressed to find any scriptures to support your view. How to prevent deception. Here we go, the next section. Emotions can be deceptive, so we must be careful. More on this later. George D. Watson notes this. True saints of God have in all generations had to walk between the two extremes of cold formality on the one side and wild, ranting fanaticism on the other. Dead formality and the false fire of fanaticism are both Satan's counterfeits, and he does not care into which extreme the soul plunges. Wow, what a powerful statement. He's basically saying we've had in all generations to walk between the two extremes of a cemetery and a circus environment. We've gotta find that middle ground. And on this point, D. Martin Lloyd-Jones reminds us that we should never interpret scripture in the light of experiences, but rather interpret our experiences in the penetrating light of scripture. We can prevent deception by making truth the engine of the train and emotions the caboose. Again, I said this earlier. Emotions do not lead, they follow. But when God's spirit is truly moving, our emotions will be engaged. One example of this is illustrated in the life of Griffin Jones. He preached during the Welsh revivals of the 18th century, and it's recorded to say that the tears of the congregation began to flow in streams down their cheeks. Soon, they wept openly and cried out, what shall we do to be saved? I'm always wondering, what would the modern day Pharisees say about that experience? What would the modern conservatives who are hard-hearted, what would they say about the upper room experience? Would they even wanna be in the upper room? I don't think so, I really don't. And that's why my prayer is that more people would experience the power of God. Because when our experience lines up with scripture, the emotions that follow can be good and God-given. As I said earlier, we are in good company. We are in God's company when that happens. Don't confuse me with the facts. During the beginning of the lockdown in 2020, right before we reopened our church in California, along with Jack Hibbs and Rob McCoy and John MacArthur, I preached a series on genuine revival. Again, you can get these links in the e-book. And some people voiced concerns over the guest worship leader who led worship via a video feed. And I asked those who had questions or concerns, I asked them four questions and they never got back to me. Again, you can see the interview, you can see all this on the e-version of the book. And on YouTube, if you put in YouTube, Shane Eidelman interviews Kim Walker-Smith. You can hear the interview, asked a lot of the hard questions. But I asked them, well, were the services God-honoring? Were the lyrics theologically sound? Were the messages biblically accurate? Could there be abundant fruit? And again, not surprisingly, no one responded to my questions because the answer to all those is positive. But they've already made up their mind. And as they say, don't confuse me with the facts when I've already made up my mind. And that's what happened here, sadly. Proverbs 18, 13 reminded me to reach out to the so-called controversial worship leader before forming any judgment because a foolish person answers a matter before hearing both sides. And sadly, you'll see in the interview, when I asked her the very first question, has anyone else who has issues or questions reached out to you? And the answer was no. And that just revealed everything to me. See, we love to be armchair quarterbacks. We're really not looking for the answers. We don't wanna change our view. We just wanna pound people with the word of God and critique and criticize them because we don't fully agree with them. And it just revealed so much to me. Again, none of my critics apologized after the interview revealed that 99% of the information they had was not true. Apparently, all of them had already made up their minds and they didn't want to be confronted with the facts. Granted, I share many of your same concerns about some of the weird churches out there. I'm not endorsing any weirdness, but I wanna draw my conclusions by going directly to the person in question when possible. Anyone can manipulate footage and quote things out of context. And many of the websites out there, some are doing great work, but many of them are simply heresy hunters. And I'm wondering if many of them are even converted. Have they had a genuine experience with Christ? And I have some questions. I have some concerns because of the hardheartedness. It's just amazing. Again, we can have concerns. We can have questions. We should be able to vocalize that. We should be able to lovingly challenge people. But what is the condition of our heart? That's really where the rubber meets the road. Embarrassed in the upper room. Although I consider myself a conservative, I often wonder how so many conservatives can quote people like George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards, but conveniently avoid the mighty uncommon moves of the spirit that occurred under their preaching. Is it because these things don't fit within their theological framework? I don't know, you be the judge. Although many powerful experiences during the spiritual awakenings parallel the book of Acts, many critics still refuse to accept them. They avoid words and phrases like revival, moves of the spirit, and the deeper life. But these themes are used throughout the Bible. How many times did God say that he would pour out his spirit? How often was the heart cry of God's people focused on revival? Will thou not revive us again? God, please, we need to rejoice in you. And isn't seeking God with all our heart part of the deeper life? Absolutely, the living water Jesus spoke about is not dead and stagnant. Why would we fear encountering God in powerful and profound ways? We shouldn't. To be stoic and stiff is fine for a graveyard, but not for a dynamic worship service. I wonder if these types of people would be embarrassed if they were in the upper room when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples on that historic day in Acts 2. I think they would in many cases. Why don't you take time now, read Acts 2, and truly ask yourself, would I be embarrassed to be there? If you would, then I think you need to ask God to reveal himself to you and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Everything should be done in order. If a pigskin can travel 100 yards across a football field and millions get emotional, shouldn't Christians saved by the power of God get emotional when they experience him? Sadly, 1 Corinthians 14.40 is often used as a fire extinguisher to quickly quench anything out of the ordinary. The verse says this, let all things, meaning in the church primarily, be done decently and in order. And sometimes, to be honest with you, I'm accused of being too conservative because I want to honor this verse. I believe that a circus environment is not healthy or beneficial, but I also believe that a cemetery setting can be just as damaging and just as damning. When sinful men encounter a holy God, it's often controversial. It goes outside of our preconceived notion of what God does and who he is. We need shepherds who can steward the flame of revival, not snuff it out. I will never forget many, many years ago when a man found his way to the altar during closing worship. He was weeping and crying out to God, and I was a little nervous wondering what people were thinking, to be honest with you. I was in the back praying and his friend came over to me and he said something that changed my life. He said the man at the altar just found his son, I think a few days ago, hanging in the garage. He committed suicide. And I immediately made my way to the altar and I wept with him. I was flooded with so much emotion that I couldn't even pray. And God broke me that day. Another time when the service didn't go as expected was when I was speaking at a friend's church and the power of God was so apparent that I could barely get through my message without breaking down. When the service was over, no one left. There was a holy hush as tears were heard throughout the sanctuary. The first service ran into the second service and this happens on occasion at our church as well. The parking lot was a mess but it was beautiful. It was a beautiful problem to have. Sometimes we're more worried about parking than we are worried about people. And George Whitfield, once perplexed by the emotional things taking place, when he preached, asked Lady Huntington, I believe her last name was, for advice on containing it. She said, oh George, oh George, leave them alone. What they are experiencing is from God and it will do far more than your preaching. And see, that's the challenge. Jonathan Edwards had to write a book about revival and the work of the spirit. Whitfield was perplexed sometimes, as was Wesley, as was any of us involved in revival because we know when God is awakening his people, the enemy is also moving and stewarding that gift from God can be challenging. But you'd have a better chance of damning up Niagara Falls than containing a move of God. Bold but not weird. To be clear, I'm not validating weird behavior. Just because something is odd doesn't mean that it's of God. In my readings of Charismatics and Calvinists and Pentecostals and Puritans and countless biographies of people such as Martin Luther, John Knox, Robert Murray McShaney and so on, it's clear to me that these leaders never encourage hysteria or the outright weirdness we sometimes see today. The fruit of the spirit is not weirdness, it's boldness. It doesn't promote hysteria, it promotes holiness. Granted, there were times of strong conviction, such as when people held on to trees because they feared that they were falling into hell during Jonathan Edwards' famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. And people did cry out to God and fall on the ground under the strong conviction of sin during the revivals of Whitefield and Wesley. But this is because sin, righteousness and holiness were preached. The Apostle Paul wrote that if an unbeliever or an uninformed person enters a meeting where the Holy Spirit was moving, he would experience conviction. And falling down on his face, he will worship God and report that God is truly among you. That's 1 Corinthians 14. True revival is emotional and it's unpredictable. We need to recognize that. Again, don't misunderstand what I'm saying here. Theology is vital, but are theology students also encouraged to fast and pray as well as study? How often are they taught brokenness and repentance in addition to translating the Greek language? How often are they taught the surrendered life? We can sometimes be more concerned about a master's degree than a degree from the master. The forgotten God. The Holy Spirit inspired the scriptures and empowered Jesus and the apostles. We are desperately remiss if we fail to recognize his vital role in our lives as well. I agree with Leonard Ravenhill here. He said, we need to close every church in the land for one Sunday and cease listening to a man so we can hear the groan of the spirit which we in our lush pews have forgotten. I say amen loudly and clearly to that. Are you truly a lover of his presence or have you been guilty of mocking the work of the spirit? Take time now and humble yourself before God. I believe that a genuine spiritual awakening can take place. God will rend the heavens and fill you with his spirit if you humble yourself under his hand and he will exalt you in due time. My prayer for you when you listen to this and even now is that repentance would take place and cry out to God and say, Lord, I've been hard-hearted. I've been critical. I've been judgmental. I want to stand for your truth. I do not want that to be removed from my life. I want to be a contender of the faith. I want to guard the word of God. But Lord, I want to be humble and teachable. I want to be moldable. I don't want to think I know everything. I want to be gracious to people. I want to be loving to people. I want to be gentle and not critical. God, would you break that from me today? In Jesus' name, amen. And I believe God will honor that request.