I’ve been feeling the stirrings of revival for about a year and a half now. My daughter had a dream (she’s a prophetic dreamer) and then we started seeing in the natural the very things her dream had been about. The Lord told her we were on the verge of revival.

I was super excited and let my faith rise up to embrace it. I had been through the renewal times of the 90’s and was hungry for God’s move again.

Then different prophets started prophesying that revival was coming. Bill Johnson and Shawn Bolz both talked about it and I joined my faith with theirs. And with Hannah’s dream, I partnered with what we saw happening, again, both of us with a sense of expectation for what we were hungering for.

Bob Jones even prophesied before he died that when the Kansas City Chiefs won the super bowl, revival was right behind it. The Chiefs won last year in 2019. Woo Hoo!!

Then 2020 hit. I remember, on New Years Eve, spending some time in prayer asking the Lord to prepare me for these exciting next steps. That my eyes would be open to recognize what He would be doing next. I didn’t want to be like the people in Jesus’ day who missed what He was doing because of a preconceived idea of what it would look like. I remember connecting the year 2020 with 20/20 vision and we all agreed it was going to be a great year.

I remember having conversations with some, in my local community, who were also looking for revival and we all agreed if you read back through revival history, many rejected what was happening because it wasn’t what THEY were looking for. Many times the new smacked up against the familiar and conflict arose within the church as people tried to reason out what was happening.

Our church spent 21 days in prayer and fasting during January. We were asking God for more clarity and more of Him.

Then Covid 19 hit… then quarantine hit… Then racial tension hit, as another African American was shot then a week later a very unfortunate situation happened between the police community and another African American man who ended up losing his life.

There’s a LOT of trauma….a LOT of injustice everywhere. A LOT of accusations, a LOT of fear for our future…. a LOT of negativity floating around on social media where everyone has an opinion and lines are being drawn, sides are being formed, deep divides between even the church community, where we have those who say wear a mask, then those who say they will not be ruled by governmental rules and they ridicule those who do. Those who support the police community and those who don’t know what to believe anymore.

I’m not here to address any of those things. I’m just wanting to share what the Lord’s been speaking to me in the last few months of crazy.

My journey actually started a couple of years ago, and has come more into fruition recently. 2 years ago, I read a book by Graham Cooke called Game Changers. It’s published by Aglow Intl. if you are interested in buying a copy. I went through that study with a couple of friends and what I took from it was a turning point in my walk. In a nut shell it’s about renewing your mind and choosing what you are going to hope for in each situation. He says with every obstacle comes a heavenly provision and we have a choice what we will partner with.

Ephesians 4:22-24 says, “In reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth”.

Renewed… The word renew in the Greek means to renovate. We did a kitchen renovation a few years back and that image came to mind. The first thing they did was tear out everything that was going to be replaced. They tore out a window and door, the kitchen cabinets, sink, stove, everything; the room was an empty shell. Then one thing at a time was addressed. They built a new wall with a sliding glass door, then replaced everything else with brand new items. It looked amazing when it was done.

But, what does it mean to renew our minds? Well, for me, I had a life-time of wrong perceptions and familiar but dysfunctional cycles of behavior to address. I believed lies about myself because of circumstances I’d lived through and I processed everything I saw through the scratched lenses of my past circumstances, not through God’s truth.

Then, the same scripture above says to “put on the new self”. Remember the movie The Secret Garden? Remember Mary Lennox as she wants to be dressed by her Ayah while still living in India? She would stand with her arms held out while her nanny literally dressed her. Sometimes, I wonder if we take that posture about renewing our minds and putting on the new self mentioned in the verse above; And the word “put on” in the Greek literally means (in the sense of sinking into a garment); to invest with clothing (literally of figuratively). This is an action we do, it is not done for us. It’s a part we must play or we end up spiritually holding our arms out like Mary and asking and hoping that the Lord will do it for us.

I know that our salvation was purchased for us on the cross when Jesus was crucified for us; But I also believe our maturity in Christ comes with us doing our part to choose truth, by addressing lies and strongholds in our minds; by replacing those enemy thoughts with what Scripture says and doing spiritual housecleaning so to speak. And the Lord has been faithful to lead me into truth about many things in my life and I am not the same. I’m learning to choose to believe what His word says instead of what circumstances say. Sometimes that’s challenging, because the circumstances are dancing around right in front of you, but the truth is more of a subtle perception with a choice to believe it instead.

One day I came across this scripture that was so revelatory to me. Matthew 13:58 says Jesus didn’t do many miracles in His own hometown because of unbelief. I felt compelled to look up the word unbelief. It means faithlessness but comes from a double root meaning “not” and “convinced”. Unbelief means not convinced. This was eye-opening for me. It was easy for me to hide in the word unbelief and say, “I don’t struggle with unbelief” but it was harder for me to ignore if I called it not convinced. Were there part of scripture that I was not convinced? Especially parts about my identity in Christ….I knew I did not fully believe those words about myself, who He said I was in Him. I let life circumstances create my identity and that was an area of massive tearing out and renewing of my mind and heart.

Unbelief, being not convinced, is even so serious that it kept the Children of Israel out of the promised land. Hebrews 3:19, in addressing Israel, says “So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief, the same word “not convinced”. They were not convinced that God would provide for them…they constantly complained and grumbled in the desert; and when Moses led them to the borders of Jericho, and the 12 spies came back with their reports, they chose to believe the 10 who were “not convinced” that God would win the victory, instead of the two who said He would. God had proven Himself faithful time and time again by providing water and manna, a pillar of fire that led them when to go and when to camp. They had every example in front of them, to believe He would complete what He promised except their own reasoning…maybe they thought they would have to win the battle themselves, on their own? I’ve been thinking about that. Could that also be a reason we struggle today? That we have to figure it out on our own? That we have to come up with a plan and implement it ourselves? I wonder…

He’s also been teaching me to choose what I will look at; what I’m going to focus on, especially during this time of constant chaos and negativity. I’ve come to realize that the devil has a plan and we see that all around us. But do we know and believe that God also has a plan? It may be harder to see….like I mentioned earlier, it’s with subtle glimpses and nudging that we perceive Him. It’s with eyes of faith that we see what He is doing. We don’t need subtlety to see what the enemy is doing though, do we? He’s blatantly out there and it’s hard to miss. But, I for one, have seen some amazing miracles as I’ve chosen to believe the subtle suggestions of promise and truth, instead of what’s screaming right in my face.

So back to revival coming… I know it is. I believe Hannah’s prophetic dream. I believe what the prophets are saying. I believe the sensing of faith that I have in my heart. But the Lord showed me the other day that I need to contend for it. The devil does NOT want a renewal coming. I believe that ALL of what’s happening on the earth right now is an all out attack to get our eyes of faith off of what He is doing and onto the crazy right in front of us. A huge distraction and assault to challenge the strongest of faith.

Remember Elisha, the prophet in the Old Testament? The King of Aram was enraged because Elisha was telling the king of Israel (prophetically) what the enemy’s plans of capture were. They made a plan to capture Elisha and went to Dothan and in the night, surrounded him and his servant. 2 Kings 6:15-17 says, “Now when the attendant of the man of God had risen early and gone out, behold an army with horses and chariots was circling the city. And his servant said to him, ‘Alas, my master! What shall we do?’ So he (Elisha) answered, ‘Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.’ Then Elisha prayed and said, ‘O Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see’. And the Lord opened the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” Then Elisha and his servant were led by God’s hand with another plan to take the enemy right to the king of Israel instead of being captured. Totally a God story for sure!

This verse has been challenging me. This and the verse about the Children of Israel choosing what they were going to believe between the evil or the good report brought back by the 12 spies..

In both circumstances everyone was seeing the same thing at the same time. Why was the perceived outcome different? I believe it’s because of what you choose to believe and what you choose to focus on; What you choose to process your experience through. Some saw and chose to believe God’s promises, or God’s provisions, and some saw and reasoned with their own abilities and came to a wrong conclusion of “not convinced”.

I do not want to be in the “not convinced” category. This was the category of many people when Jesus walked the earth and they missed what He was doing and didn’t get to partner with Him. Instead they nailed Him to a cross.

I believe we also need to ask the Lord the next questions. We see what He is showing us and we ask Him how we can do our part to allow Him to work with us and through us. We see what is going on around us (with the crazy) and instead of crying out in alarm…or anger, we ask Him how to pray. Ephesians 6:12 says, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places”.

People are not our enemy folks! It’s the powers of darkness propelling them that are the enemy. I have been trying to do better at asking the Lord the next questions when I see the news. What do I address? How do I pray? How do I partner with Him to see Heaven come to earth, like He asks us to pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”.

It’s time to fight guys….fight for what we choose to gaze upon and believe (renewing our minds). Fight for what we want to see God bring during this time. Do we want justice? Let’s pray for God’s righteous justice. Do we want peace? Let’s pray that the peace that passes all understanding be poured out on this earth. Let’s pray for divine encounters for the looters and those who are being mislead during this time, to fight this terrible injustice righteously. Let’s pray that they will encounter the one who saves and come into the kingdom of God. What about Covid 19? Can we pray for God’s hand to stay this virus and for people to be healed? What better way to come into the kingdom than through a healing…Do we want revival? Let’s petition Heaven for it and believe for it with eyes of faith.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Let’s get our mustard seed of faith out, blow the dust off and put it in the fight. If you, like me, have seen the stirrings of what God wants to bring, let’s join together and fight the right fight…the fight in the spirit to contend for what He wants to bring.

Who’s with me?