“Jesus replied, ‘Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures,

and you don’t know the power of God’.” MK 12:24 NLT

Jesus made it very clear to His disciples that only those who know both the scriptures and the power of God are living according to His design and purpose. It is not either/or, but both/and. If we are completely honest with ourselves, we would have to say that we have not handled this tension very well. Christians have often had to choose between one camp or the other. Will I gravitate towards the “Word-based” group or the “Holy Ghost, power people”?

Beloved, can we decide once and for all that we are for both?! We do not have to sacrifice one for the other! We CAN have our cake and eat it too. We CAN be scholars and yet wake up speaking in tongues. We CAN have a ministry that witnesses healing and deliverance and not bow to the altar of “strange” fire.

Our church has begun a movement called #365, which mobilizes people to read the Bible through in a year. When I consider how Biblically ignorant this generation of Christians is, I say Hallelujah. This generation has no excuse for ignorance, for we have access to more knowledge and tools and education than any generation before us. I once gave a New Testament to a man in China on Monday. He came back on Friday to return it to me. I was deeply disappointed, so I asked him why he was giving it back. He simply said, “because I have finished it.” God have mercy! He wasn’t even a believer, and yet there as many, many Christians who have believed in the Lord for years and have never even finished the New Testament, much less the whole Bible.

I have been reading about Revival history, of movements, of revivalists, for the last several months. There are many features which characterized every past revival, and without fail one of them was an all-consuming passion for the Word of God. I just listened to the testimony of former Muslim Nabeel Qureshi say that for the first 20 years of his life whenever he got into debates with Christians, none could show him from the Word of God where Jesus said that he was the Son of God. Is it any wonder that people will follow after the hypergrace teachings of a Joseph Prince, or fall prey to universal salvation, or no hell, or other unbiblical yet popular opinions. We must know the Scriptures. Jesus said so.

One of the most striking facts of past moves of God is the inability to strike this balance, or to sustain it over time. An example of this can be taken from a mighty outpouring of God’s Spirit around 1800 in the newly established states of Kentucky and Tennessee. So powerful were these “camp meetings” held for days leading to weeks in the open air of these frontier regions that an eyewitness account wrote:

“At one time I saw at least five hundred swept down in a moment, as if a battery of a thousand guns had been opened upon them, and then immediately followed shrieks and shouts that rent the very heavens.”

One of these preachers, Barton Stone, wrote detailed accounts of the manifestations of the Spirit’s power. I cannot highlight the detailed descriptions of each here, but he called the manifestations “exercises” which were common occurrences. They were:

* The Falling Exercise
* The Jerks
* The Dancing Exercise
* The Barking Exercise
* The Laughing Exercise
* The Singing (i.e. in the Spirit) Exercise

Barton Stone went on to become the founder of The Church of Christ denomination, which no longer reads the records of these things by their own founder, nor do they encourage or embrace them when they come. They have run to the “Word” camp and found “safety” there.

We must also know the power of God. Most of you reading this know something of the power of God. Granted, we might know more ABOUT the power of God than we actually know the power itself, but at least we identify with this camp. While that is a good start, many of us are more spectators than we are actually participants. We say we know the power because we listen to Bill Johnson, or because we fell on the floor at a Rodney Howard-Brown meeting. I’m just now reading the book God’s Generals: The Revivalists, and I am under deep conviction because I am measuring myself against those who didn’t just plug into a toy car battery. These men and women were wired to the state power station!

I want more. I want more Word. I want more power. I want more of Jesus. I want more of the Holy Spirit. Pentecostals in the early days disdained the heady, proud, and powerless preachers of the traditional churches of their day, and in doing so threw the baby out with the bathwater, rejecting theology and advanced education. Thank God that stigma is past, and we now have some of the world’s most learned Biblical scholars and historians who come from the “power-based” camp. This is as it should be, for in these last days, as the winds of Revival are stirring again, these words of Jesus will be staring us right in the face.

Beloved, let us be a people of the Word, and a people of power. Let us be the generation who will not only experience the power of God, but who will witness a sustained move of God worthy of the Master who gave His life to redeem a Bride who is without “mistake”, yes, without spot of wrinkle. Amen.

It is a new year, and a new day. It is a time of new beginnings, and so I turn to the beginning, Genesis 1, to share some insights with you:

“…and God divided the light from the darkness.” Gen 1:4

Throughout the earth, a separation is occurring. Have you noticed? Things are shifting. Politics is becoming more polarized. Racial tensions are on the rise. Religions radicalized. Evil is becoming more heinous. Righteousness is ridiculed and met with intolerance at every turn. Even creation itself is reeling, groaning like a woman in travail awaiting to deliver and be delivered (see Romans 8:18-22). As it was on the first day, so shall it be on the last; God is dividing the light from the darkness.

Satan is evil, and his wickedness cannot be restrained much longer. Although it is clearly a futile fight, so great is his self-deception that he actually believes he might win. Emboldened, he is increasingly aggressive and vicious. As it was during the time of the crucifixion, his wickedness will blind him to the point that he will play right into the hands of God. His schemes are destined to become a part of God’s triumphant plan.

Of course none of this has caught God off guard; neither should we be. This is an expected part of the landscape in the days we are living in, even as was prophesied. While there are many battles to be fought in this war to end all wars, I want to take a minute to speak to just one. It is the battle of the Family.

You see, the Devil has the institution of the Family in his crosshairs. Everything about the family has come under intense bombardments. From skyrocketing divorce rates, to absent fathers, to teenage pregnancies…why, even the very definition of the family has come out of the trenches with its hands up. When I was young, a popular storybook called “Are You My Mother” told of a baby bird which hatched while its mom was away catching a worm to feed to it. Anxiously the bird asked a dog, a cat, a cow, and even a steam shovel if any was his mother. Little did I know that this question would be fretfully asked in our time every day, but not by little birds anymore.

The result of the separation, and ensuing confusion? Multitudes of people have been bloodied with an irreparable wound. And although some will surrender to the new definitions, and capitulate to and accept new “norms”, still others will grow increasingly wearied by all this newness. They will refuse to accept the dog or the cow, and keep searching, all the time saying in their hearts “something’s not right here!” To these:

“The Sun of Righteousness will arise with healing in His wings” Mal 4:2

This chapter, the last in the entire Old Testament leading down to the very last verse, reminds us that just when things seem most desperate, God has prepared the means of full recovery. In the midst of this separation, two distinct outcomes are foretold. He says “before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord” something will happen.

First note that this is both a great day, and a dreadful day. You might be thinking, how can this be? Well, it is great for some, but dreadful for others, which of course is determined by which side we go to during the division of light from darkness. For those who choose light, something completely sovereign and miraculous is going to take place. The little bird will hatch, and go looking for its father. And the father bird will suddenly be consumed with such love for that little bird that every pursuit will be left behind in order to return to the side of his chirping offspring. For the chapter continues, and concludes with these powerful words:

“And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,
and the hearts of the children to their fathers,
Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.” Mal 4:5-6

Beloved, if you have not discovered it yet, let me tell you a piece of VERY GOOD NEWS. Satan’s attack on the family is being met by an even greater counterattack. The enemy’s conventional weapons will pale before the arsenal of God’s nuclear force. Hearts are being turned by the same power that conquered the grave. And the Sun of Righteousness is arising to heal all those who were once considered DOA. So beloved, let us not underestimate the greatness of God in these things and grow discouraged. When God arises, His enemies still scatter (PS 68:1).

There was a time when the darkness came in hues of grey. But as darkness gives way to gross darkness, some will awaken and flee towards the Light. We must be ready! This too was foretold, signaling the beginning of the greatest harvest the world has ever known. Those desperate for healing will then come to the Light, the Sun, the only way to be healed in body, mind, or heart—through His blood and mercy. When all hope seems lost, He will arise. And when He does, we will witness the Church’s finest hour.

“For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,
and deep (gross) darkness the people;
But the Lord will arise over you,
And His glory shall be seen upon you.
The nations shall come to your light,
And kings to the brightness of your rising.”
IS 60:2-3