At present the Church world-wide is like dry tinder, hungry for a divine spark to ignite much needed revivals. How do revivals start? They vary in time and place. I’m not a specialist of such super natural events. All I can tell you is what happened in 2020 that resulted in the sparking of a revival at the Newman Community Baptist Church, Western Australia.

I began my assignment at Newman by observing that the church was in great need of a special touch from God. I believed the church needed to be revived from spiritual slumber and a casual approach to the Christian faith. Many believers were biblically illiterate and had resigned themselves to a life of mediocrity. Even though I saw myself a weak vessel I gave everything, boots-n-all, to the Holy Spirit to empower and use me for His purpose. At the beginning, my expectation of God was set a little low – believing He would miraculously touch just a few souls. However, it didn’t take long before I raised my expectations to the full measure of Ephesians 3:20… “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.” In light of this truth, my prayer requests became, “Please, Lord, I humbly request from You every grace endowment You have determined for Your people at Newman.” In confident boldness I asked God for the lot!

Friends, I know God well enough to say that if I expect everything from Him then I must first ‘lay on the line’ everything that I am and have – everything I can be and may have. In offering to God a signed blank cheque I offered Him my life, consecrated for His purposes… I permitted Him to do with me whatever accorded with His will (Romans 12:1). In my thinking, if I didn’t do this, I would show myself to be a believer of little faith. Revivals demand a full measure of ‘revival faith’ in our Creator God!

If 100% of faith is comfortably stored in our heads, and is not actioned, then such faith is dead and useless. ‘Revival faith’ is ‘action faith’ – James says, “But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves” (v 22). Friends, I reasoned within myself that if God ‘says so’ about anything then that was good enough for me to faith-fully reach out with expectancy to seize the prize of such a belief.

For three months in 2018, as I walked to the church building each Sunday from the Manse I prayed, “Holy Spirit, knock the ball out of the ball park”, and He did! As I walked to church on my first Sunday when I was back at Newman on July 26, 2020, I prayed, “Holy Spirit, knock the ball out of this world”, and He did! So, on Sunday, August 2, I asked the Holy Spirit, “Please, knock the ball into Heaven”, and He did! Friends, I will never forget that day! Never before had I experienced such awesome presence and power of God moving in the lives of His people! Truly, this is what a revival looks like! On that day, half of the congregation, with knees positioned on the carpeted floor, consecrated their lives to the Lord!
(Continued next week.)

Best wishes

Bill Joukhadar