#3 Series- "Beware the leaven of the Pharisees"
"Are You ready for Heaven's Surprise?"
(Before you read on, read the last blog. It's a satirical allegory called, "The Great Rice Competition." See the following link: http://melindafish.blogspot.com)
Eighteen years before the Toronto renewal ever came, our friend, Elliott Tepper, prophesied in our congregation, "Prepare to contain the blessing!" We wondered what that meant because he went on to say, "Prepare so that you will not be like children playing with sand and watch it slip through your fingers."
That was forty years ago now. It was one of those words that lovingly admonished us, but we could not imagine what God meant.
About the same time, I was standing in my apartment one day in Pittsburgh looking in the mirror when the Lord said to me, "Be careful of kingdom building!"
I thought, "Ok, Lord, I will!"
But I wasn't sure what He meant. I just knew that the Kingdom was His, and I wasn't to set in motion anything that would compete with it.
I read a post on Facebook the other day where some eager beaver believer was admonishing the saints that revival was overdue and that the BOC(body of Christ) was ready. It was like someone had posted a sign on a tree, "The rain god is mad: bring out another bowl of rice!"
The story, "The Great Rice Bowl Competition," pokes fun at folks who scurry around getting things ready as though they are attempting to find the right formula to please a faceless god when all the time, they had not the slightest genuine clue that He wasn't a vending machine on high. Instead, God loves you more than you can imagine. He wants revival for you more than you do, but He fixes the time and season. It is not about following "Christian stars" who are preparing to play host to the next blessing.
What we call "revival" is really a "momentary" intrusion of the raw, magnificent, unquenched Presence of God and His Kingdom into the world. The only receptacle for this blessing is the human heart, hungry enough to change. As in Jesus' parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, the only container is not a manufactured rice bowl or a "revival club," a well structured organization with the funds to promote it and the hierarchy to "preserve" it. It is a Divine gift for everybody who needs it.
The only way to prepare is to be so needy that you just want Him.
