SPIRITUAL FATHERS & PERSONAL REVIVAL

Our personal revival is fueled by the community around us! In this podcast, I teach about the power of personal revival and the key role that spiritual fathers and mothers have in leading us while following Jesus. I want to encourage you today that you don’t have to do this alone!

I want to share my own personal story of revival and how God has moved in my life over the years. 

I met Jesus when I was desperate. I said to the Lord, “If there’s a God, if you heal my mother, I’ll find out who you are and I’ll serve you the rest of my life.” An audible voice replied, “My name is Jesus Christ and you have what you requested.” I woke up and my mom was completely well. About a week later, the voice spoke to me again and said, “I healed your mother, and you said if I healed your mother you would serve Me, and I’m waiting.” I had no idea who God was, I had never read the Bible before. This set me on a journey to find Jesus.

Three years later, Kathy and I were invited to a home group in the Jesus Movement, and Kathy and I accepted Jesus into our hearts. We were introduced to a man who became our spiritual father, Kathy and I spent a lot of time with him and his wife.

When we moved to Lewiston, it was a hard season and I knew I needed a spiritual father who was close by. I was working on a jeep one day and the Lord spoke to me and said, “The man who owns this jeep will be your father.” We ended up meeting every week and he prayed for me and helped me grow.

A big part of me experiencing personal revival was so connected to having spiritual fathers and mothers in my life who encouraged and corrected me.

“For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church.” 1 Corinthians 4:15-17

There has been such a disconnection between following Jesus and being a part of a spiritual family. I don’t think that you can sustain personal revival without first of all making a deep connection with the church of Jesus and having mentors and people who can speak into your life. I’d like to suggest to you that Jesus has put people in your life to follow, just like Paul exhorted the Corinthians to imitate him.

I have seen so many people touched by God, and time and again have been the only person left standing in a meeting where everyone else is on the floor getting touched by God. God spoke to me about the different ways throughout scripture that He touched people in different ways: Samson, Elijah, and Bezalel. Your relationship with God can’t be measured by the manifestation you’re having.

1. Spend time with God, allowing Him to love you, and tell you what He thinks about you.
2. Hang out with people who are alive and well in God, even though they may be having manifestations you’re not having.
3. Share your faith with others.
4. Remind yourself of the acts of God.
5. Be humble. 
6. Live every day full of faith. 
7. Recount the prophecies over your life.

Scriptures:

Acts 2:17, Revelation 19:10, 3 John 1:2, 1 Corinthians 4:15-17, Judges 14:19, Exodus 31:2-3