Revival Conference 2007 - Part 8

When God comes, family worship is revived. Family worship is revived. In Africa, in the revival among the Zulus in 1973, it was testified that you could hear the families gathering first thing in the morning to sing and read and pray.

And you could hear them all down through the villages there. They were all gathering in the morning. Fathers gathered.

Just imagine that! These are Zulus! Bless God! Do you know who the Zulus are? They're the fiercest tribe in all of Africa. I mean, the tribes all the way up into Ghana know who the Zulus are, way down in South Africa. The fiercest warring tribe there is.

There, these Zulu men get converted, born again, filled with the Spirit of God, and now they're gathering their children into their little huts, morning by morning, reading the Bible to them, singing songs and having prayers. Hallelujah! Only God could do that! And God needs to do the same thing here! I mean, we're losing our children in this land. We're losing our children, I'm telling you.

The reason why we're losing our children is because God hasn't come yet. It's the powerful reality of revival. Number six, you want to look at the glorious person of revival.

You know who that is, don't you? Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, the glorious person of revival, the man of thy right hand, upon the Son of Man, whom thou madest strong for thyself. You see, in Israel's day, there was this longing for Messiah. And they knew, when things got tough, they looked ahead.

They had this hope in their heart, someday Messiah will come and everything's going to be set straight. Well, brothers and sisters, Messiah has come. But when the great need of revival has settled down upon us, the glorious person of revival is just kind of back into the shadows.

But for the early church, he was there with them. And Christ building his church in the midst of the people. He was there.

They didn't have any books back in those days. Ten steps or ten new methods for building a New Testament church. They didn't need any of those methods.

They only had one or two methods and they worked. Jesus told them, I promise you that I will build my church. You don't have to build it, I'll build it.

You don't have to do it, I'll do it. But, you must build your life on me. And if you build your life on me, I'll build my church.

And the church which I build, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Brothers and sisters, the gates of hell are prevailing against it. Why? I'm not sure if Christ is building his church.

But Jesus said, you build your lives on me. Now that doesn't, that's not talking about a lit profession, brothers and sisters. That means I am solidly walking in Christ Jesus.

And my heart's desire is to walk with him every day. And to go forward and to live for him and to love him. And if you get a whole bunch of people together like that, you're gonna have a church.

I mean, I guarantee it. They'll come, the people will come. That's the way it was in the book of Acts.

Christ was in the midst of the people. He's the glorious person of revival. And he was in the midst of the people.

It even says, And the Lord added unto the church daily such as should be seen. He was there. He's the glorious person of revival.

The spirit of God exalts Christ. And when the spirit of God is turned loose in the midst of God's people, Christ is exalted, honored, and loved. We should long for an overwhelming love for the Lord Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters.

When God comes, the glorious person of revival is in the midst. He will be preached about. He will be worshipped.

He will be the topic of conversation in life. He will be the song on the lips of his people. He will be the all in all.

Everybody talks about the Lord Jesus when revival comes. We all know it's true. It's nothing new.

I'm not sharing anything new with us tonight. Very interesting in the setting where I come from, what happens when someone in a very religious setting gets born again, and they show up at church the next Sunday morning and start talking about the glorious person, Jesus. They throw them out of the church where I come from.

Oh, you can talk about God, no problem. You can talk about God. But when you start that bubbling over about Jesus Christ, that's enough.

You either sit down and shut up or leave. But he's the glorious person of revival. And when revival comes, Jesus is center stage.

And you think about it now. Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one. Stay with me.

When the anointed head and the anointed body are together, Christ manifests his life in a given community. And by the way, that's the only way that it can happen, brothers and sisters. When the anointed body gets in tune with the anointed head, Christ manifests his life in the midst of the community.

He's the glorious person of revival. In seasons of revival, men and women come with open faces, beholding the glory of the Lord. And they're changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of God.

When revival comes, the glorious person of Jesus Christ is seen. Not with the eyes of our head, but with the eyes of our heart. And when you see Jesus with the eyes of your heart, the Bible says that the Spirit of God will change you into the same image that you see.

Do you get that? I mean, that's the positive side of a sanctified life. Amen. I mean, yes, sometimes we need to come to an altar and get some junk out and deal with those things, but you know, you don't always have to go to an altar and do things on the negative side.

How about getting your heart clear and right with God, and just opening up the Bible with a vision of Jesus, looking into his Word and gazing with an open face upon the glories of Jesus Christ, and having that Spirit right on the fleshly tables of your heart, the beautiful character of Jesus Christ. Now that's revival. I mean, that's what we want, isn't it? Oh, to be like the precious Redeemer.

Oh, to be like the pure as our heart. How do you think that's ever going to happen, brothers and sisters? That's not imitation, dear brothers and sisters. That's impartation.

Sorry, Thomas Akimpas, but it's not the imitation of Christ. It's the impartation of Christ. That's the only way we're ever going to become like Jesus.

And we know these things. You know them. I'm not telling you anything new, but you know, it's just so easy to settle down into the natural, you know, and start going through the motions of our religion, you know, whatever it may be.

Hey, you put whatever denomination name you got on it. We can all put on a big form, but that's not going to make us like Jesus. We must come with an open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, and be changed into the same image.

Do it, Lord. Do it. Number seven.