Awakening, Harvest, and Broken Nets (Part 2: A Case Study)
Years ago, I read a prophetic word by Rick Joyner about the future revival coming to the church and it sobered me as young man. It described a still coming revival that was so immense that it broke every structure that existing churches had. It compared what is coming to what we saw happening to the book of Acts where a huge influx of new believers actually put significant stress on the church and its structure. He compared revival to an ocean wave that a good surfer will catch and ride, but could also injure a surfer who was unprepared. And I’ve seen this happen over and over again in times of awakening and revival.
Yesterday I wrote that the church that is praying for revival and awakening probably isn’t ready for it. I even borrowed a story from the life of the disciples and used it as analogy for where the church is in this hour. So we need to pray AND prepare nets that can truly hold the harvest God is going to send. Today I want to share a case study* to show you why it’s so incredibly important.
When I was in Bible College I came across a surprising number of people who had been part of a significant revival in this country. This revival began as a fairly localized move of the Holy Spirit in a congregation during the visit of an itinerant minister and then went on to draw attention all over the country because of some dramatic signs and wonders and a massive wave of repentance that was attached to the meetings.
Needless to say, things changed significantly for this congregation during that season. People were driving from all across the country to take part in what God was doing. The numbers were so large nightly meetings began happening. Soon a bible college was established to equip the new believers who were wanting to join the ministry. Everything was pretty intense.
And that’s where the problems began. All of my friends that I had met who were part of this move of the Holy Spirit had been changed by their time there. Most of them had been through the bible college. But all of them told me the same story: We loved the revival. But we got burned out. We were in meetings six nights a week but we never learned how to live lives outside of the meetings. And we never learned to be the body of Christ. We never learned to be family.
I’ve met more than my fair share of people who have tasted of the work of the Spirit in a series of meetings but were never raised to maturity in Christ. Some of them have even grown bitter and disillusioned by the phrases revival and awakening because in the end, though that season was great, the end goal they were hoping for never came about. Many of them never became part of a true spiritual family. Many were just individuals in a meeting during the season of revival. And while I’m in awe of the numbers of people who came to Christ during this move of the Spirit, my heart aches for those who grew disillusioned when the meetings ended because their hopes were deferred and their hearts were sick.
This wasn’t the last revival that this has happened. Several others have happened in the time since. And to differing degrees, a similar story emerges.
Friends, Jesus has a plan for His church. He is both the one who draws us to Himself and the One who builds His church. He is the one who is fashioning His church into nets that won’t break under pressure.
We’ll talk more about what that looks like tomorrow…
*Out of honor for the place(s) described above, I’ve remained intentionally vague about details.
Awakening, Harvest, and Broken Nets (Part 1)
I believe the best days for the church are still ahead of us. Not only is the church going to become the pure and spotless bride that Scripture predicts, but the harvest of souls that the church will see in the coming years will be greater than any hour of history*.
So I’m the last guy who wants to persuade Christians to stop praying for revival and for lost souls to come to Christ. I believe we need to pray more, not less, and boldly ask the Lord for an awakening both here in the West and around the globe.
But I think we should stop and think about what we are asking for Jesus for when we pray. Awakening in the church and a harvest of souls is not a bad thing. But the reality of the situation is I don’t think we’re ready for the kind of awakening we’re praying and dreaming about, let alone the one He desires to give. This question gets to the heart of the matter:
What will we do once it arrives?
And I mean that seriously. Most of the church currently is seeing little true conversion happening. So we’re not used to discipling brand new believers who’ve never known Christ. We have a tough time with the one or two a year that typically come in. But what happens when the number of new believers in your church is equal to the number of established believers in your church? Or what happens if the number of new believers in your church is double that of the size of your current congregation so that “mature” believers are outnumbered two to one?
This isn’t just an issue of capacity (meaning do we have enough room in the building?), but how do we teach them to follow Jesus? How do we deal with casting out demons and dealing with their issues they bring to the body? How do the believers in the church deal with the strain that so many new believers places on the body?
Perhaps a story from the life of Jesus can help illustrate this. In Luke 5, some of the disciples were out fishing and Jesus used their boat to preach to a crowd that had gathered. Unfortunately, the catch of fish the night had not been that great. They had caught nothing. Jesus instructed Peter to cast his nets on the other side of the boat. Peter was in disbelief and even told Jesus that it wouldn’t work, but reluctantly followed Jesus’ command.
When the disciples cast their nets onto the other side of the boat, the catch of fish was so incredibly large that their nets began to tear. Peter gets appropriately freaked out and even asks Jesus to leave! This was a supernatural sign to Peter. But Jesus tells Peter “Don’t be afraid Peter. From now on you’ll be a fisher of men.” This last prediction of Jesus tells me this was more than just a sign to show Peter who Jesus was, but a sign to show Peter the kind of ministry he was to have.
I believe we are entering into days where the harvest of unbelievers will be great. But the nets (the church, at least in general, in the West), is not prepared for those days. We, like Peter, expect to catch something, but not nearly as much as Jesus will bring, and so we bring nets that can’t handle the catch. And it puts us in danger of losing the harvest.
Are you praying for revival for the church and awakening among the lost? Good! But we as the church need to prepare in faith for the days ahead. What will happen when it truly comes? Are we ready? Or does how we disciple, meet, and do mission need to change so our nets don’t break on that day? I believe it does.
We’ll talk more about that over the next couple of days…
Photo Credit: An Old Fishing Net by Sam Cox
*I believe this both from a biblical prophecy standpoint and from a sheer demographics standpoint. More people will be alive on the planet in this century than than any other.
Cluster Map
Pursuing Glory 