This is from the blog The White Man:

INDIANA REVIVAL REPORT:  DAY 11

On January 22, 2015, billboards started going up in Elkhart County, Indiana, proclaiming; REVIVAL IS HERE. The night before, hundreds of students from six local high schools gathered on the stage to be prayed for. The youth pastors who had brought them filled the center aisle. What was the reason for this gathering?

It had just been reported that the principals of two local high schools–one public, one private–had released their students to participate in the revival. And before the night was over, a text arrived from the board of another public school proclaiming the same thing.

One of the students on the stage was wearing a sweaty soccer uniform, because he’d skipped showering after the game in order not to miss another 10 minutes of the meeting. That morning, as soon as he’d heard that school was cancelled due to a heavy fog, he hurried in to join the dozens of groups going out to pray across the county. He’d prayed at three homes already before noon, and invited a young man at one of them to join the meetings for the rest of the day–who did. Then it was off the the soccer game and right back to the house of meeting.

We are now on the 11th straight sixteen-hour day of corporate worship, intense prayer, and scattering into the community to pray with anyone who wants it. WFRN-FM has been carrying the services every single night, and people are tuning in from 50, 60 miles away–and worldwide by internet. One woman who watched the online videos at reviveindiana.org wasn’t able to get out of her house until she prayed along with a healing prayer on the video, and 24 hours later her back pain and inflammation was totally gone–so of course she was present in person at the next meeting!

This is an unusual revival in two ways: first, there are no altar calls, and very little preaching on repentance. The assumption is that the church in Elkhart County already has the Holy Spirit, and all they have to do is go out into the community and spread Him around. The focus is on first praying for whatever felt need is expressed, then, with the discernment of the Holy Spirit, leading each contact through a five-verse plan of salvation, giving them a New Testament, and making a commitment to follow up within 24 hours.

Secondly, healing is a primary result of this revival. Not a focus; no one is ever prayed for unless he requests it. But many are requesting healing, and they are getting it. And it’s not happening up on stage–its happening in homes, parking lots, and sidewalks all over the community. No one claims to have a gift of healing, but when they pray, they’re seeing people healed–often to their own amazement. And it’s not just physical healing; bondages are being shattered.

Hundreds of people are testifying that the Holy Spirit is moving in and through them. Doors are opening. Walls are coming down. More and more churches, having had their premises visited by prayer teams the first week, are coming on board. The overflow room has overflowed. Last night, simultaneous Spanish translation was offered for the first time.  At the rate things are going, there soon won’t be a building in Elkhart County big enough to hold the crowds–they may just have to move to the arena at the County Fairgrounds, which never hosts an outdoor crowd this time of year.

This has the makings of the first nationwide revival in over 100 years. And there are still over 40 days to go.

Tomorrow I’ll write about the building that’s about to be outgrown.

The Revival Hymn
Obedience to the Promptings of the Spirit (1904 Welsh Revival)
A Providential Ride to Manhattan Kansas
Coming Revival
Revival Now–but what follows?
How God solved a marriage problem

About a week ago I hitchhiked from West Yellowstone to Belgrade, Montana.  From Belgrade I started walking west on I-90.  I walked a mile or two and these two young guys picked me up and dropped me off in Whitehall.

I tried thumbing west on the interstate, but the Lord told me to shut it down for the day.  So I walked into Whitehall and spent the rest of the day at the library.

Whenever I go to the library, I check my two blogs and/or any emails.  I usually spend the rest of my time reading other blogs—mostly Christian blogs.

I stayed there at the library in Whitehall till after 7 PM.  I then walked to this convenience store across the street from the railroad tracks.  I left my backpack outside and walked inside to get a cup of coffee.

I was now down to my last six bucks, a half a loaf of bread and a can of soup.  A small number of customers came and went from the convenience store as I slowly sipped on my coffee.

I really don’t care for coffee, but in the winter time, a hot cup of joe warms up the bones.  I usually put a lot of cream and sugar in my coffee for the extra calories.  I would much rather drink hot tea, if it is available.  I noticed on the weather forecast that it might get down to 18 degrees F, so that was my ulterior motive for buying a 24 ounce cup of coffee.

After I finished my coffee, I walked outside to my backpack.  I saw what looked like two dollars stuffed into one of my straps on the top of my pack.  I was pleasantly surprised.  I walked back into the convenience store and told the lady at the cash register about the two bucks that I found on top of my pack.  She smiled and I bought some hot popcorn for a dollar.  On closer examination, I noticed that it was three dollars that someone had given me.  I was very grateful.

After I finished my popcorn, I walked back outside, lifted my backpack onto my shoulders and walked a couple of blocks to the east.  I then crossed the railroad tracks and towards the rodeo grounds.  I found a machine shed on the outskirts of town.  Someone had obviously kept some cattle or horses in that shed:  I found a little stall with some hay on the ground.  I shook and scattered the hay on the ground (for insulation), unrolled my two sleeping bags on top of the hay, crawled inside my bags and eventually fell asleep.  It was a cozy and warm place to sleep for the night.

The next morning, I had a few pieces of bread and a can of cold soup.  I then headed to the convenience store and bought a small cup of coffee.

I then walked back to I-90 where I stood on the side of the road for maybe half an hour.

I started to get cold, so I started walking west.  I walked for around two miles and this tractor-trailer pulled over.  I ran up to the cab and opened the door.  The truck driver grabbed my backpack and I climbed up into the cab.

This guy’s name was Walentin and he was originally from Russia.  He spoke some English.  I told him that I was a Christian; he said that he was also a Christian and that he went to a Pentecostal church in the state of Washington.

We didn’t talk a whole lot because his English wasn’t so good.  We drove west through Butte.  We drove past this sign near Garrison which read “Jesus Christ is Lord over this valley”.  Walentin pointed at the sign, smiled and gave me a thumbs up and I said “Praise the Lord!”

Walentin dropped me off in Missoula.  I walked to the library where I spent fifteen minutes on the internet.  I then walked across town to Brooks Avenue.

I had just walked past the McDonald’s when this young man ran up to me carrying a white sack.

“This is for you,” he said.  He gave me the sack and ran back to the McDonald’s.

“Thank you and God bless you,” I replied as I looked back at the McDonald’s.  I was very grateful.

I walked to this gas station where I set my backpack down.  I sat down on my backpack and looked inside the sack.  There were three sandwiches:  two double cheeseburgers and a chicken sandwich.

I began eating  a cheeseburger when this lady walked over to me.  She had been filling up her vehicle with gas when I arrived at the gas station.  She asked me what I was doing.  I told her that I was hitchhiking and that I was headed to Lolo.  She said that she could give me a ride.  So I grabbed my pack, put it in her vehicle and we drove off.

Her name was Shannon and she told me that she used to live in Driggs, Idaho.  I told her that I had hitchhiked through Driggs many times over the years.  I told her that I used to stay with a couple of friends in Victor whenever I passed through, but their house burned down back in 2012 and one of my friends died in the fire; his dad barely escaped the fire with his life.

“You knew George and Mike?” Shannon asked, a bit surprised.

“Sure did.  Mike is related to some friends of mine that live in Jackson, Wyoming.  George and Mike let me sleep on the kitchen floor whenever I came through town.”

“A lot of people knew George.  We hung out at the same bar in Victor.  There were a lot of wet eyes in the Driggs area when people found out that George died in the fire.”

Shannon drove to this store where she bought some dog food.  I helped her carry a bag of dog food to her vehicle.  We then headed south to Lolo.  She dropped me off at this gas station at the intersection of U.S. 93 and U.S. 12 and we said goodbye.

I walked west on U.S. 12 for a mile or so and camped in a shed near the river that night.

Hitchhiking Stories from Digihitch

The Power of Christ to Overcome all Sin Within You.  (Letter XII)

FRIEND,

I have had of late some deep and serious thoughts concerning you, and a sense of you, as between the Lord and my own soul, yet I have not had anything to signify or express to you, until this morning. But something this morning sprang up in my heart, sweetly and freshly, which I had pure drawings to impart to you.

There was a quick sense of you upon my heart, and in that sense this cry was in me: – Oh! that you were acquainted with the pure, eternal power of the Lord, and might feel his outstretched arm revealed in you, and witness the faith which stands in that power; and in that faith, believe and wait for what God is doing, and willing to do, in and for his children.

“If you had faith,” said Christ, “but as a grain of mustard seed, you should say to this mountain, be you cast into the midst of the sea, and it should be so.” Indeed, the true faith, the pure faith, the living faith, which stands in the power, does remove all the mountains that are in the way, and makes the crooked ways straight, and the rough ways plain. If you had lived in the days of Christ’s flesh, and wanted outward healing, and had been willing to come to him for healing, but had not come with faith that he was able and willing to heal perfectly; might  not you have missed of that cleansing and outward health and salvation, which others met with? For, did not he say, “Be it unto you according to your faith?” And is not he the Physician of the soul and is not his skill to be trusted and believed in? He that hopes, and believes, and waits, and prays, and fights the good fight of faith, which gives victory over sin, Satan, and the world – he may possibly overcome; yes, he that wars lawfully, (that is, with the spiritual weapon, which is mighty through God,) he that wars with this only, and with this constantly, shall be sure to overcome. For, greater is He that is in the true believer, than he that is in the world. O that you might have experience of these things, and witness the manner of  Christ’s love and power displayed in you, and the victories and conquests that come by these, and the safety and peace which is under it! For, of a truth, we do not boast, but are witnesses of the majesty of God’s love and power, which we testify of. The Lord to enlighten and guide you, that you may obtain the desires of your heart; for, I really believe your desire is after holiness and after communion with the Father and the Son, and with the saints in light, Oh that you may be led into the true pure light of life, that there you may enjoy what in this kind you desire! This is from one, who singly, as in the Lord’s sight, wishes well unto you.

–Isaac Penington

Reading Jail,

27th of Eighth  Month, 1679

The Letters of Isaac Penington
From the Treatise On Spiritual Perfection by Diadochus
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

This is from the blog My Dreams and Visions:

I do not think I have ever posted anything like this before so here goes. Yesterday. 01/10/2015 I was laying in bed when I got what I will call a vision of a massive earthquake hitting Japan. I do not know the exact date but I sense that it could be soon.  This kept bugging me for 2 days so I am posting it and going out on a limb of faith that I am hearing the Lord on this one. If I get anything further, I will post it to this posting.

Bereshith

This is from the blog Daily Meditation:

Job 13:5: Oh that you would keep silent, and it would be your wisdom!

Silence was used as a weapon of warfare when the children of Israel wanted to take over Jericho (Judges 6). For days they marched on God’s instruction around that impregnable wall, not saying a word.

They allowed their feet to speak of their intention to conquer Jericho and not their mouth. That is why it was said that action speaks louder than words.

When you act on the word of God, you do not need to shout for you to have result. Jesus told some servants to fetch water into certain containers to resupply wine to a wedding party. They did not need to say anything, except obey that instruction (John 2:1-11). They did not argue, wondering what their efforts have to do with the result they expect. They expected wine, but Jesus was asking them to walk and work, carrying burdens. And to carry burdens is the biblical symbolism for intercession.

The children of Israel wanted to conquer Jericho but they were asked to walk about it with the soldiers with their weapon, with the priest with the ark and some people ready to blow trumpets.

All of which means confrontation, but not of the verbal but spiritual kind. The soldiers with their weapon, reflects what happens in the realm of the spirit with the angelic warriors against the enemy.

The ark stands for the presence of God which is for the nation of Israel and against their enemy. And the trumpet is the divine word released for a change of season for the children of Israel. The three shows what is happening in the realm of the unseen. They are weapons of warfare, which the children of Israel were executing while their mouths were shut. It was spiritual. They acted on the word of God and those were the forces released through their silence. It creates the atmosphere for God to work. Silence says you trust God to act. It is a statement of faith in God. And the bible says that this is the victory which overcomes the world, even our faith.

The servants were to fetch water in six pots, and the children of Israel were made to go round Jericho for six days. The number six is the number of creation, standing for the six days the earth was made with man in it. Therefore in silence the creative force is unleashed.

What happened with the water turning into wine was nothing less than creation. And what the children of Israel got at the end of the journey around Jericho was negative creation, they needed something that had been formed, created/setup by the enemy to become non-existent. The needed the wall to fall before them.

It takes the force of creation to destroy what is. The enemy wants to keep the children of Israel out of what God had ordained for them. But they got in through the gate of silence.

Silence was wisdom, because it was what God commanded. They acted on God’s word and that made it effective. The silence was in obedience to God and they moved mountain because of that.

The wrong use of the mouth is sometimes worse than no use. That is what the story of Zechariah taught. Angel Gabriel came to Zechariah to announce the birth of his children, but instead of receiving the good news with excitement, he was sceptical (Luke 1).

He said how can these things be? Though he had prayed, he had stopped waiting, and when the gift of the child wanted was brought by the angel, he almost worked in disagreement. But to prevent that from happening, he was made dump.

God used the silence to move him from using his mouth wrongly to not using it well. And the next time he opened it to speak, he spoke the name of the child, which was followed by prophecies about the child. He was fully aligned with the mind of God. Silence (though enforced) changed him.

When Job was sick, and he complained against God, at the end of it all, when God had his own say, Job said that he had said things he did not understand, and thought he needed to repent. That would not be necessary if he had shut up earlier on (Job 42:1-6).

David prayed that the words of his mouth and the meditation of his mouth should be acceptable to God (Psalm 19:14). Sometimes what is acceptable is silence.

When Jesus was arrested and was being prosecuted for doing nothing wrong, he refused to put up a defence of himself, he did not attempt to try to get out of the situation. He was silent as a lamb before his slaughterer as it was prophesied he would (Isaiah 53:7).

His silence was a weapon of warfare which led to the end of the devil as an authority on the earth, at least in the ultimate sense. Through death he destroyed him who has the power of death, the devil.

If Jesus had defended himself the whole plan of salvation would have been aborted. Remember he is the creator, the word through whom the world was created (Hebrews 11:3, John 1:1-5, Colossians 1:16).

When the soldier came to pick him up at the garden of gethsemane, and Peter in defence of him took a sword and cut off one ear of someone there, Jesus put back the ear and said he could pray to his father to release more than twelve legions of angels there and it would be done (John 18:36, Matthew 26:47-56).

Later he said, this is the hour and power of darkness (Luke 22:47-53). He allowed himself to be walked on in order to fulfil his calling to be the Lamb of God, and make us walk in the high places (Ephesians 1:3).

So his silence is a symbol of sacrifice. So also you are called to make sacrifice to be all God wants you to be. If Jesus had his way maybe he would not have gone all the way to the cross, but he was commitment to the will of God and that demanded sacrifice.

There are direction you will not go, things you will not do, because of your commitment to the will of God.

Paul said everything is lawful to him but not everything is necessary, not everything edifies, not everything is beneficial, helpful, and not everything moves you in the direction of the plan and purposes of God. You cannot be everything, you cannot do everything. You therefore have to be “silent” to many things (1Corinthians 6:12; 10:23).

The bible recommended that wives use the weapon of silence to win over their unbelieving husbands (1Peter 3:1-6). They are to use the ornament of a quiet spirit, not being quarrelsome but submissive as a force of attraction. So in the battle to win the soul of the husband the “weapon of silence” is recommended. It is wisdom.

When you are quiet not agitated it means you are trusting in God. Those who trust in God are like mount Zion that cannot be removed (Psalm 125:1). That means there is no defence like silence. The bible rebuked those who trust in man as against trusting in God, saying that there place will be in the parched places of the earth, they cut themselves from the help of God (Jeremiah 17:5-8).

Paul wrote that the God of peace will soon crush the devil under our feet (Romans 16:20). When we walk in peace we have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace and that is part of the armour of God that we wear in our conflict with the principalities and powers (Ephesians 6:10-12). Peace is a weapon of warfare. Silence is holding your peace (Exodus 14:14), which gives the platform for God to fight for you.

Why Silence?
The Art of War

Revelation 2: 24:  “But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden.”

Since October of 2014, I have been going through a deeper deliverance.  When a demon comes out of your body, it can be very painful (Mark 9: 26:  “And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead.”).  Parts of my body became very sore in late October and early November—I call this New Testament Circumcision.  The pain became unbearable around my eyes and the front of my head, so I had to take some ibuprofen for two to three weeks.  My left eye was horribly blood-shot and then, a week later, my right eye became very blood-shot.  The body can go through a lot of stress while going through deliverance.

Why did the demon or demons come out?  In my experience, a demon will come out of my body when I obey the Lord in something He has told me to do—especially if it is something I really don’t want to do.  The demons that came out of my body since October, I believe, came out because some curse was broken.  A curse is like a prison sentence:  when the prison sentence is finished, the curse is broken—I would call this strategic deliverance.  I believe it could have been a generational curse (sins of my ancestors).  I went through six deliverance sessions back in 1988 and 1989 and was delivered of some demons—I would call this tactical deliverance.

When a demon comes out, there can be much coughing, choking and gasping for air or there can be much sneezing with a lot of phlegm coming out of your sinuses or your lungs.  I have heard of people vomiting when going through deliverance, but I don’t think that has ever happened to me.

I am very grateful that the Lord is continuing to purify my body and soul of demonic bondage (I don’t believe a Christian can have a demon in his spirit), so that my life will be a more powerful witness for the Lord.  “Work out your salvation with fear trembling.”(Philippians 2:12)  As of today, my right eye is slightly blood-shot and I haven’t had any severe pain in over two weeks.

Isaiah 10: 27:  “. . . and the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing.”

Matthew 17:18-21:  ” And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.  Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out?  And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.  Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.”

Hebrews 6:1-3:  “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this will we do, if God permit.”

New Testament Circumcision
Obedience:  The Bondage Breaker
The Deeper Work of the Cross by Watchman Nee
4 Kinds of Curses
spiritualwarzone
Classic Demon Possession
Abba Daniel: “how the pride of the devil is brought low”

Genesis:  Garments from the Garden of God – Trey Smith