Has the church become numb ...

As a physician I use lidocaine all the time to numb the skin prior to any simple surgical procedure. The medication initially dulls and then prevents any nerve pain sensation transmission for a short period of time. Has the present day church become numb? Has rationalism and progressive secularism worldview so infiltrated the hearts and minds of the church that it has produced what I call a lidocaine effect?  It distorts and blurs perception. The true and false are no longer recognizable. Therefore they exist together battling for prominence in expression through our belief system.

The church has become dull of hearing.

We have prayed earnestly for revival or renewal for years  In my local area Pastors and Church Leadership throughout the city have gathered together in prayer meetings and local conferences where prophetic words have been delivered concerning the coming revival. Faith, prayer, and intercession  for the revival is not lacking.  Promises God has made to individual leadership throughout the years are declared and decreed from local pulpits. Anticipation for a revelation of God is the norm. So we sing a little louder. Sermons are delivered with more passion. Worship services occasionally go longer than the allotted 20 minutes infringing on the announcements. Altar services and calls have become in vouge again.

Yet will we recognize revival when it comes?

I am not sure if the majority of God's people will be able to recognize, acknowledge , let alone be willing to participate in revival. We have become dull of hearing. Unbelief in the supernatural has pervasive effects on he faith expression of many Christians limiting their response of acceptance to revival fire. As long as God moves in ways that He has in the past or that has been documented in the revival record of Christian historians, it is acceptable and permitted expression.

My Pastor, Bishop Tommy Reid,  has always been a man who has instilled in me the process to seek and embrace the Presence of God. Throughout my past 30 years as a Christian, I have seen the church go through many conflicts and disagreements as he has led the congregation into following after God's Presence. Recently he made a statement that has echoed through my thoughts. He said, "As the Charismatic Movement transformed the church culture, the next move of God will transform society"

"As the Charismatic Movement transformed the church culture, the next move of God will transform society"

 by Bishop Tommy Reid

God always has a way of showing up in unexpected ways. To Moses it was a burning bush. To Pharaoh it was a smelly shepherd clothed in torn wilderness garments wielding the power of God. To Goliath and Saul, it was a simple unadorned teenage boy with a sling shot. To Eli it was a little boy he was babysitting. To the Jews it was a King baby born in a manger.

God never uses the majority or the familiar and  accepted to birth a reviavl.

God chooses the unexpected, the unfamiliar, the unacceptable, at times the offensive and untrained to speak His voice to a people or a denomination or even a nation. If the next move of God is to transform society, as it develops, the friction between the new, unacceptable and unfamiliar ways eroding into the old mindset and actions will produce conflict. This conflict will naturally produce controversy in the Body of Christ.

Jesus said, Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and daughter against her mother, and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's enemies will be members of his household. ... Matt. 10:34-

Over 30 years ago, I left the Baptist camp theologically and embraced the baptism of the Holy Spirit in an Assemblies of God church. I was involved in a conservative youth ministry which had a christian bookstore on their premises. Books with a charismatic or pentecostal viewpoint were placed on the Cult bookshelf (Although the Senior Minister at that time had no problem with Pentecostals coming to his weekly evangelistic meeting where he took the offering to meet his daily expenses). I vividly remember the night when the senior minister took me aside to discuss where I was going to church.  I told him-The Tabernacle a local Assemblies of God church where the Charismatic Movement was occurring. He took several minutes to share with me his concern.  In his mind, there was a deception taking place in the Charismatic Movement and it was called the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. There was so much controversy over at that church.  People were speaking in tongues.  His theology dictated that tongues had ceased.  And to participate with any of the events and activities at that church was leading me into error. For the first time I understood what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 10.

 When revival does come to our nation or to our communities it may not be in the form that you are expecting. Could it be that God comes in and unfashionable way to challenge the hearts of his people? The prize of this movement is not to have signs and wonders occur in your church or in your life, the prize is to seek the face of God with passion.  Once passion is ignited in your life, faith is mixed with the Word of God, signs and wonders will follow.