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What Hinders Revival Once It's Started? Part 2: Sectarianism, Legalism, Misdirected Zeal

Satan is not sovereign. He cannot thwart what God intends. When God chooses to revive, He will. Yet while God is sovereign, we are responsible to respond to His Spirit in repentance, obedience, and faith. God moves; we respond. That’s revival. That’s the Christian life. So how does Satan try to disrupt revival? One day, he’ll launch a final assault against Christ and His people, leading the nations to rebel against the holy city (Rev. 20:7–9). He will fail then, just as he fails now when he attacks God’s people head-on. But he succeeds through subtler means. One of his most effective tactics is the divide-and-conquer tactic—especially in the weeks and months after revival begins. Here are some of the ways we unknowingly join him in undermining God’s work. 1. Sectarianism Sectarianism occurs when loyalty to a subgroup becomes divisive, leading to suspicion, rivalry, and exclusion. One group thinks they’re more spiritual because they raise their hands—or because they don’t. They sing h...
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What kills revival once it's started? Part 1: Neglect Of Daily Disciplines

We’ve just come through an incredible week with Life Action and the Thirst Conference. God worked powerfully in many hearts. But now comes the question: how do we keep living in that spirit of revival instead of sliding back into “normal” Christianity until the next big event? Some might say revival can’t be hindered — that once God starts something, nothing can stop it. But Scripture tells a different story. The letters to the churches in Revelation, for instance, show that God’s work among His people can be resisted or neglected. Time and again in the Bible, revival was lost because God’s people drifted. I believe we can hinder revival after we’ve experienced it. Over the next few posts, I’ll share three common ways that happens. Here’s the first: 1. Neglecting Daily Disciplines — Bible Reading, Prayer, and Soul Care Revival is simply the manifestation of God’s presence and power among His people. But where is His presence most real to us? Not in the excitement of an event, but in ou...
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Disciples Are Not Made In Class

For a couple of years, we called our disciple-making groups CORE groups. Robby Gallaty and Replicate ministries call theirs D-Groups. Everyone has their own nomenclature and reasons for it, but most of these groups share some things in common: small, same-gender, weekly groups whose purpose is to help their members grow into the image of Christ. We formed a disciple-making strategy team, worked through and prayed through a great deal of material, and finally came down to "What are we going to call these groups?" There were many suggestions, but I can't remember one except DLT. I remember one team member who said, "Well, let's call them doing life together groups. That's what disciple-making is. That's what it takes." That's how we got there. DLT groups are small groups of 3-5 people of the same gender who want to grow into the image of Christ together. They meet weekly, read and interact over scripture together, pray together, hold one another ac...
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Huge Opportunity To Reach Sabine Parish Families With Children

There are many families with children in Sabine Parish. There are 4,141 students in Sabine Parish schools, 6,353 under the age of 18, 29% of the parish population, and approximately 3,000 households with children. So, there are plenty of unreached families with children to reach. There are many churches in Sabine Parish. 70 churches. 1 church for every 313 people. Abilene, Texas brags about the highest per capita churches at 1 for every 563. The national average is 1 for every 1015. We beat the averages. So, we don't need more churches in Sabine Parish, but we do need more biblically sound churches, filled and controlled by God's Spirit, who are committed to God's mission, and who train their members to reach the unreached in our parish. There are far fewer people attending church in Sabine Parish. 7,000 people attend church, between 3,500 and 5,000 on any given Sunday. That attendance is half what it was 25 years ago. So, we need to make disciples, not just converts. Disc...
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You don't have to prove God exists.

I n my opinion, we don't have to prove God exists. I've always been intimidated by brilliant people on both sides of the faith divide. Unbelievers who create and raise doubt, questioning the Bible's truthfulness and historicity, intimidate me because I spent over a decade of my life on their side. I have no intention of ever returning to unbelief, nor do I honestly believe I can since the Father keeps all He has given to the Son. Still, I fear becoming useless in my faith, by getting caught up in a web of doubt fueled by human intellect. Believers who can debate the skeptic sometimes make me uncomfortable. As I once did, I wonder if Christian debaters develop a debating mindset rather than a proclaiming mindset. They also often intimidate me because they are so adept in an area I struggle with. I have no doubt God calls and equips each of us in a unique way in order to accomplish His will, so I don't judge or condemn apologists. One of them, John Lennox, is a particular...
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Why are some churches full and some empty?

This is not a full analysis of growing and shrinking churches. It's just something I've thought about as I've listened to people talk and listened to myself think about the size of churches. I heard a Revivalist say the Spirit of God was clearly moving because the church was packed and the altar full. I listened to another when there were only a few that week at the church’s revival meetings say, “Well, we don’t have many, so God must be getting’ rid of the weeds so the wheat can grow. The real revival is just around the corner.” A Reformed preacher said his church was growing because the elect were hungry for the true gospel, and the preaching of correct doctrine was bringing them. Another Reformer told me he didn’t care that his congregation had shrunk. He would rather pastor a small group of the regenerated rather than a church full of the unregenerate. It seems that regardless of theological bent, we need to explain the numbers. A good shepherd will spend his days t...
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The Good News (Part 3): God's grace and our sinning.

God is gracious, but that's not why his grace is available to you. It's available because God is righteous, just, and compassionate. He is righteous because He cannot and will not tolerate sin. He's just because He's promised His wrath on all sins and sinners. He is compassionate because He's sacrificed His Son to satisfy His righteousness and justness. That's why His grace is available.  You will never, ever deserve His compassionate grace, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," (Rom. 3:23). You will never, ever  do anything to deserve it because all of us who receive it "are justified freely by his grace," (Rom. 3:24a) You will never, ever love Him enough to deserve it, but He loved you more than enough to give it, proving "His own love for us in that while we were still sinners," in that, "Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8) God is actually glorified by the greatness of the sin He forgives, Paul writing th...
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