Do you Want revival? Do you Want God to pour out his glory and transform your family, your city, your nation? God wants that too! At the center of everything is the greatest love story of all time where Jesus pursues His Bride, and we respond. Personally and corporately, our focus must be on our own love for Jesus and on His deep love for the lost. This love sparks hunger in us for God and for His Kingdom to come on earth, for revival to break forth.
Love makes us want more of His presence. Love bubbles over, and we can’t help but tell people about the One we love. We begin to feel God’s heart for people, and we are filled with compassion for their situations. We get filled with faith knowing God wants to heal them, bring their breakthroughs, and make Himself known in tangible ways. Love makes us want revival—an awakening of whole communities to see who God is and to fall in love with Jesus.
As we pray for revival, there are practical things we can do to position ourselves and our churches. One of the ways we can prepare is by studying other revivals. John and Carol Arnott have written this incredible book, Preparing for the Glory, about their personal journey in God and about the Toronto Blessing, a powerful revival that began at their church in 1994. The book details their pursuit for revival then and now.
They also share their research on historical revivals and on anointed men and women of God who taught them along the way. In each revival, there is a particular aspect of God that He wants to reveal to the Church. It is important to look for what God is highlighting in each great movement. We want to learn and receive everything He is revealing to us!
John and Carol have found tools and keys that they share throughout the book. They give us practical things that have helped them and many others in their church to have encounters with God and grow in intimacy with Him. God loves when we “tarry” in His presence through soaking, worship, and reading His Word. Being intentional with our time is a huge key to seeing revival.
God also loves when we release our need for control and allow Him to do whatever He wants in and through us. Even if we fall over or look strange, He wants us to be willing to be filled by Him, no matter the cost. God loves us, so He wants to be with us. He wants us to focus our attention on Him and to position our lives toward Him. In doing this, we make ourselves ready for revival.
In addition to preparing individually, we need to be part of a community with the same passion for God. John, Carol, Rolland, and I and a small group of other leaders formed the Revival Alliance, a group set on meeting together to pray for and pursue revival. We meet together each year and host conferences to corporately ask God what He wants to do in our generation and position ourselves and our movements for more of Him.
Unity is another crucial key for revival, so part of the purpose of Revival Alliance is to bring our movements together. We have different specific missions and characteristics but the same Father, the same passion for Christ, and the same Holy Spirit. We cheer each other on in our victories and encourage each other when we go through challenging times.
I urge you to meet with others who have similar hearts and who also want more of God in your locality. God created us for family and community! John and Carol also encourage spending time visiting places, experiencing revival, and asking God to give you a personal encounter. You are welcome to apply to come visit Mozambique. We would love to have you come and participate in what God is doing and experience more of Him. I’m sure John and Carol would welcome you to come visit Toronto and pray for God to meet you there. Myself and countless others have had life-changing encounters on that carpet; it is a very special place.
John and Carol and their teams have received many prophetic words and dreams for the next wave of revival. They are actively praying for this and seeing it. They sense that God wants to release a revival of holiness. Holiness is something that many have misunderstood or pushed aside. Our culture and society are fighting hard against us in this regard, tempting individuals and communities worldwide with compromises and gray areas.
Certain movements in the church have even believed the lie that grace is freely available so we can do whatever we please and our sins don’t really matter. True grace actually empowers us to live holy lives. The more we fall in love with Jesus, the more we want our lives to please His heart. We want to be like Him; we do not want any compromise or any areas that His light hasn’t touched in our hearts.
We want to give everything to the One we love; we want every word, every action, every decision to please His heart because of love. Holiness is not a burden or a chore; it becomes our joy.
John and Carol are the perfect people to share with us about what it looks like and what it feels like to see revival, both how to prepare and how to respond. Even after experiencing so much in God and hosting one of the most impactful revivals in our generation, they are continuously preparing themselves and their church for another, greater wave.
John and Carol are passionate people who have no intention of stopping or settling. They know full well that there is always more. It is a great privilege and honor to count them as some of my closest friends. Jesus says we will do greater things than He did. Most of us have not seen or experienced that yet, but we want to, and we know that everything He says is true.
Jesus is so in love with you. He wants more of you; do you want more of Him? I encourage you to read this book and allow God to stir up more hunger in you for revival. I have personally been impacted by the Lord in this revival in a way that has caused me to fall more in love with Jesus and courageously pursue His purposes in my life, to find the lost and the broken and bring them home to Jesus and the Father.
I pray that you will also be transformed forever as you allow Him to encounter you and fill you to overflowing. He has amazing things for you and for your community beyond what you could ask or imagine. So you’d better Prepare for the Glory, because it is coming!
Copyright © 2018 Destiny Image Heidi G. Baker, PhD Co-founder and CEO of Iris Global, and bestselling author of Living from the Presence
