Why We Don't Need Another Azusa Street Revival

I knew that title would get your attention so before you read me the riot act, let us go over some historical facts. The Azusa Street Revival was mainly about seeking the manifestation of tongues through the baptism of the Spirit. As a result of fasting and praying, William Seymour received this gift along with other manifestations of God's Spirit. I started to think about what happened in that upper room the first time the disciples received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. 

When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2:1-4)

As you can see this wondrous gift came from heaven. I thought about the curious misunderstanding many of us have about the baptism of the Spirit. Many believe that if you don't speak in tongues you are not "spirit filled." How can this be? If Jesus lives in us doesn't that mean we are "Spirit filled." For those who consider ourselves "Spirit filled" Let me ask you something... does the Holy Spirit come from above or from within? Remember that we are on the other side of the prophecy by Joel, "‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh." 

(Acts 2:17)

On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was poured out from above on all flesh. As believers He comes from within. The Holy Spirit baptism is only granting the Holy Spirit permission for manifestation. He already lives in us. When I got baptized in the Spirit for the first time, it bubbled up from my belly and came flowing out my mouth like a river. 

He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:38)

My point is this...we are already Pentecostal! Some of us not only speak in tongues but prophesy and heal the sick. We have what they received on Azusa Street already. What we need is the Welsh Revival. I'm not trying to sound partial here but the Welsh Revival caused national change. The bars no longer had drunks, the policeman had nothing to do and workers stopped their swearing. Here are four keys that caused the Welsh Revival success!

1. Confess all known sin

2. Deal with and get rid of anything ‘doubtful’ in your life

3. Be ready to obey the Holy Spirit instantly

4. Confess Christ publicly

The first key and most highly contested of all...is the message of repentance! My friends there is a great push right now to do away with the message of repentance but without it men cannot enter a relationship with God. You can say the sinner's prayer but without repentance it is not a true conversion. Jesus never asked people to pray the sinners prayer but He did ask people to repent, deny themselves and follow Him.

Secondly, another message that is also being contested, is dealing with sin in the life of believers. Compromise runs rampant in the church while some deny the existence of sin! The bible says that if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 1 John 1:8 

The third key is being obedient to the Holy Spirit. Doesn't seem life changing but if a Christian just prayed and obeyed what the Holy Spirit told them they would be doing the "greater works!" Someone being led of the Holy Spirit would be executing the commissioning of Mark 16:15-18. We forget the Holy Spirit came so that we would become witnesses! 

I was talking to fellow friend and revivalist Chad Taylor this week when I shared this observation. If 120 people turned the world upside down when they left the upper room why can't a stadium full of Christians change America? I have seen thousands upon thousands of Christians in those mega churches on TV, yet things remain unchanged. Why?

I am going to tell you why. We have not left the upper room! We still have not executed key number four...the public confession of Christ. I will even go further by saying that it is the lack of the powerful demonstration of genuine love, and a holy lifestyle that people aren't convicted to live for God. Honestly, if your lifestyle does not convict anyone than you have not followed through with keys number two and three. People fail to see that the largest reason for the success of the Welsh Revival was key number four! They had massive conversions because they went all over Wales bringing the genuine message of repentance. They saw thousands come to Christ. This is what caused national change!

My friends, if we are going to see America return to God we need to stop chasing after manifestations, signs and wonders. We need to be more concerned with the character of Christ being formed in us. There are way too many messages that focus on self. As I spent reading 1 Corinthians 13; I realized that we can claim to have a revival but it still may not hold any weight. Why? Because outside of the motivation of love all we have is the people in Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ 

God is not impressed with all the supposed sacrifice, manifestations, tongues, prophecy, martyrdom, knowledge, degrees, and good deeds we may claim we do. Outside of the motivation of love which compels us to obey Him, our works are nothing short of annoying and unprofitable. If we are going to truly bring change in the short time we have here on earth we must make it our goal to actively have a public confession of Christ that represents who He really is. Jesus was a love revolutionary! Let's become one too!

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As in the Days of Noah

“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. 37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
(Matthew 24:36-39)

Prophesying of the end of the age, Jesus gives a prophetic picture of the last days before His coming. He compares the last days as "as the days of Noah." Even though we may not know the exact time of His coming we can look for the signs of His return. He tells us that before the flood, people were carrying on like normal. They were still conducting their lives and affairs without a single concern of a flood coming up until the very end. They were still going to parties, getting married, going to those bars to drink, and enjoying all this world has to offer. What this tells me is that the end will come on a day that seems like any other day. Yes, there will be signs on the highway but people will keep driving to their intended destination. Just like Caltrans, God will be putting out the cones on the highway and putting up warning signs way ahead of the actual danger area but many will not heed the warnings.

Every year people that ignore these signs, end up on the nightly news report, being swept away in flood waters after they decided to go around what was meant to protect them. Some drown or lose their cars because they thought the situation was less critical than it actually was. Let's not forget the people who get warned to leave their homes in oncoming fires, hurricanes and tornados. We have developed a system to protect human lives and reduce casualties but people can be deceived about their ability to ride out the storm. Hurricane Katrina was a prime example of that. Many people perished unnecessarily because they did not correctly assess the seriousness of the situation.

My friends when Jesus returns we won't be able to ride out the storm. We will either be ready or we will become a casualty. If a fireman or rescue worker comes to your house, to tell you that you are in the way of impending disaster, you better listen. Don't gamble your life against the elements. Don't think you are exempted from the coming danger. As in the days of Noah, the bible tells us that God, "did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly" 2 Peter 2:4-5 Think about this, only eight people survived the floods that Noah prophesied about. Only eight gave heed to the signs and warnings. The people who were carrying on their normal lives must have thought Noah was a mad man working on that enormous ship. It must have took years of watching him build it with all the time to mock him. God's word says Noah was preaching righteousness to a world who had fallen into great wickedness. He wasn't placating them or making less of the situation. He wasn't telling them that they would be ok when clearly they were going to get swept away. He must have tried to compel them day and night to enter that ark until the very hand of God closed the doors to the ark.

Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. Genesis 6:5-6

The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Genesis 6:11-13

What was this great wickedness that would make God destroy the ancient world?

If you read the scripture carefully the reason God destroyed the earth is mentioned twice here in Genesis. VIOLENCE! The bible says their thoughts and hearts were wicked continually. The very motivation of their hearts was evil. Everything had gotten corrupted. In the book of Enoch which is not a book in the bible says that people had resorted to cannibalism, witchcraft, and drugs. Violence had taken over and the sin of Cain had infected mankind. Fast forward to today. Just in the last few weeks there has been one mass shooting a week. In 2012 a Florida man stands naked eating a homeless man's face. In another incident, a college student in Maryland ate another fellow student that shared the dorm with him. Also in that same year I believe a neighbor ate someone else's dog in a drug induced act of animal cruelty. These acts are beyond human comprehension. In 2011 in a video called "Church on Life Support" I prophesied of an increase of violence unless we turned back to God as a nation. I warned of persecution. We have seen the increase of both since I prophesied this. Also, after the release of this word we also saw the Boston Marathon Bombings, the 12 murders in the theater, in Aurora, Colorado, and the shootings of 37 people at Sandy Hook Elementary. Schools and college campuses have become a hazardous place to be as they have become a common place of violence.

Even in the face of these signs we have not made a concerted effort to turn back to God. We have debated over gun control, enforced stricter laws and pointed fingers at one another. None of these things will stop the evil in the heart's of men. More than just seeing these things as symptoms of the increase of violence TV, video games, and media; we need to see these things as signs of His coming. The persecution and murder of thousands of Christians all over the world like Syria, Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries are also signs that we are nearing the end of age. "For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened." (Matthew 24:21-22)

Dear reader, there is a reason Hollywood is going to release a movie about the time of Noah. God inspired them. There is a reason that you feel uneasy every time you wake up. There is a reason there is a show called Doomsday Preppers. Everyone all around us feels it. We can try to ignore the obvious but the signs keep appearing on the road we are on, they say, "Caution up ahead!" Some of you know that you should be saying something but you remain silent as people race by you on their way to their destruction. How can you say you love people when you are allowing them to stay on the path that leads to death? Don't you know that we are called to be fire fighters and emergency personnel so we can get people out of harm's way? How will they know unless someone tells them? Will you wait until the flames lick their house and their death is certain? A way of escape was already made for them why not share it with them. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life! He made a way out through His son. It is time to get out there and say something because LOVE WARNS!

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From Declaration to Demonstration

Several months ago, around the spring of 2013, the Lord began speaking to me about the fall/winter season of 2013 going into 2014. The word I kept hearing repeated to me was the word “shift.” The Lord began revealing to me that he is placing his people into a transition that is shifting everything into an alignment of prophecy. This is obviously not a normal transition. It is not a steppingstone like prior transitions that will build upon another transition after another transition. This is a SHIFT, to transition us into an age of fulfilled promises. I believe that we are coming out of foundational transitions and into a transition of fulfillment. The Lord explained it to me in this way: Many have been declaring the word of the Lord for many years to inform people that God is sending and end time revival and stirring another Great Awakening to prepare the way for the Lord’s return. Many have been prophesying an outpouring from Heaven where we will see miracles, signs, wonders, and mass salvations accompanied with the baptism of the Holy Ghost in a magnitude that we have never witnessed before. We have been in a waiting season and have gone through many transitions and hardships to get to this point in life where we are today. The good news is that this waiting process has come to an end. The Lord showed me that we are coming OUT of the season of declaration and are going INTO the season of demonstration. This means that everything that God has said he was going to do, he is about to do it! We are believing the word of the Lord (his declaration) and are stepping into the fulfillment of his promises by the evidence of God’s supernatural manifestations!

The Lord also gave me a picture of what this transition and shift will look like through the Israelites crossing the Red Sea paralleled to them crossing the Jordan River. Before any transition that we enter into, we have to make up our minds that we are going to go where the glory of God goes. Exodus 13: 21, 22 says, “And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people” (NKJV). Our anthem going into this shift must be that we are going to follow the pillar of cloud and fire (the glory of God) no matter where he leads us, how much it costs, who stands against us, or who chooses to quit around us. Everything that we do MUST be about God’s glory and Presence because without him we cannot do anything, but with him all things are possible! It is time for the people of God to get aggressive about being in the Presence of God!

While in the wilderness, many of the Israelites cried out and complained that they were going to die in the desert and that going back to Egypt would have been better for them (Ex. 14:12). What they did not realize was that right when they wanted to retreat back into slavery, their breakthrough was right before them. With this shift into 2014, there is no going back to Egypt and the waiting process. There is only the pressing forward into more glory after more glory! After the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, they immediately entered into the wilderness, but what is interesting is that this is exactly where the Lord led them. The reason why the crossing of the Red Sea is a picture of the many foundational transitions that we have faced in life is because each transition took us into the position of the wilderness that would require yet another miraculous transition. How many of you can testify that even in the wilderness that God never left you or forsook you? Even while the Israelites were in the desert, God miraculously provided manna and quail, brought water from a rock, and spoke to the people through the giving of the Law and Ten Commandments. Even in the wilderness God still provides and speaks to us! Think of it this way: the wilderness causes us to either want to quit or to chase after God so desperately because we know he is our only means of survival. The wilderness transitions have been used to build your faith and intimacy with the Father. You could not have survived these past transitions without the miraculous hand of the Lord and by drawing deeper into His Presence.

Every transition in your life prior to today was God using it as a foundation for you to trust him to do even greater things in the future. Although God does miracles in the wilderness, do not get comfortable in that land because it is not the Promised Land. Everything that God has done for you in the past was a foundation in order to shift you into the Promised Land. Here is what the Lord showed me in the picture of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea versus them crossing the Jordan River. The way in which they crossed the Red Sea was by Moses lifting up his rod and stretching his hand towards the water (Exodus 14:16), but the way in which they crossed the Jordan was by following the Ark of the Covenant (Joshua 3:14). This distinction is the reason why we are stepping out of the season of declaration and into the season of demonstration. The Ark of the Covenant contained the Ten Commandments, Aaron’s budded staff, and a jar of manna. The Ten Commandments are the words of the Lord, correct? They are God’s instructions for holy living. They are the promises of the word of the Lord. It was the word of the Lord that went before the people of Israel that led them into the Promised Land. It was God’s promises that paved the way for them to into the fulfillment of his promises! Not only did the written word of God go before the people, but the literal Word of God went before them because it was between the cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant (Mercy Seat) where the glory of God dwelt! This is exactly where the church is right now in this pivotal shift. We have crossed into the time of fulfilled promises because God’s promises and God himself became our vehicle of transportation.

You may be asking yourself, “How do I step into this shift?” The answer is found in Joshua 3:6, “And Joshua said to the people, “Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.” The Lord told me, “In order to be shifted, you have to be sifted.” God is simply looking for people who are hungry enough for his Presence that they will not be chasing after the things of this world. He is looking for people who are willing to live in holiness and to truly bear the cross of Jesus. It was after the people sanctified themselves that they crossed the Jordan. This is exactly where we are right now in the Kingdom. We have now crossed over, but what is the next step? The first thing the Israelites did when they crossed was worship the Lord by building an altar for him (Joshua 4:3). What is our altar? Our lives are the living sacrifices unto God. The next step that the Israelites took was that they circumcised the next generation (Joshua 5:3). I believe that this is a picture that God is raising up new leadership in the church who are sanctified, Holy Ghost filled, new wineskin vessels of the Lord. They carry the fires of awakening and will do whatever it takes to see nations burn for God!

The last step into your inheritance is found in obedience. The people sanctified themselves, made an altar to the Lord, and set apart new leadership. Now, it is time to take back the land out of the hands of the enemy. No land, territory, or thing belongs to the enemy. The earth is the Lord’s and everything that is in it! When the Israelites looked to the Promised Land they saw the stronghold of the walls of Jericho, but that did not stop God did it? Some of you are looking at impossible situations in impossible territories, but we serve the God of the Impossible! When Joshua saw the walls of Jericho lying before him, he did not run away in fear. He stood in faith with the Commander of the army of the Lord (Joshua 6:14). Do you not know that the Lord fights our battles? If they glory of God has taken you over the Jordan, will his glory not also take out your enemies? The reason why the walls of Jericho fell was because the new leadership sanctified themselves and obeyed the word of the Lord. They went where God told them to go and did what God told them to do when God told them to do it. Out of their obedience, God showed up. Obedience to the word of the Lord is the means in which the anointing and glory of God is released over his people.

Whatever state or country in which you are reading this letter, know that God is wanting to use YOU to shake your nation through the fires of awakening! God is about to accelerate his people into new leadership and accelerate them into the time of fulfillment. What would take years to accomplish, God will do quickly. What would be impossible to do, God will make it happen! Do you feel the yearning in the Spirit of the Lord that the King of Kings is coming soon? It is time prepare the way for the return of the Lord through the Greatest Awakening.

Your Brother in Christ and Fellow Soldier in the Greatest Awakening,

Daniel Bodkin

www.DanielBodkin.com

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