Revival and Rest

(upbeat music) - Good morning everybody and welcome to the broadcast of Faith Mountain Ministries. I'm here in Clear Lake, Wisconsin, with some amazing people who've come from all over the nation. Just here about the gospel to spend three days, just unveiling just the goodness of God, the heart of the Father, the power of the new covenant. And today I wanna talk to you about something that's actually burning in my heart, which is what your revival actually is. I hear a lot of speech about true revival these days and I feel like there's a need to help us understand and define exactly what it is. 'Cause most of the time what we look at revival is being as behavior modification. And certainly there is some change in the way we do life. This is a song says, "I don't walk like I used to, "I don't talk like I used to." But revival is something much deeper than just mere behavior modification. It's a transformation of identity that brings us into a realization of what Jesus actually has accomplished, which is that he came to make all things new. Behold, he says, "I make all things new." So today if you're hungry, you desire is for really more of God. I wanna tell you today that he's not far from you. There's no distance, no separation. You don't have to work to try to climb up in or get closer to God. You don't have to say the right words to make him somehow wanna jump inside of you. He's holding all things together. And you and I are simply coming into an awareness and alignment. It's not as if we've been out of this harmony in a place of this harmony with him, this harmony with his heart. I haven't really known what to the purpose of this life is or how to even engage with the Lord, how to even know him as father and know our own identity as his sons and daughters and his children. And so today I want you to see this as surrendering to come into alignment or harmony with the very sound or heartbeat of your father's heart who knew you before he formed you, who has loved you longer than you knew you could be loved. And today we're gonna define exactly what revival is and what it does and what it brings to us. And also how we're moving really from, I would say, revival, it excites us and whatnot. But removing from a revival mindset into a reformational mindset where we're starting to see a transformation of culture from which we will never, it's not like we're gonna return and go back, revival sometimes just happen, boom, like a moment happens and people's lives are touched, but not always truly changed. Reformation changes you, changes culture. You can go back into a revival culture and see how a revival happened here 20 years ago, but the culture isn't changed. Nothing about the area looks any different. Looks like it just did before. Matter of fact, in some cases it looks worse. But reformation absolutely changes culture and it liberates people to a place where they can actually walk in newness of life with joy, with purpose, with understanding, with a sense of identity, solidness, solidity in their identity. And so I pray that that is your desire today to walk in that transformative grace where if you looked around and you said things are not the way they ought to be and you can begin to realize you are a living invitation for a reformation to move through you, to impact the world around you. So Lord, I thank you for this time today. And Lord in the world seems dark and seems lost and without you. Father, may your light shine brightly today. May in this moment hope be injected into every heart and every life. Father, I pray that we would have an understanding of what true revival is and that we would answer the call to step into the reformation that you've invited us into in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, this is burning in my heart today and that is to tell you that true revival, reformation isn't something we manufacture on a stage. It's not something we strategize about around a boardroom. It's something that God ignites by the fire of his Holy Spirit, by the baptism of his Holy Spirit, the baptism of Jesus. Something that God ignites in every heart that's surrendered to him. And this is a new covenant promise we have. Listen, over my lifetime, I've seen waves as we have excitement in the church. Powerful meetings, moments filled with emotion. These are moments that are kind of viral, right? They're filled with this self-expression of freedom in the presence of the Lord. And yet, people still wander around lost without hope, seemingly broken. And you look around and you can say, I don't see in the world as dark, Bill. And what we desperately need is not just another fleeting high or emotional buzz, but a deep lasting transformation by the resurrected Jesus Christ, by the living Messiah. Now, I do think that the Pentecostal church and charismatic world has an addiction to desperation. So don't use the term desperation to somehow be a trigger point for you to listen to this message. If that triggers you, then there's something in you still that carries a sense of maybe lack, or I don't have enough, or I need to do a little bit more, or I could possibly improve this. And then you feel like you're less than complete and feel like you're maybe not pleasing to God. And so I want you to end your love affair with desperation and step into the rest of reconciled union in the heart of the Father and breathe a big sigh of relief knowing that right now where you're listening to this, you could not be more accepted or more loved. Ready? More righteous. You can be more righteous than you already are because of what Jesus has done. Hebrews 9, once and for all, he put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And so your sins been dealt with on the cross. Ephesians 1, 4, God shows us to be in Christ from a fourth of the foundation of the world. Colossians 1 tells us that Christ in you, the hope of glory is the secret mystery. It's been hidden from ages past. It was always true. Why? Because he was in the beginning creating with the Father and John 1, face to face with the Father. Jesus is the creator and has been the sustainer of all things from the beginning of the beginning. And so the one who has the creator and sustainer of all things has held everything together in him, including you, including the people who don't like you, including the people you don't like. He's holding it all together in him. What is able to be sustained outside of him? Nothing, not a single thing is able to be sustained outside of him. So understand the new covenant, revival, or reformation, or at these moments of lightning strike that produce transformation, this is not about you striving harder under old rules. This is about the finished work of Christ, empowering you and I from within Christ in you, the joyful expectation of the goodness of the glory of God. That's what hope means. Of the same love that carried Jesus to the cross, guess what? Now lives in us, lives in you, lives in me by his spirit. So let's look at some scripture today. And let that scripture just breathe the wind of the spirit across the coals, the embers, the sparks in your heart, the fan and the flame. Ezekiel chapter 36 and starting in verse 26 says, "I'll give you a new heart and I'll put a new spirit within you." I'll, look at what he's doing here. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit in you and move you to follow my degrees and be careful to keep my laws. This is the promise of God. He's going to do it. And this is an external pressure. This is internal transformation. Notice what he does and what you do. He's leading the dance you're following along. Okay? What do we do? Fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. There's a lot of life and there's a lot of truth, a lot of wisdom and a lot of revelation that comes in be holding. I get questions all the time that people ask me about things that they're supposed to do, things that they're learning in scripture. I don't mind sharing information with people, but you know the far more fruitful answer that I can give people? What do you hear Jesus saying? And sometimes they just look at you like, you know, like you just grew another head. Like they don't never stop to think about that they could actually ask Jesus what he has to say about it. Maybe one of the reasons we don't ask Jesus what he has to say about something is because we're afraid of what his answer is going to be. And that means that he's already told it to your heart. So you're looking for a second opinion that'll probably maybe agree with what you want and so that you can blame somebody else's, somebody else's words on the choice that you made. Now it's no longer your responsibility. It's in somebody else's hands. This is a lot of times how we sort of pass things off. We don't go to talk to God. I think most of the time when people don't ask the Lord what he's thinking or saying about a thing, it's because in their heart of hearts, they've already heard from him and they don't like what they heard. And so understand how revival begins, it begins in that heart. A new covenant reality of reformation begins not with better programs or louder worship or longer worship. It starts where God always works and that's in that heart that I was just talking about. Heading the heart, by the way, the mind and the heart, They both converge within the mouth, they fight for control of that. Which is why what you release from your mouth is such a big deal. The Bible says out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And so under the old covenant, the law was written on stone. That law exposed sin. Guess what? It could never change the heart. It could just tell you what the naughty things were, what the bad stuff was, what God doesn't like. But it didn't do anything to change a person's heart. Jesus shows up and inaugurates the new covenant with his blood in Luke 22-20. Jeremiah prophesied it like this, Jeremiah 31-33 says, I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people. I will forgive their wickedness and I will remember their sins no more. Again, notice what he's going to do. He's doing the work here. In the new covenant, obedience flows from relationship, not rules. See what I just said. In the new covenant, the Christian covenant, obedient flows from relationship, not rule keeping. The Holy Spirit doesn't just visit for a moment and then leave and leave you with a visitation. He indwells your to be a habitation for his presence. It isn't command from far away. He empowers from within. Holiness is not a heavy burden, you guys. I'll listen to what I'm saying. Holiness is not a heavy burden. It is the natural fruit of intimacy with Jesus Christ. The overflow of your awareness of your oneness, your union with God in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. I want you to think about the cross for a moment. That brutal, violent death that Jesus endured wasn't just a payment for sin. Jesus wasn't paying God off to not hurt you. This was God Himself in Christ, reconciling us to Himself, by Himself, in Himself and for Himself as the ultimate demonstration of love. It's the same love that pursues you and I daily. John 15 13, greater love has no one than this than to lay down his life for his friends. And he laid that down for us while we were still enemies, while we were still Ephesians 2, dead in our trespasses and sins. He made us alive. You're like Lazarus who heard, come forth. You ask how much faith did Lazarus have to be raised from the dead? Well, not much. He was dead. I mean, come on. I want you to think for just a moment. If you've been living like revival is out there somewhere. Stop and think about this. Is it like, are you waiting? God, come, send revival. Hey, guess what? Jesus is here. He is revival. Where does he live? In you. You are revival. Revival is not out there. It's in here. I'm pointing straight at you. You're letting the Holy Spirit write God's heart on your heart today. Isaiah 57, 15 says, God dwells with the contrite and lowly in spirit to revive the heart of the contrite or broken. Listen, this is personal. Revival isn't a citywide event. It's you. It's me fully alive in the spirit of God. I understand you look around you and everywhere you see people are lost. In the culture around us, it offers self expression, self fulfillment, self anything, self everything. But Jesus offers death to self. There's the offer of Jesus. You wonder why? Listen, we stop preaching that because people stop buying it. It doesn't sell. Jesus doesn't come and say, hey, hey, you get to be a self expressive self, you know, self realized person. Be as selfish as you want. No, he says, die to yourself. You got crucified with Christ. He offers death to self so that you can learn how to live in union with him, not in selfish individualistic self-absorbed identity. Second Corinthians 5, 17, therefore if anyone is in Christ, new creation is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold. In other words, you can see it. All things have become new. Understand that the gospel is not modification of your behavior. It's heart transplantation. You say that again, the gospel is not behavior modification. We don't need more comfortable deluded Christianity that leaves people unchanged. We need the burning truth that sets captives free. Romans 12 verse 2, "Mention this in past few podcasts. Do not be conformed to this world, the pattern of this world, but by the mercies of God be transformed by the renewing of your mind." That word transformation is the same word as transfigured. Metamorphosis. It's the same word that was spoken of Jesus when He was transfigured on the mountain. To have a shift in mind is where the transformation begins. The goal here, I'm not talking about momentary buzz, momentary feeling, momentary toad curl, a momentary in your fingertips. We've got a little buzz of a fingertips here. I can't wait for that next one. Waiting for buzz after buzz after buzz. This is a life marked by the fruit of the spirit that's fully surrendered and carrying the presence of God into every single sphere that you're called to walk into. Galatians 2 20, I don't think I can go through broadcasts without reminding you. Paul said, "You got crucified with Christ. You're not even alive anymore. Christ is in you alive." Listen, Jesus doesn't just move through a city. Oh God, send revival to my city. Listen, He wants to live within a people. Not just stop by, hover over, move on. He wants to live in you. When this happens, the Great Commission is not a duty you perform. It's an overflow of the source of life that is dwelling in you and in Him you live and move and have your being. Now, let me talk about discipleship for just a second. A momentary revival or flash in the pan of visitation is great, but that's not the goal. Jesus said, "Didn't say go make converts, by the way." He said, Matthew 28, 19, "Go and make disciples." Keep in mind, He says, "All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore, on the basis of the fact that He has it all, go and make disciples." I go, "Tell everybody that. Jesus is Lord. Jesus is King overall. When you see in Jesus who you see, you're seeing God. Who did Jesus reveal God as? Father, who does that mean you are? His child. Now go and learn what it means to be a child of God. See, the disciples turns the old life from the old life away from an old life, but does so with joy. Why? Because grace has made us new. And so we live now, set apart. Not out of legalism, but out of love. From that place of love, you're marked by the Holy Spirit to fulfill the great commission." And Jesus said, Matthew 16, people love this first, and I'm glad they do, but it's often misunderstood. Jesus said, Matthew 16, 24, "Wherever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me." Now, how do you do that? How do you deny yourself? Separate yourself from yourself. Shut yourself that note. This is the opposite of selfish living. This is selflessness, selfless generosity of life that cares for others. And then take up your cross. What does that even mean? Like regard yourself as dead. What does that mean? Sin will no longer have dominion over you. And so you're free from sin and you're not a selfish person. And then the following part becomes pretty obvious. Like, I want to go with the one who knows how to live, who is the source of life. I want to be close to him. Not only that, but he lives in you. So understand that that lacks lazy, lukewarm Christianity, it has no place here. Revelation chapter 3 and verse 15. Jesus says, "I know your deeds. You're neither hot nor cold. I wish you're either one or the other because your lukewarm about to spit you out of my mouth." You understand hot is not, it's not like hot is good and cold is bad. That's why we typically preach it because Jesus said, "I wish you were one or the other." The church in Leia de Sia was a church that was a station between two places. Colossia and aropolis. Colossia had cold springs. Aropolis had hot springs. One was refreshing to drink. The other one was therapeutic and healing to actually bathe in. And these guys in the middle, they wanted to be self-sufficient. They came up with a way to try to generate their own water supply. And it was so lukewarm, you couldn't drink in it. It was no good for anything. And so what he is saying here is, "Listen, you want to disconnect from everybody and stay in your own, that's selfish. That's what Luke warm is. Luke warm is a selfish individualist spirit that wants nothing to do with union with God because you think you're God. You think you're your own God. You think you could do better than God. That's what a Luke warm Christian actually is. When I say there's no room for Luke warm Christianity here, that's what I'm talking about. We're the body of Christ. The body has many members and they're very different, but they're meant to be connected together. So the kingdom of God is a family and a family's community and family is connected by blood. We are connected by the very blood of Jesus Christ. Who did he die for? I'll come on somebody. Understand that Luke warm isn't some sort of passionate failure here. I'm saying Luke warm is a simple compromise of selfish comfort. Basically saying, look, I can do this all myself. I can save myself. I don't need anything or anybody else. Yeah. In the new covenant, you and I, no excuse to be disconnected. The same Holy Spirit who raised Christ from the dead dwells in you. That's Romans chapter 8 verse 11. So why settle for selfish Christianity? It's an oxymoron. It doesn't work. So holiness and obedience and surrender are the standard. This isn't a heavy yoke. This isn't a burdensome thing. This is a joyful response to being relentlessly loved. The Holy Spirit causes us to walk in His ways. That's Ezekiel chapter 36 verse 27. Now, so how do we carry this fire? This discipleship fire. I gotta say that we're not here to chase revival as an event, but become a revived people. So we surrender every daily and every morning. Listen, I get up and take some time to do some contemplation in that place. I'm just saying not my will, but your will be done. What am I doing? I'm agreeing with Jesus in the garden. And then I acknowledge the word and the spirit. Let the scripture renew your mind while the spirit fills your heart. Sitting down and reading the book with the author right there is really a big deal. And then have value for community disciples, make disciples. So invest in other people. You don't often have to let go. It's searching people out. They'll come and try to find you. If you've got something worth learning about, they'll pull it out of you. And then there's the mission aspect of it. And that is to carry the very love of Christ into the people that were within your sphere of influence. Acts chapter 1 verse 8, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses. In other words, you will tell everybody what you've seen, what you've heard, what you've witnessed. The cross tells us that you have everything you need. Empty tomb says resurrection power is alive and well and available. The Holy Spirit indwelling you says today it's possible to see impossibilities bow to the name above all names. I invite you today just to say yes to whole-hearted discipleship. Revival starts right there, pointing right at your chest. Revival starts right there in surrendered hearts that say Jesus begin this with me, light a fire in me. I want to say something really quick today about surrender here. Surrender is not another form of striving, right? I'm talking about rest. I'm talking about discipleship. Let me just give you discipleship 101 here where we begin from. We are a people addicted to motion. It's like chasing the next dopamine hit like we're travelers who've forgotten how to rest by the fire. We are addicted to scrolling, to hustling, and optimizing every part of our life. And perhaps we're afraid that if we stop, we'll disappear altogether. In the sacred quiet journey, my own stumbling life, I have tasted the wild healing power of true surrender. Not the white knuckled version that you and I manufacture, but a deep, reconciled rest of falling into grace. Now, I want to share that rest with you here today at the close of this podcast. See, surrender is the quiet revolution at the heart of true freedom. It's the moment where all the pushing and grasping and endless doing finally exhausts itself and falls away. Surrender is not another technique, not another new form of spiritual labor, not something you achieve through your effort. It's the natural cessation of effort itself. The end of the war you've been waging against what is. A while back, we're not with a buddy of mine out in Santa Fe, New Mexico and had a chance to engage with the most intensely relaxing activity I've ever experienced. And that is fly fishing. Standing in a river, I observed how it moves. I mean, it looks like it looks crazy, like it cascades and twists and crashes in on itself, forcing its way around obstacles with some frantic determination. It's not resisting the banks, though, or the rocks or the downward pull of gravity. Doesn't try to flow better. It releases the trying. The river is powerful, but it seems effortless and whole. And surrender is that release to falling free into a state of flowing, guided, thundering peace where life abounds. And this is life in Christ. I think most of us live like life is a problem to be solved or a mountain to be conquered or performance to perfect. It's like we turn our spirituality into another job. You ever thought, like, I got to do more, meditate harder, pray longer, improve myself more diligently. This is what we think discipleship is. But all this is the ego cleverly disguised as some deep devotion. True revival, reformation and surrender is the recognition that the one who's working so hard to fix and improve or attain is the very source of the struggle when that illusion drops the work ends. Not because you've finally done enough, but because you see there was never a separate you who needed to do it in the first place. Only a fake you, a false you, a lie about yourself that you believe that you just simply let go of. And this is why surrender feels so much like coming home. It's the deepest yes to reality. The clenched fist opens. The shoulders drop. The mind tired of its endless commentary grows still. And in that space, life begins to move through you rather than against you. Synchronicities appear. Peace arises. Strength emerges. Not as the brittle strength of willpower, but the supple power of alignment with what was always secure. The fact that you could not be more accepted, loved, or righteous than you are right now. To surrender to that. That's rest. Surrender is the ultimate efficiency of the soul. All the energy once wasted on resistance becomes available for living. Love flows more freely. Creativity surges even pain. When met without resistance loses its tyrannical grip. You don't transcend life by fighting it. You're awakened within it by letting it be and engage you with the experience of living from that place of already being seated in Christ. So let go to the revelation of union as a reality, not as an act of discipline, but as the sweetest relief. Stop trying to surrender. Just notice when you're still efforting. And relax. The end of the work is not emptiness. It's the beginning of effortless being as vast alive and mysteriously complete. And in that stillness you'll discover what you've been seeking all along who's never somewhere else. It was the space left when all of your doing finally stopped. Lord Jesus, I thank you for the rest of revival and the revival of rest that you're bringing to our hearts. That that fire burning with it is not raging out of control. But it's simply the fire that we can rest beside. Warm ourselves in the presence of what is and that is that we are loved, accepted and righteous because of what you've done on the cross. From that place, Lord, let us release life into this world. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. I want to invite you to write to us faith mount ministries box 595 Marshall, Minnesota 5 6258. I also want to invite you to listen to this podcast again by going to Vanderbush ministries.com or build Vanderbush.com. Check out the resources, the brand new book chasing the wind, the life of venture and the Holy Spirit, all the other books, podcasts, resources, e-courses and stuff we have out there are there to help your life with Christ. Just be a richer and more full and hopefully impart a love of the scriptures and the Father's heart to you. This is Bill Vanderbush from all of us here at Faith Mount Ministries until next time. May the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]