Revival In Tavares, Florida
On May the 23rd of 2010, we started what was scheduled to be a two week revival at the Covenant Holiness Church in Tavares, FL. where Brother J. R. Smith is the pastor. Although two backsliders came back to the Lord, for the most part, it was the polar opposite of the meeting we held in Busy, Ky. just prior to it. In Busy, I preached to the lost every night, seeing nearly seventy souls turn to Christ; in Tavares, God directed me to preach to the church.
When I came in the first Sunday morning I figured it would be business as usual; preaching on prayer, revival, drawing close to God, witnessing, etc.–messages provoking the lukewarm to repentance, causing them to cry out to God for the fire of the Holy Ghost. After I had preached and ministered around the altar, I sat down. It was at that point the Lord began to speak to my heart about the direction He wanted the revival to go. He told me to look upon the faces of the people. As I looked into each face, I discerned deep hurt and grievous pain. He revealed to me some very intimate details about each one of them, and then He thundered the following words into my heart and mind: “They have terrible wounds and I want to heal them. And if they will reveal it, I will heal it.”
When I came back to the Sunday night service, I preached about our marvelous God and His capacity to heal the wounded. On Monday night the Lord directed me to preach about God’s unfathomable love. On Tuesday night, I preached that there must come a point in our life that we divert our eyes off of our own selves; a point that we must stop the perpetual autopsy of a living person, and get our eyes upon the Christ. God used those three messages to catapult us into a mighty move of God; into a true revival.
Over the next three weeks, God healed hearts and minds in unspeakable ways. Great repentance and reconciliation took place night after night. We had several one hour, and even two and a half hour, altar calls. They were often without the accompaniment of music or singing; the only sound being the weeping of saints crying out to the Almighty God, asking Him to renew them and fill them with His Holy Spirit! I marveled as a six year old boy lay prostrate in the floor, weeping for over an hour. The second Sunday night service of the revival lasted nearly five hours! We experienced wave after wave of God’s glory; much of the congregation claimed to having been refilled with the Holy Ghost; three of the pastors children in one night! Great confession of sins was prominent, many of which the person said they didn’t even know they harbored within their hearts prior to God revealing it to them in that meeting. Backsliders, including a preacher, came back to Christ. And pretty much every member of the church professed to having experienced God in a deeper way than they had ever experienced Him before.
My heart leaped for joy after hearing the testimony of a precious sister. She said she had lost her hunger for lost souls. She had allowed her burden to be extinguished by the cares of this life. I wish you could have seen the excitement in her face, the sparkle in her eyes, as she told how God had placed a new fire within her to reach the lost at any cost! It was precious indeed!
I am presently thinking about the testimony a particular preacher offered up one night in testimony service. He said that before the revival, his prayer life, Bible study, witnessing, and zeal for the things of God were zero. In so many words, he conceded that he had been operating in a backslid condition, but proclaimed that God had restored him, that he was now praying and seeking God continually. The truth is there were many similar testimonies.
No one but God can get the glory for the things which happened in Tavares. In fact, my family was just as much recipients of that move of God as anyone else. One night, I rejoiced as my nine year old daughter was kneeling and crying out to God. When she got up from where she was praying, I asked her if God had helped her. She said, “Yes”. I asked her how and she said, “I can’t explain it. He just made me interested again”! Oh, how God made men interested in Him again during that revival!
On another night, as I knelt at the altar, crying out to God, I felt a very little person kneel down beside me. I looked down and saw my little pip-squeak-six year old daughter Rebecca Eden kneeling beside me. She can melt my heart in unspeakable ways already, but she was weeping which made it worse. I took her up and cradled her in my lap. I asked her if the Lord had helped her. With tears running down her cheeks, she said, "My heart hurts." I said, "My heart hurts too. Let's pray for the lost." So my six year old baby and I wept for the lost together, sitting in the floor of Covenant Holiness Church. It was a good day.
Honestly, I could go on and on telling all the wonderful things that God did amongst that precious people. The pastor told me that God not only restored the church, but put it in a higher place than it had ever been. God brought revival to the Covenant Holiness Church. He restored that which needed to be restored. He healed everything that was revealed. He put them back into a state of usefulness.
The Covenant Holiness Church had a real REVIVAL, now it’s time for them to seek God and do those things necessary to see an AWAKENING in Tavares, Florida. It’s time for them to go on the offensive, wreaking great havoc upon the enemy’s kingdom! Will they do so? I don’t know. Will they sustain the fire that God has placed in their hearts and lives? I don’t know. I believe they can and I hope they will; but they, just like you and me, have to make a conscious decision every day to be men and women of God; to be consistent; to never go back to their comfort zone; to choose everyday to be prayer warriors and intercessors for the souls of men. Yes, they must choose.
But I guess the real question isn’t will THEY do it, but will YOU and I do it?
David Lamb
Monday, June 14, 2010
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
What's Happening While You Sleep
One night, a preacher and his 6-7 yr old son were coming home from church. They came upon an overpass, upon which there were a great number of ambulances, firetrucks, and police cars-there had been a terrible wreck. The man got his son out of the vehicle and walked up the embankment to see if there was anything he could do to help. When he came to the top of the embankment, he beheld, to his shock and unbelief, the mangled, lifeless corpse of an individual who had been thrown from a vehicle during the wreck. He covered the eyes of his son, picked him up, and carried him back down the hill as fast as he could. He tried to explain to his son what they had just witnessed in an attempt to comfort his little heart.
Once they got home, the father prayed for his son, hugged and kissed him, and then sent him to bed. At about 2 o'clock in the morning, the dad got up. He noticed that his son's bedroom light was still on. He opened door and reached for the light switch, but noticed that his son was still fully dressed, sitting on the side of the bed, quietly weeping. His dad asked him why he wasn't asleep. His son replied with these heart crushing words, "Dad, how can we sleep when people are dying?"
That's my question for you today: How can we sleep when people are dying lost and going to hell? While we sleep, hell fills! While we sleep, the enemy works! While we sleep, the enemy sows his seeds of confusion and death!
My cry for the American church is as follows:
Isa 51:9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake...
What will happen when we wake from our sleep?
Lu 9:32 But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep: and when they were awake, they saw his glory...
When the church decides to wake from her slumber, we'll see the glory God! When the church repents for allowing her heart to grow lukewarm, and for some, cold and indifferent, we'll see God rend the heavens and come down! When we humble ourselves, confessing we're not where we're supposed to be with God, confessing that we can do nothing without God, we'll see a breaking in our churches. When the American church spends more time in prayer, supplication, and intercession than they do in basketball practice, gospel sings, and self promotion, the sound of battering rams will be heard crashing the gates of hell. We'll have revival in no time. We'll see sinners being born again on our altars! We'll see saints refilled with the power and glory of Holy Ghost! We'll see lethargic church members burning with the fire of God.
Wake up brothers and sisters! It doesn't matter who you are, what your name is, how long you've been saved, or what church and denomination you belong too, we're all the same while we sleep!
David Lamb
Once they got home, the father prayed for his son, hugged and kissed him, and then sent him to bed. At about 2 o'clock in the morning, the dad got up. He noticed that his son's bedroom light was still on. He opened door and reached for the light switch, but noticed that his son was still fully dressed, sitting on the side of the bed, quietly weeping. His dad asked him why he wasn't asleep. His son replied with these heart crushing words, "Dad, how can we sleep when people are dying?"
That's my question for you today: How can we sleep when people are dying lost and going to hell? While we sleep, hell fills! While we sleep, the enemy works! While we sleep, the enemy sows his seeds of confusion and death!
My cry for the American church is as follows:
Isa 51:9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake...
What will happen when we wake from our sleep?
Lu 9:32 But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep: and when they were awake, they saw his glory...
When the church decides to wake from her slumber, we'll see the glory God! When the church repents for allowing her heart to grow lukewarm, and for some, cold and indifferent, we'll see God rend the heavens and come down! When we humble ourselves, confessing we're not where we're supposed to be with God, confessing that we can do nothing without God, we'll see a breaking in our churches. When the American church spends more time in prayer, supplication, and intercession than they do in basketball practice, gospel sings, and self promotion, the sound of battering rams will be heard crashing the gates of hell. We'll have revival in no time. We'll see sinners being born again on our altars! We'll see saints refilled with the power and glory of Holy Ghost! We'll see lethargic church members burning with the fire of God.
Wake up brothers and sisters! It doesn't matter who you are, what your name is, how long you've been saved, or what church and denomination you belong too, we're all the same while we sleep!
David Lamb
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
The Hebrides Revival
The Hebrides Revival
In the year 1949, in a small cottage by the roadside in the village of Barvas lived two elderly women, Peggy and Christine Smith. They were eighty-four and eighty-two years old. Peggy was blind and her sister almost bent double with arthritis. Unable to attend public worship, their humble cottage became a sanctuary where they met with God. To them came the promise: "I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground," they pleaded this day and night in prayer. One night Peggy had a revelation, revival was coming and the church of her fathers would be crowded again with young people! She sent for the minister, the Rev. James Murray MacKay, and told him what God had shown her, asking him to call his elders and deacons together for special times of waiting upon God. In the same district a group of men praying in a barn experienced a foretaste of coming blessing. One night as they waited upon God a young deacon rose and read part of the twenty-fourth Psalm: "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in His holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord." Turning to the others he said: "Brethren, it seems to me just so much humbug to be waiting and praying as we are, if we ourselves are not rightly related to God." Then lifting his hands toward heaven he cried: "Oh God, are my hands clean? Is my heart pure?" He got no further, but fell prostrate to the floor. An awareness of God filled the barn and a stream of supernatural power was let lose in their lives. They had moved into a new sphere of God realization, believing implicitly in the promise of revival.
When the movement was at its height Peggy sent for Duncan Campbell, asking him to go to a small, isolated village to hold a meeting. The people of this village did not favor the revival and had already made clear they weren't getting involved. Duncan explained the situation to Peggy and told her that he questioned the wisdom of her request. "Besides," he added, "I have no leadings to go to that place." She turned in the direction of his voice, her sightless eyes seemed to penetrate his soul. "Mr. Campbell, if you were living as near to God as you ought to be, He would reveal His secrets to you also." Duncan felt like a subordinate being reprimanded for defying his general. He humbly accepted the rebuke as from the Lord, and asked if he and Mr. MacKay could spend the morning in prayer with them. She agreed, and later as they knelt together in the cottage, Peggy prayed: "Lord, You remember what You told me this morning, that in this village You are going to save seven men who will become pillars in the church of my fathers. Lord, I have given Your message to Mr. Campbell and it seems he is not prepared to receive it. Oh Lord, give him wisdom, because he badly needs it!" "All right, Peggy, I'll go to the village," said Duncan when they had finished praying. She replied, "You'd better!" "And God will give you a congregation." Arriving in the village at seven o'clock they found a large bungalow crowded to capacity with many assembled outside. Duncan gave out his text: "The times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent." When he had finished preaching, a minister beckoned him to the end of the house to speak again to a number of people who were mourning over their sins - among them, Peggy's seven men!
The Hebrides Revival didn't start with a preacher; it didn't begin with a big name evangelist. It began in the hearts of two elder women who loved God and were deeply concerned with the spiritual condition of their community! It began in the hearts of some working men who were seeking God in an obscure barn. You can move the hand of God too, but it will require more than just an occasional "polly-wanna-cracker" prayer that has no heat and no heart. You may have to do like the Smith sisters and start praying from early afternoon until two and three in the morning, but it will be worth it when it comes!
Let's pray for revival!
In the year 1949, in a small cottage by the roadside in the village of Barvas lived two elderly women, Peggy and Christine Smith. They were eighty-four and eighty-two years old. Peggy was blind and her sister almost bent double with arthritis. Unable to attend public worship, their humble cottage became a sanctuary where they met with God. To them came the promise: "I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground," they pleaded this day and night in prayer. One night Peggy had a revelation, revival was coming and the church of her fathers would be crowded again with young people! She sent for the minister, the Rev. James Murray MacKay, and told him what God had shown her, asking him to call his elders and deacons together for special times of waiting upon God. In the same district a group of men praying in a barn experienced a foretaste of coming blessing. One night as they waited upon God a young deacon rose and read part of the twenty-fourth Psalm: "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in His holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord." Turning to the others he said: "Brethren, it seems to me just so much humbug to be waiting and praying as we are, if we ourselves are not rightly related to God." Then lifting his hands toward heaven he cried: "Oh God, are my hands clean? Is my heart pure?" He got no further, but fell prostrate to the floor. An awareness of God filled the barn and a stream of supernatural power was let lose in their lives. They had moved into a new sphere of God realization, believing implicitly in the promise of revival.
When the movement was at its height Peggy sent for Duncan Campbell, asking him to go to a small, isolated village to hold a meeting. The people of this village did not favor the revival and had already made clear they weren't getting involved. Duncan explained the situation to Peggy and told her that he questioned the wisdom of her request. "Besides," he added, "I have no leadings to go to that place." She turned in the direction of his voice, her sightless eyes seemed to penetrate his soul. "Mr. Campbell, if you were living as near to God as you ought to be, He would reveal His secrets to you also." Duncan felt like a subordinate being reprimanded for defying his general. He humbly accepted the rebuke as from the Lord, and asked if he and Mr. MacKay could spend the morning in prayer with them. She agreed, and later as they knelt together in the cottage, Peggy prayed: "Lord, You remember what You told me this morning, that in this village You are going to save seven men who will become pillars in the church of my fathers. Lord, I have given Your message to Mr. Campbell and it seems he is not prepared to receive it. Oh Lord, give him wisdom, because he badly needs it!" "All right, Peggy, I'll go to the village," said Duncan when they had finished praying. She replied, "You'd better!" "And God will give you a congregation." Arriving in the village at seven o'clock they found a large bungalow crowded to capacity with many assembled outside. Duncan gave out his text: "The times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent." When he had finished preaching, a minister beckoned him to the end of the house to speak again to a number of people who were mourning over their sins - among them, Peggy's seven men!
The Hebrides Revival didn't start with a preacher; it didn't begin with a big name evangelist. It began in the hearts of two elder women who loved God and were deeply concerned with the spiritual condition of their community! It began in the hearts of some working men who were seeking God in an obscure barn. You can move the hand of God too, but it will require more than just an occasional "polly-wanna-cracker" prayer that has no heat and no heart. You may have to do like the Smith sisters and start praying from early afternoon until two and three in the morning, but it will be worth it when it comes!
Let's pray for revival!
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