|
Without holiness none shall see revival!
by Captain Andrew Bale
“A Church
that is sanctified and transformed, that teaches and lives
holiness, will be used of God to bring about the biggest
revival the world has known, and to prepare the way for the
coming of the Lord. That revival is prophesied by Joel and is
surely coming. But it will have to be a revival of holiness.
Any other revival will be spurious and short-lived. “ (Allister
Smith)
“It is not
want of numbers, but want of holiness that hinders the
church.” (Anon)
Primitive
Salvationists and all sincere followers of Christ are seeking
revival. No true warrior of God can ever be satisfied with the
‘trickle ministry’ wrung out by much of western contemporary
Christianity. Whilst some would argue that small is beautiful
and say that we must never judge the work of God by statistics
– the bible believing Christian tries hard to plant God’s seed
in ‘good soil’ and therefore expects to “produce a
crop—thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown!”
The call for
revival and indeed the expectation of its imminent arrival is
growing on a daily basis. Soldiers have begun to identify
those inconsistencies between faith and action that may be
encouraging God to withhold his blessing. Groups have sprung
up all over the western world where believers regularly meet
together to fast, pray and repent in a spirit inspired attempt
to address this concern.
Prophetic
words have gone out encouraging the faithful to prayerfully
cross examine themselves and participate in personal and
identificational repentance for themselves and for the Army
and the wider church. Revival has been promised by God,
predicted by prophets and is expected by his people.
However, I
believe, that a little like the rich young ruler whilst we
‘are very close to the kingdom’ we still lack ‘one thing’.
Repentance and
renunciation, necessary though they are, are but precursors to
that final condition which must be paid by all disciples
wishing to follow Christ. Repentance and renunciation may deal
with our sin but what are we to do with what is left, what is
the proper biblical response to the mercy of God?
“With eyes
wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an
act of intelligent worship, to give him your bodies, as a
living sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable by him.”
(Romans 12 J B Phillips)
God is always
at the heart of revival; he inspires it, empowers it, controls
it and sustains it. The writer to the Hebrews reminds us that
complete consecration is essential to the Christian experience
– “without holiness no one will see the Lord.”
Without the
Lord and a spirit inspired ability to ‘see’ as well as hear
him there can be no revival. To put it simply holiness must
(and will Hallelujah!) precede revival.
Holiness
delivers - or demands - 4 things which are critical components
within any revival.
Love:
Without love
there can be no revival. The greatest commandment (indeed the
only commandment which has any legal implication for the
Christian) directs us first to love God and then outwards to
love the lost.
John Allen,
one of William Booth’s greatest personal friends and an early
Christian Mission convert and evangelist, often (according to
his wife) would leap from his bed at all hours and dive into
impassioned prayer for the lost. Commissioner Railton often
fell to his knees upon first meeting an individual and
immediately prayed for their Salvation (with a remarkable
success rate too!) so great was his love for the lost.
The need for
salvation remains as great as ever, the gates of hell have
never been more crowded than they are today, God’s commitment
to the lost remains constant – the world is ripe for revival
but what it needs now (as the old song says) “is love sweet
love, it’s the only thing that there’s just too little off”
“O is not
the Christ 'midst the crowd of today
Whose
questioning cries do not cease?
And will he
not show to the hearts that would know
The things
that belong to their peace?
But how
shall they hear if the preacher forbear
Or lack in
compassionate zeal?
Or how
shall hearts move with the Master's own love,
Without his
anointing and seal?” (SASB 527 Osborn)
Sacrifice:
Love and
sacrifice always go hand in hand, where there are people in
need love will always strive to pay the going rate required to
deliver them - whatever the personal cost.
When
questioned as to the reasons behind her success in France; La
Marechale, Kate Booth, answered “"First, it is love; second,
love; third, love. And if you ask me how to get it, I answer
first, by sacrifice; second, by sacrifice; third, by
sacrifice."
Holiness
delivers the desire and the ability to take up our cross. To
someone outside the embrace of holiness, self denial is a dour
self inflicted discipline that cannot be sustained and
produces a cold legalistic impersonation of Christianity.
Whereas holiness consummates personal crucifixion and delivers
a form of self denial that is not a duty but a fruit. A life
of holiness by default will always be a life of self denial.
Resources:
I have always
argued that Salvationists don’t properly understand the cost
which will be inflicted upon us, in terms of time and
resources, if God deigns to bless us with revival. The
following quote from ‘Heathen England’ by Railton describes
what kind of resources revival will require:
“YES; every
day! That is it! The wild whirl of city life is daily carrying
the multitude on its thousand eddies to the awful rush and
boom of death's terrible waves and to the dark depths of
eternity. No day must be lost if anything effective is to be
done for the poor dying souls. There are a thousand objects
all around to catch every eye and to fill up every mind. The
Son of Man cannot be lifted up too often if we are really
anxious to have all men drawn unto Him. And once a man is laid
hold of he must not be let go for an evening. A hundred
public-house doors must be passed ere he gets home from his
work. His home may have little attraction at any time. Since
his conversion it may have become a very nest of hornets to
him. If you want to make it possible for such a man to get
established in the ways of God, you must not leave him one
leisure evening un-provided for."
Something
productive for the new convert every night of the week in a
world
where many
Corps only meet once a week - Are we ready for this? Are we
prepared to put in the hours that revival will demand?
Holiness will make such commitment a natural joy. There is no
holding back the holy – they live for Christ. God doesn’t need
lots of people to bring about revival he just needs 100% from
those he already has.
One more quote
from the same book...
"The Army
having found out the need of the people has: therefore, from
the first laid down the law. “An open-air service and an
indoor service - at least one of each at every station, every
night, if possible.” Of course, it is not always possible to
hold an open-air service; and it is not always possible to
hold one open to the public indoors, seeing that meetings of a
more private kind must occupy the only building we have to
use. Of course, every officer employed by the Army has not had
the strength needed for so many services- some, alas! have not
had the diligence either. These last have soon found that, as
there was a way into the Army, there was also a way out!"
Evangelism and
discipling in the midst of a revival is tough work and not for
the lazy, worldly or faint-hearted – holiness will turn us
into the resources that God needs.
Righteousness:
One of my
favourite SA songs is number 821 (William Pearson) I
especially like the final verse:
“We're an
Army saved, by blood and fire made strong;
And with
righteousness we mean to conquer wrong;
This shall
be our universal battle song:
There's
salvation for the world.”
We will not
conquer the world with anything less than ‘righteousness’ and
every soldier will find that holiness delivers consistent
daily victory over temptation and full deliverance from sin.
In song 407
Charles Wesley reminds us that:
“The most
impossible of all
Is that I
e'er from sin should cease;
Yet shall
it be; I know it shall;
Jesus, look
to thy faithfulness
If nothing
is too hard for thee,
All things
are possible to me.!”
We cannot bind
up demons that are running free in our own communities if
there are still demons running free in our own hearts. The
believer who is outside the blessing of holiness will find
almost all of their time is taken up resisting the tempter.
Holiness breaks the ‘power of cancelled sin and set’s the
prisoner free’
Revival does
not allow the believer the time to be caught up in the
traditional loop of sin, followed by forgiveness, followed by
more sin – revival will only happen when we break free from
such time consuming self obsession so that we can turn our
attention towards breaking the chains of others.
It is a simple
matter of fact that anyone seeking revival without holiness
will be disappointed and that anyone caught up in a revival
without holiness will be overwhelmed –without holiness revival
is impossible.
In his book
Love Slaves (p72) Commissioner Samuel Logan Brengle writes as
the ripples of that great revival which birthed the Salvation
Army are beginning to peter out. He recognises that holiness
was both the cause and the ongoing fuel of revival and without
holiness he rightly predicts that we will lose our God given
mandate to be militant soldiers for Christ.
“It is this
holiness that we Salvationists must maintain, otherwise we
shall betray our trust; we shall lose our birthright; we shall
cease to be a spiritual power in the earth; we shall have a
name to live and yet be dead; our glory will depart; and we,
like Samson, shorn of his locks, shall become as other men;
the souls with whom we are entrusted will grope in darkness,
or go elsewhere for soul nourishment and guidance; and while
we may still have titles and ranks, which will have become
vainglorious, to bestow upon our children, we shall have no
heritage to bequeath them of martyr-like sacrifice, or
spiritual power, or dare-devil faith, of pure, deep joy, of
burning love, of holy triumph.”
Quite simply
‘without holiness none shall see’ revival!
www.bloodandfire.org.uk
‘Beyond the
brook’
abale@ntlworld.com
|
