God is Moving

We can make our plans and initiate our programs, and these are good - we should not be haphazard in our approach to the work of the Lord. But the execution should be carried out under the direction of the Spirit as He infuses His people with power. James chapter 4 provides insight, saying:
6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble."
7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

We are recipients of the grace of God that has been freely made available to us.  We access that grace not by works, but by possessing the right heart, through humility. If we have the attitude of godly submission to the direction of the Holy Spirit, then we can truly experience the nearness of the Lord and know His cleansing power.  He is calling us to enter into His presence, that we might be revived and renewed and that we might reflect Christ in all we think and do.

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God wants to do a powerful work in our hearts and through His Church, in bringing revival to lives, so that we might glorify His name. Isaiah 57 shows us the potential:
15 For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place, With him who has a contrite and humble spirit, To revive the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
16 For I will not contend forever, Nor will I always be angry; For the spirit would fail before Me, And the souls which I have made.
17 For the iniquity of his covetousness I was angry and struck him; I hid and was angry, And he went on backsliding in the way of his heart.
18 I have seen his ways, and will heal him; I will also lead him, And restore comforts to him And to his mourners.

In Louisiana, as of earlier this month, a six-days-a-week campmeeting on a Native American Reservation has continued now for over two years.  And, it has not been without its struggles, according to a piece on the Baptist Paper website, which says:

The All Nations Camp Meeting started Oct. 2, 2019 on the Coushatta Indian Reservation in southwest Louisiana, and has been meeting six nights a week since, through two hurricanes, two major tropical storms, the car-crash deaths of three teen girls and the Oct. 15 COVID-19 death of one of the organizers, Randy Carruth.

“We’re not praying for revival,” John Cernek, longtime pastor of Indian Bible Church asserted. “We’re living it!”

An October article on the Baptist Press website traced the origins of the meeting:

Carruth connected with Native Americans in New Mexico and Arizona during ministry he engaged in there. After Hurricane Barry struck southwest Louisiana in 2019, some of those Native Americans came to help. When the second group came, Carruth talked with a couple of area pastors and recently-deceased Jerry Johnson, who was then the associational mission strategist for the Mount Olive Baptist Association, about doing something for the friends who had come to help. What started as an evening service for them grew with the offer of an evangelistic tent.

Johnson said at the time, “‘Let’s put up a tent with no start date and no end date, and see what God does,’” Carruth told Baptist Press in mid-September. The tent moved from First Baptist Church of Oberlin’s property 15 miles south to the Coushatta tribal headquarters on Oct. 2, 2019. Since then, people from 35 Indian tribes in at least a dozen states have participated in the nightly services, Cernek said.

Preston Nix, evangelism professor at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, is quoted in the article: “We never know for certain where revival might break out...It comes after prayer, fasting and great concern for their own family members, friends and neighbors who are without Christ, as well as for the condition of the church, the community, the morality of the nation."  He added, “It’s desperation. If ever there was a time we need to be desperate for God, it’s now, what with the health pandemic, hurricanes, what’s coming out of Washington, D.C.”

Nix is also quoted in the Baptist Paper article, which makes a connection between what has occurred in Louisiana and what took place in the early 1970's with the "Jesus Movement." Nix says, "All of a sudden we had an awareness of the Lord..." The article goes on to say that, "His teacher had a morning Bible study in her classroom, and from his youth director at church and other sources, Nix heard about long-haired hippies on the West Coast becoming Christians." He added, "We were ‘Baptist hippies,’ kids in the church who were affected by the [Jesus Movement] culture.”  He is also quoted as saying:

“Jesus was considered a revolutionary in His own day. He rebelled against the establishment of that time. He was an example to the younger generation. He was attractive to them.

“He revolutionized their lives, kept them from drugs, alcohol and sex, and gave them purpose. They had tried everything and found that Jesus was the only one who could give them satisfaction and freedom.”

Now, in Louisiana on a piece of Native American land, the spirit of revival is continuing to proliferate. Local pastor Dustin Miller stated, “What God is doing, no man could have accomplished...He has united Christians from many churches, put them in one accord, one mind, one spirit. That’s what’s happening at All Nations Camp Meeting." Referencing other leaders of the event, he said, "It’s God. It’s a supernatural thing. I live 45 minutes away. This is not Dustin’s work, John’s work, Randy’s work. It’s God’s work. This is what He wants to do.”

I think we can admit that a movement does not necessarily come through skilled organizing or well-developed strategy, although those things can be important. I am a planner, but we have to allow God to guide our plans and leave margin for the Holy Spirit to do His work. Sometimes it's a spontaneous, sovereign move of God.

We can also see that revival starts with the individual whose heart is right before the Lord and is desiring to know Him better.  Then, like-minded individuals who are in a right relationship with God can grow corporately together. 

We must be careful that we do not resist what God wants to do in our midst. We can be willing to be repentant and pliable to the move of the Spirit.