7. The great revivals of the end times

7. The great revivals of the end times (Rev. 8:1-5; 14:14-15)

7.1 Intermediate goals for the revival made more concrete

With the background of what was said above, I believe that we can still count on a interlude in time with relative world peace and the possibility of open communication. According to Rev. 7:3, the interlude will last until all of God's servants on earth have received God's seal on their foreheads.
Before the collapse of the communist regimes, open evangelization was completely impossible in the eastern countries. Now it is allowed, even though in some countries there are growing restrictions. Soon, the Muslim world will open up in a similar fashion, but perhaps not until after some local wars. (See section 10.3.1)
Like it was in the Roman times, all of the positive things which have happened in the information and communication world are necessary in order for the Gospel to have the opportunity to be quickly spread to all peoples.

Intermediate goals for the great revivals of the end times are, as I see them:

that all peoples can hear the gospel preached, followed by signs and wonders, and
that it is demonstrated through transformed people who begin to help needy people with unselfish good deeds.
God's foremost purpose is certainly not to judge the world, but to save as many as possible.
that those who have received Christ might experience not only God's love and care, but also
to receive his blessing, even in the economic realm in order to be able to give a more accurate foundation to the great evangelization and missions work of the end times.
that among all peoples, God can seal with his seal everyone who faithfully carries out these assignments

Therefore, I believe that God will first show the world how good he is, before the Antichrist is allowed to appear and tries to play the savior of the world.

When he then totally fails, and furthermore exposes his devilish wickedness, Jesus will enter the battle at Armageddon and save humanity from completely annihilating themselves.

7.2 The bowls of prayer are emptied (Rev. 8:1-5)

After the seventh seal is broken, but before the tribulation is allowed to begin, something further happens in heaven. The worship before the throne, which is described earlier in Rev. 4-5, 7, results in the Christians of the world finally receiving answers to their many years of prayer for a last revival. In order for us to understand what happens here, we ought to become acquainted with some of God's principles for answering prayer:

God never forces himself on people. He respects our free will and waits for an invitation.
An immediate answer to our first prayer is guaranteed in only one case. This is when we individually pray for the forgiveness of our own sins and to be born again. With this, the answer to our prayer is highly personal matter which the Devil cannot hinder, and which no one else has right to interfere in.
But in other cases, we must have patience, especially when it affects the salvation of other people, and the revelation of the kingdom of God. The whole world is truly in the power of the Devil for now, since it was given to him by the first humans in the Fall.

As I see it therefore, God has a crystal clear right to intervene in a community only when there are sufficiently many people who are praying for him to do so.

When we thus pray, "Our Father in heaven..... your kingdom come in our land" our prayers are collected in bowls in heaven, which God will empty in his time in the form of answers to prayer.

Not until the Millennium will we get to see the kingdom of God in its fullness. But we can already have a foretaste of its glory in times of revival.

When revival finally comes:

Some will joyfully receive everything which God offers in his grace,
while others will become hardened, thereby increasing their future judgment.

7.3 The promise of revival (Rev. 14:14-15, and many more)

Perhaps the most oft-cited promise for the revival in the end times is Joel 2:28-32. Here, God promises that he will pour out his Spirit on all flesh; that is, on all peoples. This prophecy was partially fulfilled on the first day of Pentecost when it was quoted by Peter in his attempt to describe the spiritual bombshell which at that time shook all of Jerusalem. (Acts 2:1-40)

Ever since the beginning of the 1900's the final fulfillment of Joel's prophecy has been happening all over the earth. That its fulfillment applies particularly to our time is evident in that it connects the time for its final fulfillment to the sign of blood, fire, and columns of smoke in the sky (which are nuclear explosions) see 5.4 in the Prophetic Technical Supplement.
In Acts3:12-26, Peter gives a new speech to the Jews in which he promises that "times of refreshing" from God would prepare Jesus' second coming. (See particularly Acts 3:19-20 and Rom. 11:11-15)
Daniel is the prophet in the OT who, more than others prophesied about the future development of the world. In Dan. 11 (esp. vss. 32-35), we see that Christians will be able to win victories for the kingdom of God, even during the persecution of the Antichrist in the tribulation.

We loosely quote the following: "And yet, during the tribulation, a short time of victory is given to them. For the people who know their God shall be strong and do great things."

"Many shall join themselves to them with flattery. The tribulation shall reach even some of the wise, in order to purify them."
Jesus himself gives the most comprehensive teaching on the great period of revival in the end times. In Matt. 13:37-43, he compares it with the last harvest of the world. In Matt. 22:1-13, he gives us a powerful additional warning. Here, the King is God, who invites people to a great wedding feast for the Son, Jesus Christ:

But those who were first invited declined to come, although with varying excuses. (See note.)
Therefore, the king gave his servants the following command:

Go out everywhere to the roads and invite all whom you meet to come to the feast, whether they are evil or good, until the wedding hall is filled with guests.

But one of the guests who came had chosen to come in his own clothing. He thereby insulted the king by neglecting to put on the wedding clothes which the king had offered to everyone. As a result, he was thrown out of the wedding hall. (The actual wedding feast will take place in the sky after the rapture, but to be able to participate, a person must have accepted Christ here on earth. Those who disregard putting on the right clothing will of course be left behind on earth in the rapture.)

Note: The reason was certainly entirely legal, but in practice, those who declined insulted the king by putting their own petty, earthly interests ahead of the king's invitation. Presumably, Jesus refers to those Christians who place their own selfish interests ahead of what is best for the kingdom of God.

7.4 Spiritual pride shuts us out

The Bible gives us innumerable examples of how God attempts to deal with our pride. Here, Jesus warns us of how spiritual pride in various forms will shut us out of what God is doing, both here in time and for eternity.

The Jews - who were called first - refused, since what Jesus preached did not conform to their religious tradition. Therefore they wanted to kill Jesus, exactly as they had done with many prophets in the past.
The guest who comes in his own clothes symbolizes Christians when we proudly assert that what we have already received suffices just as well as the new, which God in his grace, is offering to all.
Finally, spiritual pride often joins in primarily to be able to show its own superiority by criticizing others and the new thing God is doing.

Church history even shows that many Christians in various revivals have made this mistake. It is particularly serious when God says it's easier to fill the wedding hall with ordinary people from the outside than to get the religious and Christians to humble themselves and go further. (Read more on the foolish bridal Christians in section 12).
Now we must not make this mistake another time if we in Europe want to take part in the spiritual refreshing which is already happening in many countries. How bad if we were left outside the last great revival.

In general, it still holds true, however, that every country chooses between increasing light or deeper darkness, depending on how its people respond to the invitation of the king. (Compare to illustration 4.3)

7.5 The instruments of revival

Many instruments which God used during the 1900's have obtained their position despite how they promoted themselves and their agenda too much, for example, for financial gain.

What we will see next will be so different that it has been called "the faceless revival:"

Those who take over will no longer strive after position or authority in church or Christian organizations. They will instead seek their authorization and honor from the Lord himself.
They will no longer try to make a profit for themselves. Many will earn their living as Paul did through their own "tent-maker work."
Like John the Baptist, they will seek to prepare the way for Jesus by lifting him up as king before all people. In many cases, they will actually carry out their mission without even giving out their name before people.

Therefore, their power will also become so much greater.

I wish to here name five groups of new instruments:

The first new group is women: Although they comprise half of the population of the world, they have for too long lived in oppression by men. But in the last time, the Bible says that it will be more and more the women who will surround the men. (Jer. 31:22) This prophetic word has certainly been an extremely neglected Bible passage in the debate about women pastors. Yonggi Cho's church in South Korea has for a long time been the world's largest Pentecostal congregation. One of the secrets behind its enormous growth has been that Yonggi Cho, based on a word from the Lord, has been willing to place women as prayer group leaders. Another secret is this church's extremely comprehensive and enduring prayer for revival.
The second group of new instruments is primarily the youth and even children. The youth in many places make up the actual foundation of the revival work in China.
The third group is the native peoples. For too long, white missionaries have neglected to lift up and develop the natives as equal co-laborers in Christ who can themselves spread the kingdom of God further.
The fourth group therefore will be foreigners coming from old mission fields. We staid westerners have in fact a lot to learn from their devotion in prayer, worship, and praise.
The next group of new instruments is those who were formerly drug addicts and alcoholists and those who opposed Christianity, for example, Satan-worshipers. Among these we can even include sects whose doctrine is grossly in error of the Bible, such as Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons. All of these will be won more through experiencing God's love and power, than through being intellectually convinced of the "right doctrine." When these people experience freedom and a radical transformation of their lives, they often become the boldest of all.

7.5.1 Both the threshing of the harvest -

The magnitude of the harvest will be surprising. Meetings which might even have begun spontaneously will be able to fill sporting arenas night after night.

The news media will be able to report on healings and conversions until entire cities are shaken. Miracles which exceed the biblical wonders will cause masses of people to confess Jesus as Lord.

When the kingdom of God comes so forcefully, we will see how people literally storm in and take it for themselves. (Matt. 11:12)

7.5.2 - and fishing nets will be needed.

The weakness with only having large revival meetings has been clearly demonstrated in recent years by mission organizations which have lacked local follow-up to their campaigns. Out of the hundreds or thousands of decisions in large meetings, only a few percent have remained in the faith after some years.

Earlier revivals have unfortunately almost always resulted in new churches and organizations. The disadvantage with this is that they have often increased division among the Christians. Further, the weakness in traditional Christian organizations is that a person can very well be a member who faithfully goes to meetings, but who nonetheless lacks close fellowship with other members.

The Lord has therefore begun to create complementary networks of close personal relationships, both between leaders and ordinary members of churches and congregations. These networks are formed as people increasingly learn to function together under the leading of the Holy Spirit as members in the body of Christ.

Prayer groups with close relationships are good examples of fishing nets. Only in such nets can the great catch/harvest also be secured. In close-knit groups, each individual can receive the personal care which the larger structure can never offer.

Even in coming times of persecution, the networks will become a strength, and an ordinary organization membership will become a disadvantage. In the latter case, the secret police only need to read the membership roster ahead of time.

Note: In Bogot�, the capital of Columbia, exists probably the world's fastest growing congregation, with 50,000 new members per year. Overall, it has grown from just a few people to over 250,000 in 10-15 years, thanks to the fact that every new Christian receives responsibility for the growth and development of 12 new members after having gone through one year of intensive training. In England, several churches belonging to the Pentecostal movement's so-called Elim-branch (including Kensington Temple in London), have begun to apply this model. Abbreviated, it is called G12, and is expected with time to be spread over the whole world.

7.6 Even worship services will be changed

Traditional worship services are mainly built around a liturgy or a "denominational tradition."
In general, the actual needs of the congregation are barely addressed. Many songs are either ceremonial or they revolve around us and our tiresome wandering in the wilderness. In non-State churches, with freer forms of worship services, the meetings all too often take the form of good religious entertainment.

In the coming revival on the other hand, the Lord himself and his presence will take center stage.

When the Lord comes very near to us, needy people can spontaneously experience healing from sicknesses and from evil spirits. Our devil-motivated self focus is broken and gives way to an interaction between the Lord and us with genuine praise and worship of Jesus Christ as both our Savior and King. (Illustrations 5.5 and 5.6)

The Bible here gives us two vivid pictures:

When we in a new unity anoint Christ as our head, the healing "oil" will even run down over us who make up the body. (Ps. 133)
In addition, the individual member's "springs of water" will begin to run together into a single "River of Life." This flows from the Lord himself who has taken his place in his spiritual temple which is the church. The stream will eventually swell into a mighty river which wipes away religious rubbish. It will become a small "foretaste" of the fullness which appears first in the Millennium. (Series 3, "The Way to Freedom," will come later.)

Everywhere this "River of life" is allowed to surge forth, everything living is renewed, and on its banks will grow the "tree of life", whose leaves bring healing to the nations. (Ezek. 47:1-12)

Just as it happened during the revivals of the 1800's, wherever the revival is allowed to come forth there will be a radical diminishing of many evils such as crime, alcohol abuse, drugs and sex traffic. This has already happened in Brazil for example, where 45% of the inhabitants in a city of 3-million became active confessing Christians.

7.7 False foundations and ministries abandoned.

Many who have considered themselves to be good Christians will realize that they have built on the wrong foundation, in that they have been born into a church/organization, or a certain doctrine, or have just followed a strong leader.

Now, they have to start over from the foundation and personally build their house on a new and vital personal relationship to the Bridegroom, Jesus Christ.

When leading priests/pastors emphasize the necessity of such a transformation, masses of people will become open to question their own relationship. But others will unfortunately harden themselves and become persecutors of the church.
With time, however, the anointing of the Spirit, and the increasing pressure of circumstances will enable many leaders from different backgrounds to unite around the common goals which must at that time be fought for.
This network unity in the body of Christ will grow so strong that it will surprise the world, which in the time before the appearance of the Antichrist will break down in increasing anarchy and chaos.

7.8 Increasing light and darkness

In the future, there will probably be regions and countries on earth where the last revival results in the prevailing of the love and peace of the kingdom of God. These regions can thereby serve as bulwarks from which the church goes out and attacks the areas of darkness.

The dark areas or countries are those which are almost completely under the dominion of the Devil. He has never before been so desperate as now, for he knows that the time he has left to rule on earth is very short.
In these areas where darkness is allowed to rule, chaos will increase. Natural catastrophes, local wars with or without nuclear weapons, famine, and uncontrollable epidemics, such as the plague, will kill so many that occasionally there won't be time to bury all the dead. In many places, mobs will rise up and destroy everything in their path. Fear of anarchy will spread ever more across the dark regions.

When the confusion increases the peace and purposeful lives, shown all the more in the church, will cause people to wonder:

Many saints will then even be able to disperse wild riots by calling down God's peace right in the midst of the storm. Others will dare to enter areas contaminated from nuclear weapon detonations in order to help the survivors.
Apostles and prophets will arise, and in the name of Jesus be able to bring health and healing to people affected by the radiation.
Although these courageous Christians will do such good deeds, some of them will be dragged before the authorities or be thrown in prison. But even then, they will seize the opportunities to give there a witness to Jesus. Increasing numbers of the faithful witnesses will begin to see it as an honor to be able to suffer or even die if necessary for Jesus' sake, as they did in the time of the Apostles.

The reason for this is primarily that their bridal love for Jesus has grown, but also because their view of suffering and trials has matured over the years.

7.9 "Bridge-building" - without unnecessary confrontation

In the maxi-text of in Illustrated Series 1, you can find my attempt to present the similarities and differences between the 4 great world religions, in an orderly, factual format. ( Note: still under translation)

When we wish to reach out to the adherents of other religions with our gospel, we would be wise to:

start with that which we have in common, keeping to the other person's level. This is what Paul did, for example, when in Athens he decided to not to condemn their idols. Instead, he caught their interest by "promising to say more" about the unknown god whom they already worshiped. (Acts 17:23)
Thereby, a friendlier relationship is created so that the listener becomes curious and interested in hearing about that which most importantly characterizes a living Christianity.
If the listener also then sees Jesus' love, power, and caring demonstrated (as outlined below), then a "righteous envy" is brought forth which motivates the listener to personally experience the same thing.

The Bible states that "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." (Heb. 13:8) Therefore, anyone can today experience a life-transforming meeting with Jesus in which:

They receive forgiveness for their sins, and assurance of being a child of God.
God confirms the preaching of the message by healing the sick and casting out evil spirits.
The socially revolutionizing power of the gospel lifts up the downtrodden, heals divided families, and ultimately provides a positive effect on the structure of society.

The American pastor, T.L. Osborn, has been one of the pioneers in this type of missions, without creating unnecessary oppositions between religions. In Scandinavia, his foremost disciple is the Norwegian pastor, Aril Edvardsen, whose ministry includes sending a popular TV-program, "Miracle", to the Middle East over a Muslim satellite.

Aril usually presents the following points to Muslims:

Islam is the religion which most closely resembles Christianity. God's name, Allah, is used by both Muslim and Christian Arabs, and is therefore used in all the Bible texts in their languages. Regarding Jesus Christ, Muslims only do not believe in the virgin birth. The Koran also teaches that the gospel is from God, and that the Koran confirms the gospel. The Koran even speaks about Jesus ascension to heaven. Further, the Koran teaches that Mohammed is dead, but that Jesus lives in heaven in order to come again from there on on the day of resurrection to judge the whole world.
There are, however, clear differences between the Bible and the Koran on central questions, but the similarities nevertheless help him receive freedom to preach the gospel.
When Aril received the freedom to preach about Jesus' death and resurrection, he doesn't try to convert the Muslims to Christianity as a religion. According to the Bible, a person does not become saved by confessing he's a Christian, but by believing from his heart in Jesus' death and resurrection, and by confessing him with his mouth as his Savior. (Rom. 10:9-10)
Of the 1 billion Muslims in the world, over 80% are peace-loving. All the violence and the evil which we encounter in newspapers and news programs derives from a minority consisting of fundamentalists, terrorists, and fanatics. But even if they were our enemies, we are indebted to love them and to do good towards those who persecute us, if we want to be God's true children. (Matt. 5:44)
Concerning the Jews, similar rules of conduct apply as towards the Muslims. We should not try to make them into Christians, but should certainly help them to confess Jesus as their promised Messiah. In this case also, the Jews will be awakened through curiosity and envy when they see how Jesus heals the sick and transforms people who come to faith in him. (Rom. 11:11-14)

But when Christianity becomes a dead religion, it resembles in many ways other religions.

7.10 The prophetic clock

The purposes of this section are to briefly describe the place of the last great revival in a greater historical perspective. In the Jewish calendar are of course several important feasts which refer to important events in the kingdom of God.

Some Bible interpreters therefore believe that:

EASTER is a symbol of the reformation during the 1500's. At that time, God began to restore the Christian church from the complete spiritual darkness which had prevailed for a long time. The principal truth was justification by faith, and the authority of the Bible. Thereafter followed a string of revival movements such as Methodism, Baptism, etc. (See illustration 3.3 in Series 1)

PENTECOST is a symbol of the great spiritual outpouring mainly during all of the 1900's.

The first great revival wave began in 1905 in California, and subsequently spread across the world as the Pentecostal movement.
In the beginning of the 1960's came the "Jesus Movement". It was characterized by a sincere, warm love for Jesus himself, and was often spread by former hippies who were simple young people.
Thereafter followed the charismatic revival as the next large wave. It eventually carried further the teaching on the baptism in the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit to many churches and denominations outside of the Pentecostal Movement, including the Catholic Church. A correct use of the spiritual gifts (= our spiritual tools of service) is a necessary qualification for us to be able to build up the "body of Christ" on earth.
From the 1980's, the teaching on the gifts of the Spirit was complemented with the requirement of a much more living faith in Jesus Christ, in order that our experiment in faith would be successful and confirmed by God with accompanying signs and wonders.

Afterwards, during the 1990's, came several new waves whose persistence was somewhat varying. Some examples follow.

Greatly abbreviated, I see the following central themes in their messages:

We must learn to know the Father's love much more deeply in order to be secure in our relationship to God and in our relationship to others. (Vineyard movement)
With their manifestations such as shaking and laughter, the Pensacola revival in Florida, the Toronto revival, and Rodney H. Brown have truly challenged Christians whose intellects have blocked the Spirit of God's spontaneous flow.
The Pensacola revival calls to our attention that we definitely must begin to take our sanctification much more seriously if we want to be a part of the Bride. (We must take up the cross in the fight against our carnal nature. More on this in section 12, and in Series 3 which will come out later.
Through Benny Hinn's satellite TV program, people in over 120 countries can every week now see how God's presence during worship heals 10-100 people from various kinds of sickness.

I believe that these revivals are small streams, which will blend together in the mighty river channel of the last revival. Therefore, we should not be deceived into letting antagonism build up between the different streams. God's great Congregation needs all of them in order for us to become better equipped for our mission in the last great revival. What would we do in Stockholm, for example, if we had to take in 10,000 new Christians?

My evaluation is that the harvest field has ripened,
but that God's Church in Europe has not been mobilized to be able to take care of the great harvest.

THE FESTIVAL OF BOOTHS primarily symbolizes the Millennium with the greatest harvest celebration in the history of the world, when all peoples become saved, and the knowledge of God is as great as the depths of the sea. (Is. 11:9)

The last great revival of our age will then be a little foretaste of the blessings and revivals of the Millennium.