It's currently June 4, 5:07am. I'm sitting in our home office staring outside my window to what is a thick fog on the other side of the glass.
Precipitation?
Shekinah Glory?
Probably both. I've been laying wide awake for over two hours now hearing songs and stories on repeat in my mind. Pregnancy Insomnia?
Holy Spirit?
Probably both.
In the silence of my home, with my husband and son both asleep, my laptop clicks are loud in a way I've never realized. I've never typed in the dead of the night, and yet I feel ever so prompted to do so. I've been praying and pondering and while the world is alseep, I feel the Spirit very much active. Let me get to the point. I'm going to spew my thoughts. This might not be my best writing, but once I obey, maybe I'll be able to go back to bed and find rest. I believe we are in the next Great Awakening. I type that with humility and trembling. I prophesy that with soberness. To the students and intercessors in the future researching and reading this. Let it be marked. We are in revival. "Revival's in the air. Catch it if you can.
He's moving on the wind. The dawn is breaking. Life your eyes to see. He's better than you dreamed. And everything you've lost. Loves returning." - Melissa Helser This song has been resounding in our home all week. Oliver requests it as the "clapping song". Even in his little body, his eternal spirit connects with it. Like a record on repeat, it's all I can hear right now. It seems more of a descriptive declaration of the times than a musical couplet of lyrics. A "Great Awakening" is a time when a mass Wind wipes over a nation to bring repentance and restoration. Families have been pent up praying for almost 100 days. And now, everywhere we look we are seeing darkness and light AT THE SAME TIME. That is a sign. I don't know what is to come in the next few weeks. But I sense a holy fear of the Lord not to miss it. I've been praying and teaching about revivals for years. I'm telling you. We are in revival. A story comes to mind right now. The Jesus Movement was a revival movement in the 60s-70s that wiped salvation into our country primarily focusing on young adults and music. (My faith legacy is a product of the Jesus moment. My mom met Jesus during a Jesus Movement meeting.) During this time, "hippies" were coming to the Lord by the thousands. Their cry for freedom was found in Jesus. They were being baptized in the oceans on both coasts because of the mass amounts of salvation. There was a predominant large church in California; Calvary Chapel. The Lord started giving the pastor, Chuck Smith, a heart for what was happening. He became welcoming and dicispling all of these new believers that were getting radically saved. Some of the church members protested this decision with, "We just got new carpet and the hippies' bare feet are ruining it."
With righteous passion, the pastor went to the corner of the room, slit the carpet and pulled some up and said, "Rip up the carpet." A sign went outside the church, "Hippies Welcome" and huge multiplication started taking place through this church.
I feel the Church is at a “will we rip the carpet?” crossroads. (I‘m speaking metaphorical carpet; but real life applications of obedience.) What is happening in our country right now is not a "band-wagon". A band-aid is being removed and exposing a deep deep DEEP wound that needs healing and sin that needs repentance for. The enemy has slashed and slandered long enough and a revival of restoration is here now. I'm weeping thinking of the praying grandmas who have dreamed of this day. The day that their family turns to faith again. Father, GRANT SALVATION TO OUR LAND. So what now? I don't know. Ask the Holy Spirit. But be aware that just like I was awakened in the night, a great AWAKENING is happening right now. Just like I am pregnant, the Church is carrying the next generation of believers right now. I've often had a fear that I would "miss the movement". Ryan has had to really help me with that in reminding me that the "movement" is always obedience. A day to day, moment by moment choice to be sensitive to what the Lord is doing. So for me, I feel I'm suppose to tell you what I see. (Prophesy, declare, describe, dream... pick your word, here goes):
I see a white sign with black letters that says, "SAFE PLACE". This sign is in windows, yards, and church buildings. I don't know if this is a literal sign or a figurative one. But a "SAFE PLACE" moment is occurring.
I see a tornado of generosity, where believers are giving to neighbors, organizations, strangers, and ministries at what the financially wise would describe as a "dangerous rate".
I see a prayer picture with rain puddles all over. ( I think from rain). So many puddles. All fairly small and all over, to where you can't walk without stepping in a puddle. No idea what this is, but I see it.
I see a JOY well in the church, that we've never tapped into before. (Though weeping is in the night, joy comes in the (awakening).
I'm now getting extremely sleepy as I close my eyes "to see", which is my sign that the grace is gone, the assignment for now is done, and I can go back to bed. (I guess this can be an intercessor lesson blog as well. This happens often to me. I carry something in my head and heart, I know I'm suppose to pray. I pray, sometimes seconds and sometimes hours until I feel a "lift". It feels like the weight or burden is gone. Then I know that assignment is done. But if I don't continue until I feel the "lift" I can't do anything or think of anything until I "pray it through".)
The sun is now rising. Another reminder of the dawn that is coming. I know when we think of revival we don't usually think of it as protests and weeping. I sure don't. But I do know that what is happening in the Black community, what is happening in the hearts and homes, what is happening in the church.... it's revival my friends.
The Kingdom is at Hand,
Abby
6:07am