In 2006, I was prompted by Holy Spirit to research and learn about past moves of God. Until that time, I had never really known much about the Great Awakenings and revivals that have happened in our history, but as I researched those amazing outpourings, my spirit was leaping. The testimonies and articles I read stirred a deep desire inside me to see these things happen again!
Then in October of 2008, I had an encounter with the Lord in which He talked to me about the those past moves of His Spirit. He said, “You rejoice over those past moves, but I weep when I recall them.”
What? I could hardly believe that I was hearing correctly. I said, “Lord, there were such powerful demonstrations of Your Spirit during those times that transformed lives and turned the course of nations. Why would You weep over that?”
I will never forget His words to me. He said, “I weep because what I started never got finished. It is never My intention that the moves of My Spirit be confined to one specific time and one specific people without leaving an effect on those that will come after them. But I have reserved and preserved embers of all of those past moves, and you are entering a time when I will breathe on those embers, and that which was will be again but even greater!”
Moves of God are so exciting because they carry with them life-changing demonstrations of the power and glory of God! But these moves are not meant to be short-lived, momentary events. Our experiences with God are never just about us and our times. God establishes in each generation a testimony that is to be shouted to the next generation so that they may be provoked to know Him for themselves.
Our task, as the Ekklesia is not that of rebuilding what has already been built. God never intended for us to settle on the foundation. He also doesn’t intend for us to despise or forget the foundation. His Word instructs us to build on it. Paul wrote, “You are rising like the perfectly fitted stones of the temple, and your lives have been built up together upon the foundation laid by the apostles and prophets, and best of all, you are connected to the Head Cornerstone of the building, the Anointed One, Jesus Christ Himself! This entire building is under construction and is continually growing under His supervision until it rises up completed as the holy temple of the Lord Himself. This means that God is transforming each one of you into the Holy of Holies, His dwelling place, through the power of the Holy Spirit living in you” (Ephesians 2:19-21, The Passion Translation).
The key to spiritual growth is to take what we learn from God and go forward, building on the foundation that has already been laid. We do a great disservice to God and to those who have gone before us—and to those who will come after us—if we hold to a past mindset but never build and reach beyond those boundaries to expand into and discover what God has in store. We are called to take what we have been given and build our part for our time. We build by knowing and experiencing God for ourselves, and then allowing Holy Spirit to manifest the testimony of Christ through us to the world around us as we walk in obedience to His leading.
I truly believe that another great move of God is happening again, and He has an awakened people whose hearts have been restored to a passionate pursuit of Him. They are devoted to Him, and they are operating with His power, wisdom, and authority to bring things into alignment with His Kingdom purposes. This is our time on the timeline. Yes, we absolutely rejoice in and celebrate the excitement of this move of God, but we refuse to make it all about us and then let it stop with us. We understand that we are the connection point between that which was and that which is to come, and everything we do for God and everything we experience from God in our time matters! What others did and experienced before us was necessary for us, and what we do and experience now is necessary for those who will come after us!
There is a Scripture in the Psalms that I have always loved. It should be very thought-provoking for all of us. Psalm 90:9 says, “We spend our years as a tale that is told.” The years of our lives are paragraphs and chapters written by our actions or by our refusal to act, by our faith or by our doubt, by our fear or by our trust in God, our decisions, our experiences with God, our living. It is all writing a story for the next generation to read. Some are reading as we “write,” and some will still read our stories long after we are gone. The great and sobering question is, what are we writing? What story are we leaving for the generations that are coming after us? We must steadfastly resolve that we will not just shout about the move of God, but that we will enter into it and work with Holy Spirit to fully do our part so that the knowledge of the glory of God is experienced in our times and so that the advancement of the Kingdom of God will continue long after we are gone.
