I read a testimony the other day from a pastor I’ve kept in touch with for more than 20 years. His ministry has been active and useful in the cause of Jesus Christ. His sons all serve the Lord. He has every reason to rejoice.
His testimony read something like this; “I have prayed for revival for decades now. This week I saw it happen.” He was referring to an event sanctioned by the Southern Baptist Convention. He saw what he claimed was a revival in an event held by a camp of believers who have compromised the faith on several fronts. He saw what he claimed was a revival in an event organized by a group our independent Baptist forefathers had the insight to come out of. Now their children and grandchildren are working their way back in. I promise the SBC has not gotten better. It’s that current independent Baptists are less discerning.
Why would a man whose ministry has been so blessed return to where his forefathers left? I believe it can be found in his own testimony that he had been praying for revival for years. He has been looking for what he believed God had not granted him. He could not see the blessings of God in his own ministry. (I am sure he would acknowledge being blessed, but not that he has seen revival.) In some respect, he would have had to view what has been accomplished in his ministry as being less than supernatural, less than revival.
We have got to get past this. We have got to get over calling HUGE results the work of God and the results of our own ministries as just routine.
• Every Sunday service
• Every sermon
• Every altar call
is the result of the work of God; supernatural, miraculous - a revival.
Unless it is not.
And preacher, only you know if your ministry has been of the flesh and not the Holy Spirit.
Marvin McKenzie
In the fields
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