CONTENTS
FOREWORD
I am a committed Christian, actively involved in serving Christ inside and outside my home, the second daughter of Billy and Ruth Graham. I am not just a nominal churchgoer but am presently engaged in a ministry of my own through which I call others to repentance of sin. Yet I have discovered that this shepherd is also a sheep, this teacher is also a disciple, and this saint is also a sinner. Therefore, I know the cross isn't just for them; it's for me.
The cross is for you, too. Whoever you arewhether your parents were Christians or of some other religion, whether you were raised inside or outside the church, regardless how successful you are or how miserably you've failedI guarantee that you need repentance from sin. You may well be unaware of the specific sin in your life, yet the symptoms are there because sin diminishes your joy, hinders your fellowship with God, dilutes the power of your prayers and witness, and dulls the sharp edge of your commitment. It robs you of the vitality of your Christian faith.
Every time I read Fresh Encounter, I am convicted. Some sin that has been lurking in the shadows of my heart is exposed in the light of the truth contained in this volume. As uncomfortable as it makes me, I praise God for the revelation that leads me once again to the foot of the cross, where I repent of that sin in particular and ask for cleansing and a refilling of the Holy Spirit.
The beauty of Fresh Encounter is that it will enable you to search your own heart, too, and see if anything there is offensive to God (Ps. 139:23-24). I have found it effective not only in my own life but also in the life of my ministry staff as they delved into this study together. As my staff works with me to bring revival to the hearts of God's people, they must not miss out on it for themselves. This book has had a crucial role in helping all of us at Angel Ministries maintain revival in our own lives
Fresh Encounter has also been a strategic tool in preparing for our Just Give Me Jesus revivals, which we hold in arenas throughout the world. When a team of women indicates they are praying about inviting me to hold a revival in their area, I ask them to go through this study as a way of preparing their hearts as well as focusing their minds on genuine revival. As they complete this book, they understand that real revival includes evangelism but is not limited to it. And as they work for revival, they do so not only with willing hands but also with clean hearts.
In my book I Saw the LORD, I describe revival in the following way:
For some, revival provokes images of sawdust trails, emotional outbursts, off-key singing, finger-pointing preaching, and hell-fire praying. But the revival I'm talking aboutthe revival God is calling you and me to experienceis something completely different. It's authentic, personal revival.
Personal revival is
Jesus in you
And Jesus around you
And Jesus through you
And Jesus under you
And Jesus over you
And Jesus before you
And Jesus behind you.
Personal revival is just Jesus
Jesus on your mind,
Jesus filling your heart,
Jesus overflowing from your lips.
As you begin this book, my prayer is that you will have a Fresh Encounter with Him.
Anne Graham Lotz
PREFACE
R evival has been one of the most mysterious, compelling, sublime, and desperately needed phenomenon in human history. You cannot remain indifferent to it although it produces a wide variety of responses. Over the centuries revival has produced massive influxes of converts into the churches, yet ecclesiastical leaders are often bewildered at how to respond to it or even whether or not they are in favor of it. Revival quickens the human spirit and enlivens worship. It makes prayer exciting, preaching dynamic, and Christian service fervent. Yet churches are as prone to resist revival when it comes as they are to embrace it. Revival seems to defy a simple explanation, let alone a means to control it.
Revivals are God initiated, and God has laid down explicit prerequisites for them (2 Chron. 7:14). Even when God's people are longing and praying for revival, it comes suddenly and unexpectedly. Just as inexplicably, revival can dissipate or end abruptly.
Revival has always met resistance, even within the church, which may seem surprising since revivals have been responsible for many significant advances for God's kingdom. Yet revival also exposes the sin and morbidity of congregations. Numerous accounts of revival testify to the profound sense of God's presence during worship preceding the revival. The dynamic preaching often experienced in revival contrasts services. This keen awareness of God's nearness was noticeably missing in services the anemic and ineffective exhortation of earlier days. The electric singing during revivals eclipses the lifeless music that was the norm. The testimonies of radically changed lives in revival exposes the absence of personal transformation before revival. The fervent and extended prayer times throughout the day and night replace previously forsaken prayer meetings. Most notable is the profound conviction of sin during revival compared to the heretofore complacent and indulgent attitude toward sin before revival. While this book is intended both to explain and to promote revival, Brian Edwards was correct in claiming: Revival does not need a defense; it needs to be experienced.
Revival amplifies the Christian experience, making the Holy Spirit's work in a person's life unmistakable. Revival demonstrates what is important to God, and it exposes how far God's people have departed from His intention. Revival is not for those who enjoy the status quo. It will disconcert those who rationalize and accommodate their sin. It will unsettle stoic Christians with its fervency. But for those who cannot bear to continue their Christian experience at the same low level to which they have grown accustomed, revival is their deliverance. When churches realize that if the Spirit does not breathe fresh life into their midst they will continue to suffer spiritual powerlessness and cultural irrelevance, then revival is the answer to their desperate prayers.
Contemporary Hearts Cry for Revival
Across America and around the world, God's people are crying out for a fresh encounter with Him. Everywhere we travel we hear churches pleading with God to revive them, their nation, and their world. There is widespread dissatisfaction with today's church. Numerous efforts have been attempted to make the church more relevant, seeker friendly, contemporary, or cutting edge. Yet despite millions of dollars, hundreds of best-selling books, countless church growth conferences, and an endless stream of Christian trends, the church displays a powerlessness that cannot even evangelize people today at the same rate as society's population growth.
Contemporary believers wonder why the mighty movements of God recorded in Scripture and Christian history are noticeably absent today. Modern pastors are burning out at epidemic levels as they experience the demoralizing futility of attempting to lift their church members out of their spiritual lethargy. While some individuals and churches are experiencing a fresh wind of God's Spirit blowing upon them, many others are asking, Is there a Word from the Lord? What does God want us to do? Throughout history God has always had a response to those who seek Him (Jer. 33:3).
