Section 05 - The Rest of Revival

Isaiah 28:11 to 12 says:

For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.
To whom he said, This [is] the rest [with which] you may cause the weary to rest; and this [is] the refreshing: yet they would not hear.

Joshua 11:23 says:

So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD [Yahweh] said to Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. And the land rested from war.

What is revival? It is a word everybody knows. It is a word that has been used certainly as long as I can remember. Right from a child I grew up with this word 'revival' ringing in my ears.

Having grown up in the Pentecostal church, it seems that the word revival is total 'Pentecostalese', because every Pentecostal and Charismatic has that word on their tongue. They are saying,

"We are praying for revival. Let's fast and pray. Let's call this church to wait on God for revival."

"What are you praying for?"

"Revival of course."

"What is revival?"

"Well, umm.. yeah, what is revival?"

Different Ideas of Revival

Over a period of time that whole concept has become warped and denatured. Eventually each person has their own concept of what revival means. And for many churches and for most pastors, revival is an aspiration for growth and success.

They say, "We are praying for revival so that the people will come in; so the pews will be full and so that our church will get big. There will be lots of finance so we will have to extend the seating.

"We will have to break down the church and make it bigger. There will be lots of people because we will have revival. Glory; hallelujah. The tithes will triple. This is revival, brother."

Is that your concept of revival? Next we have the legalistic approach to revival that says,

"It depends completely on us. It is up to us to turn from our sin. We have to become righteous and holy and somehow justify and bring revival."

Then you get the passive approach that says,

"Well God is sovereign and He will send revival when He wants to do it. We can't force His hand. We have to wait. When God decides to bring revival we'll get it. So we'll just keep hoping and praying that revival will arrive."

And then revival comes and revival goes. It seldom lasts does it?

Have these been your experiences with revival? Are these some of the concepts that you have heard and adopted through the years concerning revival?

In this section I am talking about the Joshua apostle, so you may wonder perhaps why I am talking about revival. It is for a very important reason. Joshua brings the End Times revival, and the end result of revival is supposed to another 'r' word - rest. That is why I entitled this section 'The Rest of Revival'.

Revival is supposed to be ultimately heading for a time of rest. How is this going to come about, and how is the Joshua apostle meant to bring it about? With the Lord's help I am going to try and give you some pointers here, taken from the life of Joshua and from his experiences.

We looked in the last section at Joshua's mistake that he made at Gibeon and how he had to deal with the five kings. I showed you that it was a picture of Satan's counterfeit of the Fivefold Ministry, and how the enemy has set up a system in the world to counteract everything that God does in the church.

Now I would like us to have a look at how we deal with the World System and the effects of the world. I want to show you how the Joshua apostle goes about approaching this, and how God will work through the ministry of the Joshua apostle to bring it about.

Reviving the Church

There is a need for revival. What is revival? Well in simple English terms it means this:

To bring back to life what once was, or to restore something that was there before.

So revival in the context of the Joshua apostle means to bring the church back to where it was. We saw that the Moses apostle has the responsibility of laying out the pattern for the church. Which pattern? It was the original pattern that God had.

What happened to the pattern that the early apostles laid out and put forth? The church went into the Dark Ages and lost the pattern. It lost the principles and veered away from what God intended, and became less than what God intended.

Now today God is raising up His Joshua apostles to lay out a new pattern for the End Times church. That new pattern will build on the pattern of the original apostles.

And as Moses completes that pattern and hands over to Joshua, Joshua will go out to bring the church back to order, and back to the place that it was. The Joshua apostle will revive the church and bring it back into the glory and power that the early church had.

You say, "So what do we need the David and the Solomon for then?"

The David and Solomon apostles will take the church beyond what the early church had. There are a lot of people who believe that the End Times church of God will be simply what was there in the early church, perhaps in greater measure, because there will be more apostles.

When I hear somebody speak like that I know that they haven't had much exposure to anything more than the Moses and Joshua type ministries. Joshua will bring the church back to where it should have been. Therefore Joshua will work within the limits of the existing church system, even as Moses will.

There is a need for revival. Why? It is because the church has strayed away from the original pattern. Joshua has to implement the new principles that Moses has laid out.

Dealing With the World

We have looked at this in various different places so I am not going to elaborate on it here. But how is Joshua going to do it? He is going to have to start by dealing with the five kings which we looked at last time.

Joshua made a mistake in that he entered into a covenant with Gibeon, and Gibeon is a picture of the world. As a result of that covenant, he came in confrontation with the World System as those five kings gathered together and were arrayed against him.

Joshua has to start by breaking free of Gibeon. He has become involved and has allied himself to Gibeon, even as the church of God have allied themselves to the World System. And the church has become colored by and influenced by the world, by those five kings that we looked at.

So the first thing the Joshua apostle has to do is to bring the church to the place of dealing with the world, with the Gibeonites.

What did Joshua do? Joshua 9:27 says:

And Joshua made them (the Gibeonites) that day hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation, and for the altar of the LORD [Yahweh], even to this day, in the place which he should choose.

Joshua forced the Gibeonites to serve him. He couldn't break the covenant. He had made a vow. He was part and parcel of the Gibeonites, but he did not have to bow to them. He made them subservient to him. Have you heard this statement? It says,

We are in the world, but we are not of the world.

Then there is the Scripture that says,

And this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.

We are meant to be overcomers in this world. And we will be looking at that in a lot more detail as we see how Joshua handled this.

Joshua began firstly by bringing the Gibeonites in subjection to him. This was not only to the people of God, but to the service of God, to the altar of God and the church of God.

The Joshua apostle must bring the church to the place where the church brings the World System in subservience. This is not only so that the world cannot influence the church, but so that the world in actual fact begins to serve the church.

How are you going to do that? By rising up and becoming what God has called you to be. It all has to do with the displacement of the World System, and it is going to benefit the church of God.

A Backlash

Then Joshua prepared for the backlash. What backlash?

If you get involved in the world, you try and stand against the world and bring it into subjection and there is going to be a kickback. There is going to be a backlash from the world that will come and try and attack you.

There are going to be elements in the world that will not be happy about you ruling and reigning in life in Christ Jesus. That is when the five kings rose up to attack. It was a backlash from the World System, and Joshua had to prepare himself for that.

The first thing he had to do is to gather together all the men of war and the mighty men of valor. If you are a Joshua apostle expect the world to fight back. It is not going to bow to you easily.

There will be a mighty backlash from the world. It is your responsibility to mobilize the church of God, the Body of Christ for war. You are not there to just give the good news and say,

"It's all going to fall into our laps guys. It's all just going to happen. The Lord is going to take care of it."

Moses said, "Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord."

But Joshua cannot stand there and say,

"Okay guys, just stand and let the Lord do it all for you; no problem here."

Winning the Battle

Prepare for war because you have a fight on your hands. Expect it and be ready to handle it when it comes, because it will.

What did Joshua do the moment the world lashed back? The Scripture says that Joshua rose up from Gilgal. Gilgal means, 'a rolling wheel'.

Joshua got the wheels rolling. He didn't sit and get caught unawares. He didn't sit back and wait for the world to come and destroy him. He rose up, ready to attack before they even got to him. He rose up from Gilgal and went out to face them immediately.

The Scripture says that he came suddenly. They were not expecting him. He came in the middle of the night while they were all asleep. They marched through the night up from Gilgal and the next morning there they were, ready to attack immediately.

Joshua apostle you must mobilize the church of God to wake up, to get up and to get moving, even while it is yet night. Even before the manifestation of the attack that comes from the System of this world, from the Pharaoh of this world and from his hosts, you must rise up and attack.

You must have the element of surprise. Nobody has yet won a battle by being defensive. You can't do it. The church must come to the place where they say,

"Enough is enough. We're not going on this way. We're not going to accept this anymore. Enough already; we're going to get out there and we're going to smash them."

You say, "Oh no, don't upset Pharaoh. Don't upset the world. Let's just pour oil on troubled waters. Let's just let sleeping dogs lie. Don't mess with these guys. They're pretty tough."

"No, let's go and smash them now! Let's get the wheels rolling."

Take a Step

Why must you do this? Because until you take a step God will not take a step, because He works through His people. God's instrument of blessing in this earth is the Body of Christ.

God's instrument of war in this world and the means by which He will conquer is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And while you are sleeping, the enemy (the world) is marching against the church. You must march through the night and catch them by surprise. Don't you sleep.

The Scripture says that as Joshua rose up to go and attack the Lord said,

"I am with you. I'm right behind you; I'm ahead of you and in the middle of you. I'm part of you. I am fighting with you and for you."

In Joshua 10:11 it says:

And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, [and] were in the descent to Bethhoron, that the LORD [Yahweh] cast down great stones from heaven upon them up to Azekah, and more of them died from the hailstones than what the children of Israel killed with the sword.

God killed more of them than what the Israelites did.

You say, "Well couldn't we have just stayed home and slept and led God do it? Hey Lord, why did we have to do that march right through the night? Why couldn't you just drop the hailstones on them so that when we got up in the morning and got out there they were all dead already?"

Initiate the New Move

God will work with you when you take the first step. That is why God has to raise up Joshua apostles. If He doesn't the soldiers will sleep, the Body of Christ will remain in its slumber, and the enemy will come in and overwhelm and destroy the work of God.

Joshua apostle, God will raise you up to initiate this move. What move? It is the move of God. We are praying and saying,

"Oh Lord we're praying for the new move. We're praying for revival. Come Holy Spirit, bring revival. Oh Lord, we're waiting, we're fasting and praying and we're waiting on you for revival. Oh Lord, send revival."

"What are you doing about going out and attacking the enemy?"

"Well we'll do that once revival comes."

It doesn't work that way. You have to move first, then God will move with you. It says,

As they fled before Israel God moved on their behalf.

He did most of the work, but not until the Israelites stepped out boldly in obedience to the Lord when He said,

"Go and take the land."

He said to Joshua,

"Everywhere you put your foot I have already given to you. But Joshua it doesn't become yours until you put your foot on it."

Moving in Signs And Wonders

The church of the Lord Jesus Christ has been praying for years for revival, when it is lying ahead. Do you want the power of God? Do you want God to work? Do you want signs and wonders?

Stop waiting and get moving. Stop standing and looking at the Red Sea and crying,

"Well stand still and see the revival of the Lord."

It is not coming until you move. God began to work and He worked with signs following. Isn't that similar to a Scripture in the New Testament, where before He ascended to Heaven, Jesus had said to His disciples,

Go ye into all the world.

What are we talking about here? We are talking about attacking the world. He said,

Go into all the world and preach the gospel.

The Scripture says that as they went forth, the Lord worked with them confirming the Word with signs following. Following what? Following the Word. Following who? Following you.

You say, "I wish God would perform signs and wonders. I wish we had miracles. I wish we had people getting healed and that we could see the dead being raised."

It is not going to happen in the church. It is going to happen in the world. It is not going to happen while you are waiting for the world to attack you, huddled in your little corner.

It is going to happen when you go out into the world to claim the kingdoms of this world for the Kingdom of our God. That is when it will take place.