God has eternal purposes, and He is passionate for His purposes. This is the way to understand His love, fire, Glory, power, and Word. Without this backdrop of intention, any one aspect of God and His ways may become a cul-de-sac. When revival arrives, some aspect of His passion for purpose will manifest, and that manifestation should carry His people into fuller appreciation of His strategy or way of getting what He wants, to fulfill His purposes.
Revival may be marked by miracles, laughter, fire, Glory, shaking, groaning, repentance, lovingkindness, peace, gifts, worship – or all of these aspects of His passion for purpose, but the backdrop of these fruits is fulfillment of purpose.
In this I am not speaking purely utilitarian, as if God is simply using people, manipulating them with vastly Superior psychology or Spirit-first brainwashing. On the other hand, God can make us willing to go a certain direction by offering us a taste of what is coming next, a dead-end detour like Israel at the Red Sea, miracles, and revelation. That is to say, God will reveal one aspect of His strategy with the thought of moving us deeper into greater understanding of the fullness of His way of getting what He wants.
Sometimes, we miss the purpose. If laughter is the manifestation, we may still be asking ourselves, “Do you still have the joy?” years after that manifestation should have brought us into a fuller understanding of His passion for purpose. If shaking is the manifestation, people will simply find this manifestation as the end point of the move of God, as if God is looking for a people who shake. If prophecy is the manifestation, people may set up residence in a cul-da-sac and simply move from house to house on that short street with little or no other outlet. If I feel down when I experienced the move of God, falling down may be the litmus test of my “Am I still in revival?” plumbline.
The reality is that each of these valid manifestations – Biblical revelation tells us that these may occur anytime God is at work in history – can actually become a form of familiar and fetish distraction if the revival doesn’t mature into a fuller expression and experience of God’s strategy. To speak of the kingdom as “The Way,” as Luke does in the book of Acts, is to reach for a broader understanding of maturing revival into Awakening. Maturing revival speaks of leadership: God’s strategy for getting what He wants is leadership. Kingdom speaks of “King of kings.” That is leadership. Family speaks of fathers and mothers. That is leadership. Government speaks of God’s servants, armed with a sword, to be a terror to them who do evil. That is leadership. And, discipling speaks to obedience and submission to develop and mature personal leadership. Well, that is certainly leadership!
Ephesians 3:8-10 – Though I am the least deserving of all God’s people, He graciously gave me the privilege of telling the Gentiles about the endless treasures available to them in Christ. I was chosen to explain to everyone this mysterious plan that God, the Creator of all things, had kept secret from the beginning. God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display His wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenlies. This was His eternal plan, which He carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord.
God has a plan, an eternal plan to fulfill an eternal purpose. Notice that the Ecclesia displays this wisdom in all its facets informing rulers and authorities in the heavenlies of the guiding spiritual conditions that will produce that purpose. To understand Ecclesia in any other context is to miss the vitals of its definition, to minimize many vital aspects of its function, and to miss the priority of leadership as God’s strategy for getting what He wants.
“Church” that ain’t discipling mature leaders, aint’ “church” at all.
What marks mature leadership is a mature passion for purpose – His passion for His purposes. Something worth dying for. His testimony – His Blood – our redemption and restoration.ur testimony – our self-image and identity – personal purpose to fulfill eternal purpose. Our passion – “love not” our lives even unto death, motivated by another greater passion for purpose that prioritizes our lives toward the what-God-wants we are assigned to fulfill.
Passion for purpose always carries an international perspective even when it is personal, regional, and national in assignment. All kingdom leadership should function at an international level, maturing passionate leaders to function at that level.
Jesus prepared a bunch of localized, culturalized people to function with His passion for purpose, then assigned to to disciple nations. Such a grandiose assignment seems a bit premature when they were so focused on their own personal, then national interests, but Holy Spirit burnt that smaller flame with the breath of God, the purified atmosphere of heaven, and they began to function with the passion of God to fulfill the purpose of God.
