Posts tagged Iris Global
Revival is Just the Beginning

Revival Series Part 2

by Jennifer A. Miskov, Ph.D., Revival Historian 

Now that we have explored semantics and some development around the term revival and exploring its meaning, let’s go even deeper to the impact it should have on one’s life and what comes afterwards.

In the natural, if someone is sleeping, barely alive, or has suddenly died, they need to be awakened or revived. Many times, someone will use smelling salts (ammonia inhalants) to awaken a person who has passed out or become unconscious. They put this aroma under the person’s nose to breathe it in. Suddenly, when this happens, the person is revived from their previous unconscious state. Once this person has become revived from their formal sleeping state, they do not need to remain in a state of trying to be revived because they have already come back to life. There is no more need for them to inhale the smelling salts. This person must now begin to live more empowered since their awakening.

This can be a metaphor for revival. Some people have become spiritually unconscious or fallen asleep and they need to be re-awakened. Others have become dead inside and need to be resurrected back to life. Once they have been awakened and brought back to life though, now it’s time to move from the resurrected state to the empowered state of living, being transformed, and stepping into their destiny.

Revival is only just the beginning. Once a person is awakened, then it’s time to fully live.

In Hosea 6:2, it says, “After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, That we may live in His sight.” Here we see that revival is not meant to be a continual state as much as what needs to happen whenever our spirits begin to wither away or die on the inside. Once people are revived, they then need to live the abundant life Jesus died for them to have (John 10:10). Transformation, reformation, revolution, and destiny must follow. Once revived, we must learn to live as burning ones on fire for Jesus constantly remaining full of the oil of His presence.

 

Jesus is Revival

All that said, at the heart of revival is Jesus. Jesus is the truest revival we will ever know. Beyond living for revival, we live for the Reviver. When we become awakened spiritually, we fall more in love with Jesus. When we fall more in love with Jesus, transformation takes place within our hearts, and we impact those around us. Revival is truly just more of Jesus.

We are born to live revived lives in the Spirit of God. We are made to be burning ones who don’t burn out. We are born to live loudly for our King of kings and display His glory through our lives. As we become awakened to King Jesus, our destinies begin to unfold in a greater measure. We step out in faith, hand in hand with our best friend Jesus, and can bring hope to a world that desperately needs it. From a place of intimate union with God, as we yield to and follow the Holy Spirit’s leading, we become agents of revival wherever we go. The burning flame inside spreads and ignites others whose flame has dwindled.

 

The Reviver by Rolland Baker

Rolland Baker, co-founder with Heidi Baker of Iris Global is a missionary in Mozambique, has experienced revival firsthand. His insights in the epilogue of his book, Keeping the Fire, are worth noting.

“I return at the end to where I began: with the Person of Jesus

Iris is not about us. It is about Jesus.

Revival is not about manifestations or miracles; it is about the Reviver, Jesus our Savior.

We have only one destination, one home, one reality, one resting place, one source, one

motivation, one reward, one possession, one point of contact with God, one source of real

satisfaction – and that is Jesus…

Everything we value has been found in Jesus. The key to our core values is therefore

falling in love with Him. 

Love is a gift of relationship, not just self-sacrifice. The secret place is not necessarily found in a prayer closet or a posture of soaking, or in battling for a just cause, or in a massive prayer and fasting effort. Even the most amazing miracles can leave us lonely and without relationship. We can run out of motivation advancing the noblest ideals and working at all levels to transform society. We can minister until we have no more strength, and still go home and lie in bed without the relationship for which our hearts are made.

Everything is okay with relationship. It is all that Jesus cares about, all that motivates Him. He could do many more amazing miracles to dazzle the world with His powers, but He is interested only in relationship. The entire creation, all the grandeur of the physical world, and all His works are designed to serve one thing: relationship. Revival has no content without it. Renewal and manifestations are pointless apart from it. Miracles only find their meaning it. Joy is shallow and groundless unless rooted in it. Without relationship we are the living dead…

Revival is all about Jesus.[i]

 

Revival Without God: A Warning

Revival can easily become an idol in our lives and take the place of Jesus. It can possess us and become an obsession. Not that there is anything wrong with desiring revival, but anything that comes before our passionate pursuit of Jesus becomes idolatry. We must always seek Jesus first, yield to the Holy Spirit, and pursue the God of revival. Revival never should become an idol in our lives. Our obsession above all else, including revival, must remain loving Jesus wholeheartedly. As we love God with all our minds, hearts, bodies, and spirits, revival is a natural overflow.

We don’t want to end up one day in front of God sharing how we released “revival” in the world but did it apart from personal and intimate relationship with Him. What would be the point of doing signs and wonders without Him and His presence or without love (1 Corinthians 13)? Moses could have easily had revival, stepped into his destiny, and saw his dreams come true. But without God’s presence, he wasn’t going to move (Exodus 33).

Revival without Jesus is not only empty, it is dangerous. Jesus says in Matthew 7:21-23,

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

Casting out demons, setting the oppressed free, and performing miracles definitely feels like revival and that the kingdom of God has come in people’s lives. The only problem is that doing any of these works of revival is dangerous when not deeply connected to the Source of revival which is Jesus Himself. It appears from this passage that it is quite possible to do the works of revival without being known by God. This is unsafe ground to walk on. We must do the will of the Father and remain connected in relationship with Jesus as we do these works of revival. In their book about revival, Hansen and Woodbridge say, “You can have signs and wonders, but if you don’t have God, you don’t have revival. God-centered revivals withstand the temptation to treasure the blessings of revival over the one who blesses.”[ii]

More than anything, revival needs to be birthed from a place of a deep burning passion for more of God and from an overflowing relationship with Him. As we stay connected to the Source, His steadily burning and increasing flame within us will ignite and awaken many around us, releasing revival wherever we go. As we knit ourselves to other burning ones and learn how to live in the fire of His presence together, we encounter His love and power in a way that radically impacts our world. Let us be a people who burn for revival fire to be ignited in our own hearts and for that to spread to a lost and dying world.

See part one “What is Revival” in this Revival Series HERE

Join our School of Revival family or take a revival history course in our online School of Revival HERE


NOTES

[i] Rolland Baker, Keeping the Fire: Sustaining Revival Through Love: The Five Core Values of Iris Global (Kent, United Kingdom: River Publishing & Media Ltd, 2015), 141-143 used with permission in an email dated 12/19/2022 from Tim Pettingale, Director of River Publishing & Media Ltd.

[ii] Collin Hansen and John Woodbridge, A God-Sized Vision: Revival Stories that Stretch and Stir (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010), 25.

Keeping the Fire and Writing in the Glory: New Releases Igniting Fire to Burn for the One Thing
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New release by Rolland Baker Keeping the Fire is sure to cause you to burn for the One Thing (Psalm 27). I remember reading his doctoral thesis a year ago and how much I burned for more of Jesus after. I am so excited that his book is now available to the world! I am also in awe at the Holy Spirit’s creative synergy in the midst of the family of God. When I look at the covers of these two new releases, I celebrate God’s goodness. 

That Writing in the Glory and Keeping the Fire came out only months apart and that these covers were done separately without the other knowing causes me to praise Jesus because of His goodness and the synergy that happens in family. I love that simply by being a part of the same Iris family, we are tapping into a similar current of the Holy Spirit without even needing to talk about the aesthetics of our projects. Not only in appearance and timing are these books similar but also in heart. Both of these books are rooted and grounded in intimacy with Jesus and focusing on the One Thing (Psalm 27).  

In Writing in the Glory, I talk about the importance of being rooted in Jesus as the source of all creativity and about writing from a place of intimacy to light a fire that will impact the world. I share a few excerpts below.

Works that are birthed from a place of intimacy with God can have ripple effects for eternity. As you feast on God and contend for the One Thing (see Psalm 27:4), your covenant love with Him will naturally birth life.

Now is the time to strip of offenses, let go of bitterness, unforgiveness, doubts, or anything that might hinder you and run fiercely into the arms of the One who love you more than you could imagine. Now is a time to have no other lovers but Him. Today is the day to be single minded; to press in so you can release what God is about to birth in and through you. The time of awakening and birthing has come. It is here. It is now. Step in. Rise up. Don’t look back. Arise and shine. You were born to release this book.

In Writing in the Glory, Heidi Baker also writes

Apart from Him we can do nothing. But as we abide in Him and as we remain connected to the vine, we bear fruit that remains. All lasting fruitfulness flows from the place of intimacy and deep connection with God.

The fruit that remains might just be a book that impacts generations with the love, healing, and power of God.

Ask to be a holy habitation, a resting place for Him to come and abide. Open yourself up now to the glorious presence of God. Invite Him to capture your heart again.

In Keeping the Fire, Rolland, a leader in this generation and has seen the lame walk, blind eyes opened, and even the dead raised, shares about the core values of Iris and how Jesus is the key to sustaining of revival. A few excerpts are below.

Iris is not about us. It is about Jesus. Revival is not about manifestations or miracles; it is about the Reviver, Jesus our Savior. We only have one destination, one home, one reality, one resting place, one source, one motivation, one reward, one possession, one point of contact with God, one source of real satisfaction – and that is Jesus. We cannot overemphasize Him in any way. He is all we have and everything we need.

Love is a gift of relationship, not just self-sacrifice. The secret place is not necessarily found in a prayer closet or a posture of soaking, or in battling for a just cause, or in a massive prayer and fasting effort. Even the most amazing miracles can leave us lonely and without relationship. We can run out of motivation advancing the noblest ideals and working at all levels to transform society. We can minister until we have no more strength, and still go home and lie in bed without the relationship for which our hearts are made.

Everything is okay with relationship. It is all that Jesus cares about, all that motivates Him. He could do many more amazing miracles and dazzle the world with His powers, but He is interested only in relationship.

I wonder what the Holy Spirit is trying to say by birthing these two works with creative synergy in family at the same time. Maybe it’s another Ephesians 3:20 exceedingly abundantly above all we could ask or think or imagine moment. Maybe there’s something about intimacy with Jesus and living for the One Thing that will cause us to burn in this generation like never before. Maybe there’s a powerful synergy when reading these two works together. Either way, I encourage you to explore and receive this piece of our hearts. These can both be ordered on irisglobal.org's bookstore HERE. May our words start a fire inside you and cause you burn for the One Thing like never before. May Jesus truly be what this season is all about. Happy Christmas and may the fire burn hotter than ever before.

To read another account of crazy synergy that happened within the context of the Destiny House family, go HERE.