The Revival of "Seen and Heard"

 

"And now, Lord, consider their threats, and enable Your servants to speak Your word with complete boldness, as You stretch out Your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of Your holy servant Jesus. After they had prayed, their meeting place was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly"
Acts 4:29-31

Yesterday, I made another pilgrimage to Soar y Mynydd, the most remotest chapel in Wales. My first visit was back in November of 2024, just after I returned home here from America. The place captivated me, and has become one of my most favorite places in Wales. 

On my pilgrimage yesterday I was joined by one of my best friends from Germany, Dr Guido. We have been friends for almost thirty years, ever since he came to do some of his paediatric training in Merthyr. We both love Revival, and I really enjoy taking people to Soar who understand and appreciate its significance. We spent a couple of hours just sitting, praying, reading Scripture, and worshipping. The presence of God was with us, and a sweet sense of reverential peace rested in the sanctuary. 

There are certain places in Wales where the river of God flows. It does not require effort to wade in these waters, the path is clear that leads to the banks of what God is doing. For example, the time we held one of The Gathering of Rainmakers at Blaenannerch, on the west cost of Wales, we experienced a similar grace. A clear path into the river of God. That path, paved by thousands of prayers, felt smooth under the feet. Yesterday, at Soar, we waded in deep waters. 

My meditations were fixed on Acts chapters 3 & 4. I believe that the Holy Spirit's words spoken through Peter in Acts 3:19-21 provide for us the working definition of the genesis and purpose for Revival. It can be summed up in the two phrases - "Times of Refreshing" and "Times of Restoration". In the Greek we have two different words used for "Times", and thus a phrase I like to use to explain the "Why?" of Revival,

A kairos of Refreshing for a chronos of Restoration!

Kairos means - "a Divinely opportune time to be taken advantage of" - and Chronos describes - "Successive moments of linear time". When the Holy Spirit moves it is kairos invading chronos. It is when eternity breaks out inbetween the "ticks and tocks" of our clocks here on earth. In those moments we must take advantage and embrace what the Spirit is doing, and not what our order of service dictates. How that looks differs from kairos to kairos, one may require prayer, another worship, another acts of sacrifice or heeding a calling or mission. Eitherway, we must jump on whatever God is doing when kairos invades chronos. 

Then I came to the verses in Acts 4:29-31 that I quoted at the beginning of this Blog. I wept there on the wooden pew at Soar. I have read these chapters hundreds of times, and know the context. Peter and John were examples of people who embraced a kairos situation, and not everyone was happy, especially the religious leaders. The religious spirit is a demon that whispers in the ears of unsuspecting church leaders and congregants. This demon uses the same language that we Christians use, hence its success at infiltrating much of the religous institution of small "c" church. Like poison from the fangs of a Cobra, this demon drips deceitfully pious phrases into the eyes and ears of the unsuspecting, and affects the way they see and hear. Just like the face-suckers in an Alien movie, this demon's tail wraps around the throats of the religious leaders, and it tightens anytime Truth is preached, or when the Holy Spirit confronts religiosity through Spirit-filled believers. The demon's poison intoxicates the religious person whereby they condemn what God is doing in their midst. From threats to actions, everything this demon influences is to undermine and antagonize God's work. 

In light of this, the Believers prayed,

"Enable Your servants to speak Your word with complete boldness, as You stretch out Your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of Your holy servant Jesus"

Then something amazing happened, and please pause to take in these words:

"After they had prayed, their meeting place was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly"

This boldness is not a human trait, a working up of oneself up to a feverish state, no, it is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit in us. One more misconception we have is that when we see the phrase - "spoke the word of God boldly" - we usually think "Preached the word of God boldly", but that it not what it means. When Peter confronted the religious leaders in Acts 4, after they threatened he and John, he wasn't preaching, he was simply talking,

“Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than God. For we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard”
Acts 4:19-20

This statement, and his comments before, were not from sermon notes, but simply bearing witness to what they had "seen and heard". The religious leaders, through intoxicated eyes, noted,

"When they saw the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they marveled and took note that these men had been with Jesus"
Acts 4:13

That word "marveled" is used a lot in the New Testament, both in the Gospel accounts, and in Acts, to describe a state whereby people were "beside themselves in shock", they were "silenced because of awe". This is what can happen when the Holy Spirit moves through a Believer, when we take advantage of the kairos situations and allow kairos to invade chronos.

In Wales we need to see more and more people cry out for the Spirit to break any religious way in us. For us to exchange pious phrases for fire phrases. That we cease sounding like religious experts, dripping with correct doctrine, but rather speak the word of God with boldness. Sometimes that will be preaching, but most times it will be the overflow of a daily walk with Jesus in the power of the Spirit as we talk about what we have "seen and heard". Maybe then, the places we meet will be shaken, and ALL in our gatherings will be filled the Holy Spirit, and will share with boldness what they have "seen and heard". 

Wales needs LESS Sermons, and MORE Spirit-filled Saints talking about they have "seen and heard"

Mwy Arglwydd...