Transcript for:
Revival History & Now 4.4 - Revivals: Facing Controversies and Attacks

when it comes to Revival one of the things that is unavoidable unfortunately is controversies every Revival had its controversy every Revival had its attacks the ones leading it took the brunt of the attacks became the center of the controversy and yet they still had to move forward with the Pure Heart clean hands with pure motivations and so when it comes to moves of God we need to understand that controversies it comes with the it comes with the package it comes as a part of Revival you know and so if we look at the outpouring of God's spirit if we look at the Awakenings that took place John Wesley Charles Wesley CG Finney Jonathan um the Edwards and we could go on and on you know even modern day even Billy Graham was attacked with controversies you know and and so no matter how pure you are no matter who you are if you are at the Forefront of leading a Revival or if you're part of a Revival you're gonna receive attack from every part because we know that the reality of the moves of God the enemy is going to try everything and do everything to stop and hinder the move of God and so when it comes to the controversies you know there's going to be bad reports about what goes on in Revival and the reality is this some are going to be true and some are going to be false and again we talked about how no one is perfect and so just humanity is going to take its place in there and so we need to we need to do our best to maintain a life of Integrity let's not exaggerate the stories let's not exaggerate what God is doing but be honest about it you know when someone gets healed let's not let's not take a level three testimony and turn it into a level 10. you know let's just let's let's speak what is truth and let's let's look at what is false and do away with it you know and so this is one of the reasons why a lot of people remain aloof when it comes to revivals you know whenever there's a fresh move of God what do people tell me when I talk to them hey I'm going over here go with me they'll say you know oh no brother I'm just gonna I'm just gonna observe for a little bit let's see what happens you know and and so yeah places where God's breaking out like San Diego I want to take a number of people with me and there's a couple that went with me but then a number of them and said I'm just going to kind of sit back and and I I just want to see the food before I engage you know and I understand that but the reason why that is is because they've seen moves of God where there's been a lot of failures if you've seen moves of God where there's different reports and even with genuine moves of God there's false reports out there about my friends there's false reports out there about me you know and and so when it comes to this controversy is real and you can't avoid it you know Revival is always accompanied with great deals of attacks um a lot of it is false but yet the attacks are attacks you know and so again for us we need to keep our heart and our mind guided guarded in that sense so how do we guard our hearts it says that the peace of God that transcends all understanding got guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus it's by keeping our peace in the moment of attacks it's not are you going to get attacked the question is what are you going to do when you get attacked because there's been reproach upon every Revival again no one's perfect there's not one Revival that's been perfect in a Revival always involves in advance of God's kingdom and spiritual warfare against the strongholds of Satan so guess what as Revival is happening that is an offensive uh activity where we're advancing the kingdom of God as a as the body of Christ so the enemy is going to head back to enemies gonna come and try to take one little lie and and you know just and blow it up into a level 10. he's going to cause people to stumble and fall he's going to try to you know expose people's past that's already been dealt with and bring it to the Future in the present you know as if it's a modern day situation you know modern day issue you know anybody's gonna do everything he can to bring controversy but what are you gonna do when people write about you on the internet what are you gonna do when friends call you and accuse you of leaving a false movement what are you going to do to those that you respected those who mentored you when they call you and say you know what you're part of a cult and I'm concerned about you how are we going to respond how are we going to react you know what are we going to do because that's what Revival does when the spirit of God Falls what it does is it uncovers and offends everything you know and it exposes a lot of things in us as well and so Satan attempts to discredit Revival by mimicking God's work and that's the counterfeit that I talked about there's a counterfeit that he he produces within moves of God and we need to be Discerning about that and when we see it what we need to do is we need to address it we need to disarm the enemy and we need to learn to do that and so how do we do that we need to ask the Holy Spirit on what to do we need to ask for his guidance his wisdom into how to disarm the enemy you know it's by moving into opposite Spirit moving in love moving in humility not having to defend yourself you know and and so we need to hear the voice of God you know maybe Dolores Lord will tell you you know what it's time to defend yourself and you know that's when you step into you know maybe making a statement or whatever he tells you to do but every Revival had a controversy and we need to be aware of that and the purpose of me sharing this is because there's revivalists you and I that God's raising up and there's going to be attack but we need to keep loving we need to continue to just stay in a place in Christ knowing that our father is going to protect us he's going to lead the way so that people will see the power of Christ demonstrated in power through love so that they would also come to know him and so what about controversies if it's true it's true if it's false it's false if it's true let's repent and let's take responsibility if it's false to seek the Lord on how to address it I remember receiving a phone call a number of years ago and this this person was another Pastor in fact I received probably a three a few phone calls and they said we heard that Revival hit Bakersfield and I said oh okay and they said so you know where do we go is there and I said well I said it's I wouldn't call it Revival they said no they said the whole city is being transformed right now and and I just told him I said there's good things happening but I can't say that there's Revival in the city you know and so again let's not exaggerate and accentuate what God is doing but let's be right in line with if it's a good meeting let's call it a good meeting and there's nothing wrong with that but let's not call something when it's not and I remember Carlos Anaconda when I had lunch with him he's a revivalist a great evangelist out of Argentina well great Authority and I was talking to him about the stories that I've read and the different books I've read and he looked at me and he said Tony he said let me just tell you this about Revival don't believe everything you read and don't believe everything you hear you know and what he was saying was the stories that I'm reading are a little bit exaggerated you know and that it's not all true and so what we need to do is this to the best combat towards controversy is living a life of integrity living a life of honesty living a life of love so when the attacks come you know people around you can say I know this person that's not the character therefore I know it's not true and I thank God for friends and people around me because they do that someone just recently accused me of talking about a subject publicly you know it was a matter of sensuality and sexuality you know and someone said you know what I know Tony he would never say something like that let alone publicly you know they protected me and the story came out that that person was lying you know and so it was because I'm able to you know in that aspect of my life living a life of Purity honesty integrity and so like Jesus said you know Satan had nothing in me even though he brought accusation and came against me and so let's be revivalists let's be reformers where we can truly say Satan has nothing in me let's be whole people let's be healed people and let's live a life of love and ask the Holy Spirit to search her heart right now have you reacted to controversy have you reacted to accusation you know are you okay with it because our security in Christ matters the more we are secure in Christ the less shaken we get when attacks come and so let's just continue to dive deep and just know who Christ is in us and who we are in Christ