I have being a victim of my own mediocrity; but I want God to have all of me. I want the reality of God in my life, every day of my life. I know about the tribulations, about the obstacles, the oppositions, but I want to be involved in a good fight; I want to see God’s glory. As I study God’s move in Azusa I am convicted for allowing my flesh, in partnership with the enemy, to rob me of so much already.

As I study this amazing revival I was left with one question: What killed the Azusa Street Revival? The answer is very simple; the same thing that is holding the church back from experiencing the glory of God again…the ambitions and fear of men over God’s Will. We want to be in control; we want everything to look in order, but the reality is that deep in our apparent order, lives are not being dramatically changed. The disorder is inside, but we have become experts in making it look like everything is okay.

Many pastors find themselves struggling inside with the idea of letting go and letting God. Having to deal with long testimonies, false prophets, false teachers, strange manifestations, people speaking in tongues, people laughing etc. becomes a mountain of fear to any pastor. Consequently, many denominations have indeed come up with their own solutions to the problem; they feel comfortable with the Church Bulletin, establishing the order for each service and making everything as predictable as possible. The problem is that now we have a greater mess in our hands. We as the church are becoming less and less relevant and the power of God is not found among us. Something is terribly wrong!

Dealing with the church is not easy, but we should have never decided on following our agendas and structures over the free flow of God’s Spirit. We need to confront the false prophets and the false teachers, tell people to sit down when they are in the flesh, etc. just as Bishop Seymour , from the Azusa Revival did. It is better to deal with these uncomfortable situations than to have what we have now; people that are not praying, people that are not seeking the Lord, people that have no desire to read the Word or use their gifts for God’s glory. You know why? Because they are not being trained properly, we have indeed watered-down the Gospel, watered-down the importance of prayer and watered-down the vital importance of using our gifts for the Lord. We are delegating our Christianity and our spiritual exercises to…THE MAN OF GOD.

I say, it is time to lose control and let the Holy Spirit be in control; I say it is time to get out of the way and let God deal with us; I say it is time to put an end to the one-man show; it is time to be bold and courageous and confront the flesh. There is no such thing as too much of the Spirit. I say we have very little of the Spirit right now; I say it is time to surrender, to stop our arrogant ways and let Jesus be the Lord of our nations, the Lord of our services, the Lord of our homes and the Lord of our hearts. It is time to get into some serious Holy Ghost training…it is time to lose control, let go and let God!

I was born again on April 26, 1997, three days away from turning twenty-nine years old. I did not grow up in the church and did not know any born-again believers in my family. I can look back in the history of both, my father’s and my mother’s family and find not one man of God.

I was born again while serving as a Group Home Supervisor for the Jacksonville Youth Sanctuary. The Executive Director was a mighty man of God by the name of Doug Berrenguer; to this day, I still have a great relationship with him as I consider Doug a great friend and mentor. Doug called me one day just to ask how I was doing; while on the phone with him I started crying. God was already dealing with my heart. Doug prayed for me over the phone and gave me a track “The Four Spiritual Laws.” He also gave me some other information and told me to take a couple of days off from work. For the first time in my life I was excited to read anything about God. On April 26, 1997 at around 6PM in my house on 10560 Beverly Nalle Road in Jacksonville, Florida. I prayed the “Sinner’s Prayer” that was recorded on that track and gave my life to the Lord. I felt a fire that did not hurt me; I felt a love that I have never felt before. It was simply amazing.

From there on, the first church I visited after being born-again was First Coast Christian Center, an Assemblies of God Church located on the North Side of the city. That was also Doug’s home church. I guess I went there for him. I was, at the time, the only black person there; but can honestly say that I received nothing but love from that congregation. A few months after that, the Lord moved me to The Father’s House International, a bilingual, nondenominational and multi-cultural church where the Spirit of God was moving mightily. The Pastor was Presbyter Jose Bosque, a former Baptist Minister who was filled with the Holy Ghost and radically changed; to this day he’s still serving the Lord in many ways. It was there that I started growing up as a Christian and it was there that I started hearing about this thing we like to call, revival.

While at The Father’s House I served as a Deacon, later an Elder, Prison Minister, Worship Team member, Young Adult Pastor, etc. After The Father’s House I opened ministries and became the Senior Pastor of a church in Winton, North Carolina where I served for about three years. I still consider myself a young Christian as I was born again just fifteen years ago.

I say all of these things to convey that it is curious to me that I never cared about doing personal studies on revival. I heard about some revivals, some that took place recently, even in Florida; I watched some videos, heard some sermons, but the topic never really burning in my heart until just a couple of days ago. I felt like the Lord directed me to take a look at “The Azusa Street Revival.” My wife had a video with basic information about what took place at 312 Azusa Street in Los Angeles, California. I know this revival was real; I know it with all of my heart, because of the impact the study of this revival alone is causing in my life.

I believe that from the very beginning of my short life as a Christian, even as the Lord changed many things in my life, even as I love God’s people, as I started reaching out to the lost souls, as I serve God with great excitement, as I started reading the Bible and praying; I started questioning: What is the purpose of coming to church Sunday after Sunday? When I started reading the Word and learning about God’s creative power I could not see how that was being reflected in our gatherings. Even as I was a part of a Pentecostal Church first and then a very charismatic non-denominational church, I was not able to find purpose in doing basically the same thing Sunday after Sunday. Something did not match!

To be Continued….

1. The Laodicea Church

“¹⁴ “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:

These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. ¹⁵ I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! ¹⁶ So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. ¹⁷ You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. ¹⁸ I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

¹⁹ Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. ²⁰ Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

²¹ To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. ²² He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” (Revelation 3:14-22)

This is a church in great trouble. Perhaps, out of all the seven churches, this is the one that looks from the outside as if they have everything in place. This is, in my opinion, the prosperity Gospel church! They surely look good, but it is filled with hypocrisy. This church represents many of the American Churches; especially Mega Churches.  Even as there are, like others, a few people who are walking in the light, the church as a group is dead.

This is a church that focuses on the size of the building and numbers. They have become experts in putting up a Sunday Show with great singers, great worship teams and a good, seemingly deep message. Nevertheless, it is all a show; there is no true presence of God and no anointing. They have become experts in manipulating people’s emotions. This is the kind of church that is run like a secular business corporation. Without noticing, they have placed their own name above the name of the Lord. Money is flowing, people continue to come and physical growth is happening, so they see themselves as rich and as enjoying great favor from the Lord, but the Bible tells us that they are in the vomit zone.

This church is in such bad condition spiritually that it causes the Lord to vomit. Have you ever seen anything so disgusting that it causes you to vomit? That, my friend, is the Laodicea Christian!

1. The Philadelphia Church

“⁷ I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. ⁹ I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars—I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you. ¹⁰ Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth.

¹¹ I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.” (Revelation 3:7-11)

The Church of Philadelphia is another church that received positive reviews from the Lord. The message for this church is directed to those Christians that are currently tired; they have done all they know to do, but the battle has been so intense that they find themselves wore out. The amazing thing about this group is that they have endured patiently. The word “patiently” in this verse means: “Bearing pains or trials calmly or without complaint.” The glory of this church is that throughout the disorder, they always keep a positive approach in life’s troubles.

This is not a popular church either; very insignificant indeed, however this is the kind of Christian that finds favor with God and men. The Bible tells us in these verses: “…I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut.” The favor of God is so strong on behalf of the Philadelphia Christian that no man is able to close the doors opened by the Lord.

TO BE CONTINUED…

1. The Sardis Church

“To the angelof the church in Sardis write:

These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. ² Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. ³ Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.

⁴ Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. ⁵ He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. ⁶ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” (Revelation 3:1-6)

This is a representation of many denominations that act as if their gift to speak tongues places them above others. They can’t just tell you something, they must add all of the homiletic techniques they learned in their dead seminaries. This church is filled with what many identify as spiritual arrogance. They place a great deal of emphasis in the gifts of the Spirit, or at least that is what they think; so they strive to move with such gifts during their Sunday services. The concerns with this church are that:

1)    God has nothing good to say about them.

2)    The door is open for people to speak in tongues, but interpretation, at times, is manipulated. When it comes down to prophesying, the doors of opportunity and expression seem to be closed. For them, it is all about the baptism of the Holy Spirit; but such baptism is only limited to speaking in tongues.

This is a church that has a very sneaky way of coming against the Prophetic voice as they are blinded by one thing and one ting only: “Speaking in tongues.” They are the kind of folk that spiritualize everything; they claim to constantly hear from God, always having a word from the Lord, but they are truly filled with stupidity. They claim to leave everything in the hands of the Lord, but in the process they are very selective in what to surrender and at the same time are very irresponsible. In terms of leadership skills, this church is perhaps the worst; in finances they are terrible stewards as they never consider counting the cost for anything. This is the named and claimed group; the problem is that they don’t have much to show for. They have a million bills, always behind in payments, but they place all in the name of suffering for the Gospel. However, they are unable to see that they are stepping into things that the Lord never told them to step into.

This kind of church is usually hurting financially because they are constantly attributing things as “the Lord said,” that God did not. Much control and manipulation is seen in this kind of church as they are constantly explaining what the Lord said and did not say and why; especially when it is obvious that it was not the Lord. Because of their arrogance, they always come up with some seemingly spiritual reason why what they said that the Lord said did not come to pass.

This church will eventually endure great suffering as the Lord will allow them to reap what they are sowing to humble them and to get them to a point where they can truly hear His voice. The message for this church is “be humble, for the Lord is seriously resisting your arrogance.”

TO BE CONTINUED…

1. The Thyatira Church

“¹⁸ To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:

These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. ¹⁹ I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.

²⁰ Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. ²¹ I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. ²² So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. ²³ I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. ²⁴ Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets (I will not impose any other burden on you): ²⁵ Only hold on to what you have until I come. ²⁶ To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations—

²⁷     ‘He will rule them with an iron scepter;

he will dash them to pieces like pottery’—

just as I have received authority from my Father. ²⁸ I will also give him the morning star. ²⁹ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

(Revelation 1:18-29)

The Thyatira Christian is indeed, an extraordinary Christian. This church could be compared to the Ephesus church in terms of how hard they work; I would say that this is an even better church in a sense because of their qualities of love and faith. The following four qualities are named in these verses:

1)    Good deeds

2)    Filled with love

3)    Filled with faith

4)    Hard working

However, even with all these wonderful qualities, they tolerate a very dangerous spirit, which is the spirit of Jezebel. This is very significant because the spirit of Jezebel comes against the prophets; in this case, the prophetic gift in the Body of Christ.First Corinthians 14:3tells us:  “But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort.” When one removes the true prophetic gift out of the church they are deeply hurting the Body of Christ because the Prophetic voice is needed for the strengthening, encouragement and comfort of the saints. Without the prophetic gift freely flowing in our congregations, what we have left is a tired, hopeless and very troubled Christian. This is a church that is terribly lacking the gift of discernment; therefore, they stand on very dangerous grounds; not preparing for battle because they have an almost naïve view of the enemy. Even though this Christian is nice and loving, the warning against them is very severe. The Bible tell us the following:

“I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. ²² So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. ²³ I will strike her children dead.”

            Strong words, but the one that really gets me is that God will strike her children dead. This is a church where perhaps the children and youth ministry is extremely weak. If that is so, this is a church with very little to look forward to. They have older folks; people of character and truth, but their approach to Christianity are more in the traditional way and not appealing to the youth at all. I see this church as a church filled with loving and faithful old people, but a church with not much future. This is perhaps a church with control over its people. Perhaps not much movement of the Spirit is allowed as the church is bombarded with the spirit of Jezebel who comes very aggressively against the prophetic voice. The message for the Thyatira Church is a cry for the freedom of the prophetic voice.

TO BE CONTINUED…

1. The Pergamum Church

“¹² “To the angel of the church in Pergamum write:

These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. ¹³ I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives. ¹⁴ Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality. ¹⁵ Likewise you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. ¹⁶ Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.¹⁷ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.”  (Revelation 1:12-17)

This church is in the midst of perhaps, very demonic geographic places. This is a church that is in the center of places where Satan is truly manifesting in a very strong and powerful way. It is a church that it is constantly being challenged by the secular culture over the culture of God’s Word. This is a church that is faithful in confessing the name of Christ; they are surely not going after other gods. However, for the sake of politically correctness, they tolerate false teachings. This is a church with no backbone. They probably do it all in the name of love, but they are a bunch of “cheese-balls.”

In my short life as a Christian I have seen plenty of these Christians; they have a false sense of what love, mercy and grace are. The message for this church is to repent and take care of business by confronting and taking these false prophets out from among them. The message for this church is to do what they are called to do; not to wait for the Lord to do it directly. God is telling this church to repent, but also with a promise that He himself will deal with these false doctrines; He will deal with what the Pergamum Christian refuse to deal with. The Lord already gave us the authority to come against these false Prophets and Teachers. One thing is to have sinners coming to our churches with questionable life styles, the other is to allow people to actually be a part of the church and allow them to spread their venom and teach their lies as true.

Jesus ate among sinners, reached out to them, but He had no tolerance when it came down to the false teachers that were presenting a wrong doctrine of who the Father Is.

TO BE CONTINUED…

1.   The Smyrna Church

“⁸ To the angel of the church in Smyrna write:

These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. ⁹ I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich! I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. ¹⁰ Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. ¹¹ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death.” (Revelation 2:8-11)

            This is basically an afflicted and poor church. This is a Church that does not look like much; perhaps a small congregation with not many resources. This kind of Christian will be placed in prison because of his/her faith. The world will attempt to terrorize them and test them. Nevertheless, in the midst of all, they are called to be faithful even at the point of death. Many of us probably will never experience such level of hatred against us because of our faith.

The Bible tells us about this church that even as they are poor and afflicted they are rich. This individual is walking in love, is working hard for the Lord, has intimacy with the Lord and has all that the other kinds of Christians are lacking. The sad reality is that this kind of church is not even preached these days. This church is experiencing great anonymity. They are not the majority; not what sells, not what gets on TV, not popular and they do not have many following. However, it is one of only two churches that received no negative reviews from the Lord.

They are going through hell and back on this earth; their faith is constantly challenged, but they are promised the crown of life. I see the Smyrna Christian really shining during the millennium and really shining when we get to the New Jerusalem.

TO BE CONTINUED…

1.     The Ephesus Church

“I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. ³ You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. ⁴ Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. ⁵ Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. ⁶ But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.” (Revelation 2:2-6)

            The Ephesus Christian is a hardworking church; however this is also a Church that has lost her intimacy with Christ. This kind of Christian has the following positive characteristics:

1)    Works hard: These are not brothers and sisters that only come to church, but they also participate in ministry and use their talents for the service of the church.

2)    Longevity: they don’t quit: These are people that remain faithful to their ministry; they are not there today and gone tomorrow.

3)    Confrontational: These brothers and sisters have no tolerance for people that bring false doctrines to the church; they truly study the Word. They have particularly gone against the Nicolaitans. Strong Lexicon tells us about the Nicolaitans. They: “…were charged with holding the error of Balaam, casting a stumbling block before the church of God by upholding the liberty of eating things sacrificed to idols as well as committing fornication.”

So far, these are three very powerful positive characteristics. Any pastor will be very happy to have people in their congregation that will work hard, never quit and come against false doctrines and sexual immorality. You would think that these should be enough for a man and women of God, but is it really? With all of that hard work, faithfulness and zeal against sexual immorality, the Bible tells us that the Lord holds the following against them:

1)    This kind of Christian has forgotten his/her first love: They are doing all of these wonderful things (Working hard, being faithful, coming against false doctrine and confronting sexual immorality) without love. They are missing the most important thing; they have lost their passion for Christ and their intimacy with the Lord. They have gotten so focused in the work of the ministry that they have forgotten who they work for.

2)    This church works hard, stays in the word, does great works, but there is not much worship taking place. During the service, it is rare to see tears or brokenness. It is all about winning souls, it is all about works, works and more works. It is all about doing!

3)    This kind of Christian approaches Christianity in a “Martha” manner, who is Lazarus’ sister; it is all about doing. Not doing anything is seen as lazy. Just sitting at Jesus’ feet is a waste of time, because they view the Father’s approval based on works. They believe in the old saying of “staying busy.” They resist those that believe in sitting at the feet of Jesus for hours at a time.

4)    This kind of Christians is not too happy or joyful; they are missing much, but they don’t know it because they are blinded by their great works and knowledge of the Word.

5)    This kind of Christian is not even pursuing the first commandment of loving God above all things because they hide behind the walls of works.

6)    This kind of Christian is a fallen Christian, but doesn’t even know it: Verse five tells us: “Remember the height from which you have fallen!” They are going against false teachers and sexual immorality, and that is good, but they are not realizing that they have actually fallen from grace themselves.

The Warning:

“…Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.”

            The warning for the Ephesus Church is severe; it speaks about removal. God is not going to put up with this kind of Church or Christian for too long. Without intimacy we have nothing! I believe that many of us have fallen at one point or another in this category; we are busy in the things of God while ignoring HIM. Ephesus is a call for intimacy!

TO BE CONTINUED…