This post deals with issues brought forth in my previous post.

Last week, my Pastor and his wife went to Florida for their son’s graduation at RTS (Reformed Theological Seminary).  While they were in the state, they went to the revival at Lakeland.  I thought, if there is anyone I would want second hand knowledge of an event from, it would be my Pastor.  They actually spent three days at the revival.

The first two days, they said they were not experiencing anything special.  They felt so dry.  People around them were worshipping freely and so on, but they reported that they felt more like observers.

Then, on the third day, they were blown away.  My Pastor said he had never experienced worship like that before in his life.  And our church prides itself (humble pride?) in its worship of God.  But he said it was so far beyond what we had experienced at our church.  He is a man that knows the difference between the workings of the Holy Spirit and the workings of man, or worse, of the Evil One.  So, I defer to his experience (whereas I had not to the experience of others who had gone) on the matter.

The presence of God was (and is, I suppose) in the Revival.  Yet, that does not mean that the teachings of its leader are 100% correct.  If God limited His movement to only those who understood and taught of Him and His ways perfectly, then we would have a God of Deism, one that took no part in His creation.  Augustine of Hippo argued in the 5th Century AD, in response to the Donatist Schism, that the validity of baptism is not contingent on the moral standing of the officiating priest, but on that of the faith of the one receiving baptism.  I believe that that has application to this situation as well.

I pray that a “healing revival” is not the end.  I pray that it is but a taste of true revival to come, revival that brings God’s people to him, and which strips away what hinders.  I rejoice in healings, (and fight my cynical human nature) but I look to the reality behind the healings, that which is pointed to by the healings.  God has victory over death.  Even sickness flees.

Proper worship of God is a difficult thing.  Worship must be done in spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24).  I focus on the truth to the point where I tend to ignore the spirit.  Others have the opposite problem.  I label others mystics (erroneously perhaps), while they (rightfully enough at times) charge me with being a Protestant Scholastic.  There must be balance.  I must plead to my King to teach me.