"Purpose Driven or Presence Shaped?".

I have remained vividly impressed by Exodus 33:16 where Moses argues with God and it culminates in him asking that God would "show me Your glory". The argument was in the context of God's anger at the people's sin. God said that although an angel would take them up into the Land, He would not go with them. Moses drew the line here. His argument was that if the Presence of God did not go with them then they were nothing. Has anything changed?

Terry Virgo wrote; "This is what makes God's people unique - His presence goes with us".

The title of this blog was taken from a conference that Mark Stibbe arranged and invited Terry Virgo to. Terry admitted that of course there is nothing admirable in being purpose-less and drifting without intent but he asked are we in too great a hurry to wait for His Presence to fall upon us by the Holy Spirit? Terry wrote;

"Let's not simply believe in the great objective truth of God's omnipresence, let's also take advantage of the fact with a sense of wonder that when we gather in His name, the Holy Spirit wants to make manifest the reality of His presence. How much more would happen in our gatherings if we did! Not just purpose, but presence! Not just music, but presence. Not just routine or rush, but presence. Get an appetite for the presence of God! When we plant a church and gather in His name, His presence comes with us. Because you gather in His name, God's presence comes to town in a unique way".

I wrote a few days ago that in revival the one universal thing that is restored to the Church is the manifest Presence of God. But do we have to wait for revival to come to enjoy once again the Presence of God? Look at just a few of the wondrous benefits of God's Presence being with us!

(Exodus 33:14 NKJV) And He said, "My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."

(Psalms 16:11 NKJV) - "In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore".

I have been extremely interested in two comments made over the last few days concerning the vital place of the Ephesians 4 Ministries especially the Apostle and Prophet. A comment was left on this blog and the gentleman voiced the concern that we should not be seeing academics becoming the guiding forces in our churches but rather the Ephesians 4 Ministries. In his powerful prophecy Greg Haslam saw the Ephesians 4 Ministries as being a "catalytic agent" to the Church moving forward into a new era of treasuring the Presence of God and truly seeing Ephesians 2:20 come to pass.

So why are Apostles and Prophets better placed to guide the Church of Jesus Christ into receptiveness to the Presence of God, rather than academic theologians?

1. Immediate Revelation Rather Than Studied Concepts.

I actually have John MacArthur to thank for this thought although I am sure he would not thank me for it. After all in the same sermon he said, "We don't need Apostles today because we already have doctrine". Don't need? Don't need??! MacArthur's bolder than I am. I'm not sure I would like to be in the position of telling the ascended Christ that we "don't need" His gifts! But much thanks to him anyhow for helping me with this.

In the sermon MacArthur spoke of the root meaning to the word "Apostle" - it means "Sent One". The suggestion is that there is a direct anointing for a direct task. Just as similarly with prophets, MacArthur emphasises that they had three functions; they remained in a local ministry, they spoke revelation from God and they taught apostle's doctrine. The emphasis is on the immediate, the "Now" and it is clear that the apostles and prophets called to the ministry must depend on God. They cannot depend on scholarship or degrees.

Please understand I am not against scholarship or degrees. My friend Pete and I are soon to embark on Masters Degrees in theology! What I am trying to examine is the fact that scholarship and degrees are worthless if they do not lead us into a deeper communion with the risen Lord whom is the object and desire of our studies and while there are many theologians such as D A Carson, Gordon Fee and John Piper who would do exactly that, I think it is the apostles and prophets who are best placed to guide the Church into openness to the Presence of God because they have been anointed for exactly that task.

2. Mission to the Nations Rather Than Studying Orthodoxy.

Once again let me make it clear that I am not trying to dispatch with studying orthodoxy! It is a vital call that the Bible makes clear we are all called to do. Paul said we must "prove all things" in one case. David Holden wrote; "Doctrine ... vital though they are, will not of themselves produce mobility". But this question remains to be answered: is it academic theologians or Ephesians 4 Ministries who are best placed to lead the Church into being "Presence Shaped" and thus mission orientated? Before I answer this, how can I presume the immediate link between the Presence of God and mission. To begin with the restoration of the baptism of the Holy Spirit during the Charismatic Movement was a very personal thing for personal blessing. But with men like Arthur Wallis, Bryn Jones and Ern Baxter about it became evident that the coming of the Holy Spirit was for a purpose - to enable us and empower us to go to the ends of the earth. David Holden wrote; "From Pentecost to the return of Jesus, the church is never called to slow down, to become static or settled in this age". And I think it is clear that it is the Ephesians 4 Ministries rather than academics who are best placed to do this.

On Apostles, David Holden wrote; "Apostles ask questions and challenge you as a local eldership about expansion and making a greater impact on your locality, catching you and your church up on a mission to reach the nations. They are not there just to meet your church needs but also to provoke you to ask ‘where next?'".

On Prophets, he wrote; "The prophetic never sits comfortably with something that is static ... Prophets exercising their ministry into something static can become very frustrated. We may lack the prophetic in the church today because we are static, but when the church gets more mobile the prophetic will come to the fore".

Let me say again how vital academics are and how grateful I am for the books they have written and researched that sit in our libraries. But what concerns me is that their writings do not replace the call of the Holy Spirit communicated through Ephesians 4 Ministries to lead us and guide us into 2007. Jonathan Edwards the great Puritan wrote that it is the job of all to find out which direction the Holy Spirit is moving in and move with Him. Let us allow academics to do their job and defend the orthodoxy of aspects of the whole counsel of God to serve us. But let us pray for those in authority over us that they may lead us truly hearing from the Holy Spirit and opening us up and making us receptive to His "coming upon" us as we meet to worship God.

"Our Great Lack" by Dr Ern Baxter.

The whole matter of prayer and revival are unquestionably linked. I have been listening to a seminar by John Hosier from Stoneleigh 2001 on "God's Passion for Revival" and have been so challenged by the concept of "giving God no rest". What do we know of true intercession, of fasting 40 days and 40 nights, of weeping like Praying Hyde before God until the ground before us is soaked? I found the following article in the Ern Baxter Archive - it is taken from "Tabernacle Tidings" - the magazine that Ern's church (the Evangelistic Tabernacle) produced in Vancouver, Canada. He wrote it on November 25th 1956. It may even be offensive to some but I pray that we will open our hearts to be challenged by it. The Church is nothing if we are not a praying church and we need more than anything else to pray.

I particularly like the slogan of Ern's church; "Where the Word of God is Not Bound!".

Before I post the transcript, be sure to visit "The Spirit of God!" blog - I have just typed up Greg Haslam's awesome prophecy that he brought to the Brighton Leadership Conference 2003. It is another prophecy that truly is coming to pass in these exciting days!

"Tabernacle Tidings
Evangelistic Tabernacle
Corner Tenth Avenue and Quebec Street
Vancouver, BC.
Dr W J Ern Baxter, Pastor.
“Where the Word of God is Not Bound”.
November 25th - 1956

“Our Great Lack”.

Last Tuesday evening in the prayer meeting, Bro. Len Hearn read a prayer letter from Dr Gurney, Director of the Red Sea Mission Team. It was a splendid article and we had hoped to put it in the bulletin but Bro. Hearn took it with him on his trip. We feel constrained however, to speak of prayer, as this article only confirmed what many of us are feeling and what all of us should subscribe to.

Let us start by saying that many of us are almost altogether prayerless. Apart from saying grace at our meals, we spend very little time, if any, before God in private prayer. Many of us, furthermore, not only neglect private prayer but do not take our place in any of the church meetings called for prayer. Prayer is an indication of Christian genuineness or a “token of election” as the old divines would refer to it. To be prayerless is to raise serious doubts as to genuine Christian conversion. Actually a prayerless Christian is a spiritual freak.

In reading the Scriptures, it is evident from beginning to end that prayer is the medium of contact and fellowship with God. It arises out of man’s awareness of God’s existence and God’s availability. Not to pray is, in substance, either to indulge a practical atheism or what is maybe worse, to ignore the Presence of God in His own universe.

Our Lord made it clear in His own words to the disciples in the Upper Room that prayer was to be, along with faith and love and the Holy Spirit one of the great characteristics of the new age. By it, the will of God was to be accomplished. Men would ask the Father for things in the Name of Jesus and the things for which they would ask would be “according to His will” and so God’s will would be done – through prayer!

Coming into the new day, we find a people in the attitude of prayer and praise being the first recipients of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:14). Of the first body of spirit-filled believers it is said that “they continued …steadfastly … in prayers” (Acts 2:42). The first persecution of the Christians precipitated a great Church-wide prayer meeting where the company of believers “lifted up their voice to God with one accord” (Acts 4:24). Prayer was partially responsible for the formation of the first deacon’s board, as the apostles, finding that they could not take care of all the church work, urged the choosing of seven men to take care of the business, that they might “give themselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word” (Acts 6:4). Nor were these first deacons committed to their job in any secular spirit but were considered as part of a spiritual economy, for they were “set before the apostles and when they had prayer, they laid their hands on them” (Acts 6:6). All through the Acts of the Apostles, which is the only authentic history of the early Church which we have, we can trace the preminent place and the great importance of prayer.

Coming into the Epistles, which were letters from the apostles to churches composed of born-again and established believers, we find the same emphasis on prayer. Prayer is not the practice of spiritual immaturity but it is the very life attitude of a committed believer. A Christian, according to Paul, is “praying always with all prayer and supplication” (Ephesians 6:18).

In light of this very sketchy and incomplete picture of the importance of prayer as seen in the New Testament, I think it must be admitted that we can quickly identify the “Great Lack” in our individual lives and in our corporate church life. If prayer is important as even these few Scriptures indicate, and I am doing so little of it, then it is not necessary to look further for the cause of spiritual powerlessness, law standards of Christian life and the many other evident deficiencies of our present-day Christian community.

What shall we do about this matter? The answer is simple. Let us set aside regular times for prayer. Then let us form the habit about praying for everything. We will not be able to affect prayer posture at all times, but the posture is not always important. Let us become interested in the need of prayer in the church. Let us find time for the prayer meeting. Let us be prepared to “labour fervently in prayer”. To stay away from the prayer meeting because of its demands on the flesh is an indication that we have not seen prayer as a work to be done. By this, we do not mean that prayer is not a joy. It is. But there are times when it is labour. If we are only going to interest ourselves in these aspects of the Christian life which are easy on the flesh, and bring a certain amount of sense-joy, it will soon disintegrate into a chronic carnality.

Let us pray more – privately, with our families, in fellowship groups and church prayer meetings realising that prayer is a vital force ordained by God to be the medium for the accomplishment of His will on earth. God forbid that we should hinder the doing of the will of God because of our personal prayerlessness.

W J E B.

Building a Library.

Some years ago God spoke to my friend Pete and I about the vital importance of building a library. We have sought to obey that word and follow in the tradition of Dr Ern Baxter - not just buying books that will bolster our theological beliefs but books that will challenge us, books that will not agree with us and will have the benefit of "iron sharpening iron". When I first starting buying books in somewhat youthful zest I would buy anything but I began to realise that the Puritan Thomas Brookes was correct in lamenting that the Christian market is full of books that quite frankly are not always worth the money. I have tried to hone the books I buy to ones that are going to fuel my passion for God and stir me to create openness in my life for the Holy Spirit. Here are a few that we have to look forward to this year:


"Battling Belief: Defeating Sin with Superior Pleasure" by Dr John Piper.

To be released February 2007!


The book description is as follows; "Conquer Life's Greatest Struggle - You have the faith that first saved you. But now you struggle to apply that faith in everyday circumstances. You are battling unbelief , fighting lies with the purifying power of God's truth. Popular pastor and bestselling author John Piper will equip you to live by faith in future grace and demolish the struggles that stem from anxiety, pride, impatience, bitterness, lust, and more".


"Pauline Christology - An Exegetical-Theological Study" by Professor Gordon Fee.
To be released January 2007!

The description of this book contains a word that makes my mouth water; "Exhaust". It says this; "An exhaustive study of Pauline Christology by noted Pauline scholar, Gordon Fee. The author provides a detailed analysis of the letters of Paul (including those whose authorship is questioned) individually, exploring the Christology of each one, and then attempts a synthesis of the exegetical work into a biblical Christology of Paul".

Here is an extract from Prof Fee's introduction: "Anyone who has read even a smattering of Paul's writings recognizes early on that his devotion to Christ was the foremost reality and passion of his life. What he said in one of his later letters serves as a kind of motto for his entire Christian life: 'For me to live is Christ; to die is [to] gain [Christ]' (Phil. 1:21). Christ is the beginning and goal of everything for Paul, and thus is the single great reality along the way".

"Believer's Baptism: The Covenant Sign of the New Age in Christ" by Thomas R Schreiner.

The release of this book is particularly encouraging and interesting for me as I have been slightly confused at the intense discussion about the role of women in the Church seeming to be placed as higher importance than the issue of baptism which has been relegated to non-discussion "for the sake of unity". I am glad that this scholarly book is out and look forward to reading it.

The book description is as follows: "Believer's Baptism begins with the belief that believer's baptism (as opposed to infant baptism or other faith proclaiming methods) is the clear teaching of the New Testament. Along the way, the argument is supported by written contributions from Andreas Kostenberger, Robert Stein, Thomas Schreiner, Stephen Wellum, Steve McKinion, Jonathan Rainbow, Shawn Wright, and Mark Dever".

"The Blank Bible" by Jonathan Edwards.

Out Now!

Well I didn't get it for Christmas or my birthday so it remains on my must-have list. A cool 1472 pages of Edwards. How can anyone resist? You never know - I remain in hope that my good friend Luke Wood might get hold of a few copies and offer it at bargain prices over at Newgen Books!

I'm always interested in new books so if anyone knows any that should be added to this list then do contact me!

The Ultimate End of Revival - The PRESENCE of God!

The danger in speaking about revival is that it can become a catchphrase and indeed become a word that is misunderstood and misused (like many other words in the Christian vocabulary such as grace). My best friend Pete Day's latest post is spot on when he writes;

"I want the Church of Jesus Christ to worship with the joy and extravagance of the redeemed, the intimacy of the child of God, and the reverence of those coming before the Lord of the whole earth. I want preaching with a fire that wakes the dead and transforms the saints. I want us to be saturated with the presence of God. I want us to take evangelism seriously - not as an optional extra. I want the prayer meetings to be full. Every area!"

Note that - he wrote; "I want us to be saturated with the Presence of God". A cursory reading of revival church histories will reveal that it is the restoring of the Presence of God that is the single common factor in each case. Other phenomenon such as shaking, falling over, gifts of the Spirit do not occur in every case - at least they don't seem to be documented as occuring. But the manifest Presence of God is always there! I was very struck in reading Brian Edward's book; "Revival - A People Saturated with God!". Brian Edwards was a regular speaker at my home church in Dunstable and wouldn't pretend to be a charismatic by an stretch of the imagination. Yet this passage in his book was incredibly stirring and thrilling;

"The Presence of God. This is the key to understanding what revival is. If there is one aspect of worship that is lacking, it is the felt Presence of God. Whatever our label or style, whatever our claims or convictions Christian churches today are not generally noted for the overwhealming sense of the Presence of God. That is why we behave so carelessly in worship.

The deep work of the Spirit in revival is always noted for the experience that convinces us that God is present.

Of course we believe the promises of God that He is always present with us and especially when believers meet together; even without a sense of His Presence we are right to believe He is a promise keeping God. However revival is altogether different. God is known to be there and even the unbeliever is compelled to admit "God is truly among you" (1 Corinthians 14:25).

In revival the Presence of God becomes a tangible felt experience".

It seems to me that when the Presence of God is not so powerfully present in the church, it is then that we are in danger of replacing that lack with the modern gimmicks that we are so familiar with. I remember Dave Holden preaching at the first Brighton Leadership Conference I went to on the subject, "Worship - Charismatic or Electronic?". His point was that the presence of guitars and an overhead projector do not make for true charismatic worship! C H Spurgeon put it this way;

"But if I have gone through the general routine of the worship of my church, and then think that I have done something acceptable to God, while yet my heart has not communed with him in humble repentance, or faith, or love, or joy, or consecration, I make a great mistake. You may keep on with your religious performances for seventy years or more; you may never miss what our Scotch friends call "a diet of worship"; you may not neglect a single rubric in the whole ritual; but it is all nothing unless the soul has fellowship with God".

My point is simply this - to what extent are we going to be satisfied with nothing less than the manifest Presence of God? How long are we going to be satisfied with the status quo and adjust our theology to meet that? When are we going to seize hold of God and tell Him through prayer that "for Zion's sake we will give Him no rest until Jerusalem is made a praise in the earth"? Without the Presence of the Spirit we are nothing and all our efforts are for nothing! Let C H Spurgeon have the last word;

"We must pray in the Holy Ghost, or else we shall not pray at all; and we must preach under the influence of the Holy Ghost, or else we shall chatter like sparrows on the window-sill in the morning, and nothing will come of the chattering. Only the Holy Ghost can make anything we do to be effectual. Therefore never begin any work without the Holy Ghost, and do not dare go on with the impetus that you have gained, but cry again for the Holy Spirit. The "amen" of the sermon needs to be spoken in the power of the Holy Ghost just as much as the first word of the discourse, and every word between the first and the last. Let all your service for God be in the Spirit, or else it is all good for nothing".

George Kouri - Spiritual Son of Ern Baxter!

It has always been my hope to eventually meet men who knew Ern Baxter well and be able to learn from them and draw on what Ern ministered to their lives. This is because my contact with Ern was extremely limited. I really only remember his last visit to the United Kingdom when he spoke at our church in Dunstable in 1991.

Therefore it was extremely exciting to me to get the following message from Mark - the son of George Kouri. He wrote;

"My father, George Kouri, was one of Ern Baxter's sons in the Gospel. I grew up under Ern's teaching in Southern California. I am now helping launch an online seminary (http://www.atsvirtual.org), which is well founded on Ern's teaching. My father wants to meet you in May on his way to South Africa. Can we connect? You can find my father's and my contact details at the URL above. Best regards, Mark Kouri".

Ern Baxter said of George; "George Kouri's teaching on the kingdom is the best I have ever seen". His website is extremely informative and thrilling. Here is some biographical information on him;

"From 1972 to 1985 he labored in Southern California, pioneering an apostolic and prophetic church in the San Diego area. Simultaneously, he labored extensively in India training indigenous leaders in apostolic and prophetic ministry. During that period and until Ern Baxter’s death, Brother Kouri served as a special “Timothy” or apostolic deputy to Brother Baxter.

Brother Kouri is widely respected as an “apostolic-father” in the body of Christ. He has traveled extensively, speaking in conferences and leadership seminars, both nationally and internationally. He combines a vast revelatory knowledge of the Scriptures, Biblical theology and Church history with a special sensitivity to the Holy Spirit gained through many decades of practical hands-on experience in evangelism, apostolic church planting and missions, structuring and ordering of church life, and leadership training. He is passionately committed to the restoration of the Church’s apostolic and prophetic foundations, its growth and maturation, and to seeing nations brought under the spiritual government of the Kingdom of God.

Brother Kouri is founder and Senior Apostle of Apostolic Ministries International, an apostolic and prophetic network of ministers and churches in the United States and abroad. He is also one of the founders and the Presiding Apostle of the Communion of Apostolic Churches, an international communion of apostolic and prophetic networks of ministers and churches committed to working together to recover authentic apostolic Christianity and to fulfill the great commission".

He does run a blog which can be found here. Obviously due to huge time constraints he can't write regularly on it, but what he has written is outstanding Kingdom stuff. The most exciting thing to me is that he clearly is a true apostle in terms of having a true father's heart. Here is his vision for raising up new leaders;

"The biggest news in our ministry is that in January of 2007 several senior brothers and I will launch the Apostles Theological Seminary (“online”), part of a larger leadership training strategy to raise a radical new generation of global leaders for the 21st century Church. ATS is the culmination of more than fifteen years of diligent labor in the Spirit and the Word, not only by some of my brothers and me, but also by those who have preceded us (like my father in the Lord, Brother Ern Baxter)".

I have been very impacted by a prophecy that Greg Haslam gave at the Brighton Leadership Conferene 2003 about a "crucible" which I hope to post soon on the "Spirit of God!" blog. In the prophecy he spoke about the fact that there will be an adding of other apostolic movements into the work of the Spirit that is going on in Newfrontiers. This "coming together" in the crucible work of the Holy Spirit will produce fine metals of strength and beauty. Maybe this is an apostolic movement to watch and keep a close eye on! I am really hoping to speak more with Mark in the coming days.

Here It Is ... "Ditch Diggers Revival" by Ern Baxter.

*Update - 21st January - Full Text Below*

As I mentioned earlier today - I have now finished the transcript of this absolutely outstanding sermon. I cannot emphasise how essential to the Body of Christ I believe this sermon is. I am growing increasingly persuaded that Ern Baxter was a prophet "as one untimely born". Wendy Virgo's comment is proving true again and again. That at the time while Ern was preaching, maybe his congregations and indeed himself didn't quite "see" the vision that he was painting. It is only now that we are coming to see much of what he said is coming to pass. But he does not preach mere triumphalism! His preaching is a sobering clarion call - don't miss the moment!

The transcript of the sermon can be found here courtesy of Google.

Enjoy ... but more importantly get digging! Because the sound of distant rain can be heard!

“Ditch Diggers Revival” by Dr Ern Baxter
at Covenant Church, Mobile Alabama.
New Wine Tape of the Month – March 1981.

“Anything I may say tonight is not intended for a moment to cast any reflection on you as a people but rather it is born in a deep desire to see you move into dimensions of spiritual fulfilment that will only enlarge the goodness of God amongst you. So with the use of a chapter in 2nd Kings I am going to try and bare my heart. 2nd Kings chapter 3[1];

“Now Jehoram the son of Ahab became king over Israel at Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah and reigned twelve years. He did evil in the sight of the Lord though not like his father and his mother; for he put away the sacred pillars of Baal which his father had made. Nevertheless he clung to the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel sin; he did not depart from them. Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheep breeder and used to pay the king of Israel 100, 000 lambs and the wool of 100, 000 rams. But when Ahab died, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel. And King Jehoram went out of Samaria at that time and mustered Israel. Then he went and sent word to Jehoshaphat the king of Judah saying, “The king of Moab rebelled against me. Will you go with me to fight against Moab?”. And he said, “I will go up; I am as you are my people as your people, my horses as your horses”.

He said, “Which way shall we go up?”. And he answered, “The way of the wilderness of Edom”. So the king of Israel went with the king of Judah and the king of Edom and they made a circuit of seven days journey and there was no water for the army or for the cattle that followed them. Then the king of Israel said, “Alas! For the Lord has called these three kings to give them into the hands of Moab”. But Jehosaphat said, “Is there not a prophet of the Lord here, that we may inquire of the Lord by him?”. And one of the kings of Israel’s servants answered and said, “Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who used to pour water on the hands of Elijah”. Jehosaphat said, “The word of the Lord is with him”. So the king of Israel and Jehosaphat and the king of Edom went down to him. Now Elisha said to the king of Israel, “What do I have to do with you? Go to the prophets of your father and to the prophets of your mother”. And the king of Israel said to him, “No, for the Lord has called these three kings together to give them into the hands of Moab”. Elisha said, “As the Lord of hosts lives before whom I stand, were it not that I regard the presence of Jehosaphat the king of Judah, I would not look at you nor see you. But now bring me a minstrel”. And it came about; when the minstrel played that the hand of the Lord came upon him.

He said, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Make this valley full of trenches’. For thus says the Lord, ‘You shall not see not see wind nor shall you see rain yet that valley shall be filled with water so that you shall drink, both you and your cattle and your beasts. This is but a slight thing in the sight of the Lord. He shall also give the Moabites into your hand. Then you shall strike every fortified city and every choice city and fell every good tree and stop all springs of water and mar every good piece of land with stones”.

And it happened in the morning about the time of the offering the sacrifice that behold water came by the way of Edom and the country was filled with water. Now all the Moabites heard that the kings had come up to fight against them. And all who were able to put on armour and older were summoned and stood on the border. They rose early in the morning and the sun shone on the water and the Moabites saw the water opposite them as red as blood. Then they said, “This is blood; the kings have surely fought together, and they have slain one another. Now therefore Moab, to the spoil!”. But when they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose and struck the Moabites so that they fled before them; and they went forward into the land, slaughtering the Moabites. Thus they destroyed the cities; and each one threw a stone on every piece of good land and filled it. So they stopped all the springs of water and felled all the good trees until in Kir-hareseth only they left its stones; however the slingers went about it and struck it. When the king of Moab saw that the battle was too fierce for him, he took with him 700 men who drew swords to break through to the king of Edom but he could not. Then he took his oldest son who was to reign in his place and offered him as a burnt offering on the wall. And there came great wrath against Israel and they departed from him and returned to their own land”.

I suppose it’s proper to give a title so I am going to call what I am going to say to you tonight, “The Ditch-Diggers Revival”. I believe that there is something in here that God wants to say to us. I would like us to look together at

1. The Condition of God's People; as we see them in the opening verses of this chapter. Jehoram and Jehosapahat. Both of these names start with “Jeh” which ties them in with the covenant God Jehovah. Jehoram means “Jehovah is high”. Jehosaphat means “Jehovah is Judge”. Jehoram was the son of the notorious Ahab and Jezebel. Jehoram was a little better than his parents but not good enough to please God. He was the king not of the Parasites or the Hittites or the Jebsites – he was the king of the Israelites and it is important to note that. Jehoram was a man who in his background and tradition had Jehovah as his God and he had turned from Jehovah with his parents to Baal and to other idolatrous deities. But he was a man with a Jehovistic background. Jehosaphat was the king of Judah. He was a better man that Jehoram – much better man. He was a man who had set his face to seek the Lord but he was still a man with some glaring weaknesses. He had certain political ambitions that led him to compromise his righteous position by entering into a marriage relationship with Ahab – marrying his son to Ahab’s daughter which eventually he would regret and the whole nation would regret. So Jehoram was the king of Israel – an outright idolater and Jehosaphat while he was a man who owned Jehovah was a man who compromised. The king of Edom who made up this threesome was a satellite kingdom to Judah.

Jehoram had a problem. After the death of his father, the king of Moab who had paid a yearly tax in the form of 100, 000 lambs and the wool of 100, 000 rams rebelled and said he was paying no more taxes. Jehoram upon hearing that went to Samaria – the capital of Israel – and mustered all the men who could bear arms. He sent a message to Jehosaphat the king of Judah and said, ‘Will you go and fight with me against Moab so that I can get my taxes paid’. Jehosaphat responded readily as he had to Jehoram’s father Ahab. He said, “I will. My horses are as your horses; my men are with your men. We will go”. Jehoram then said to Jehosaphat, “Which way shall we go?”. Now the first evidence we have of trouble here is that two men who both know about Jehovah, who have Jehovah in their tradition, in their culture, in their family, in their background are about to launch a military expedition and take it upon themselves to determine how they shall go about it. This is highly improper for men who know God. It is highly improper because no man who knows God ever undertakes any mission but that he first seeks the Lord. It is very highly improper for these kings on top of that because their own Scriptures in the book of Deuteronomy tells them that when they are going to war, a priest must rise up and address the soldiers and encourage them and send them in the Name of Jehovah. Instead of that Jehosaphat who should know better responds to Jehoram’s question about which way they should go and says, ‘Well let’s go up by the wilderness of Edom’. Self-confidence versus God dependence. I imagine they figured it out like most of us do in our moments of carnality. There are three of us and there is only one king of Moab. Three against one – that’s pretty good odds. We ought to be able to handle him. Then I imagine they looked around in satisfaction at the mustered soldiers with their swords and their spears and they looked at their steeds and their regalia and their kingly getup and their underlings and their courtiers and all their attendants. They felt very secure that the three of them taking off to take care of the king of Moab had the whole matter well in hand. No question about it.

So they started out on a project as men who know Jehovah and are covenantally bound to Jehovah without consulting Jehovah. The consequence? The King James has a quaint verse. It says they travelled for seven days and fetched a compass. Now ‘fetched a compass’ is old English for ‘they went in a circle’. I can imagine these three kings starting out on this preordained successful military exploit congratulating one another as they jog along on their white steeds. Their crowns are all shiny and their swords are gleaming and it’s great. They look at the armies behind them and they are off to do in the king of Moab. About the third day Jehoram says to Jehosaphat, “There is something familiar about the terrain”. (*laughter*). Jehosaphat says, “Now that they mention it there is. By George we have been here before”. You see there is a maxim that lost men go in circles. Did you know that? Lost men go in circles. The whole humanist philosophy of history is circular. The Biblical philosophy of history is linear. Humanism goes in circles – they can trace their circles of lostness. They can trace their own cycles of repetition. The people of God are not going in circles – they are going straight ahead for the path of the just growth brighter unto the perfect day. These three kings went in a circle. Their spirits began to flag and their crowns were at rather a strange tilt. The army behind them was starting to drag its feet because they had another problem. They had run out of water. Now I don’t care how big a king you are – if you have got no water you are in trouble. I don’t care how big an army you have got – if you have no water you are in trouble. And especially if you are lost! A lost thirsty man is a tragic picture and can you imagine three illustrious kings lost and thirsty? Their armies dragging along behind them like a multitude of stray dogs?

Now I want to say in general that it has always been a temptation for God’s people to trade on their privileges. It has always been a temptation that because God blessed us with covenant and God blessed us with salvation and God blessed us the gifts of the Spirit and God blessed us with this that we can start to do things on our own. This isn’t a profound lesson but I want to say something to you – you are a people richly blessed. You are a people richly endowed. You are a people whose foundations and roots are in quality Christianity. You are a favoured people. But because you are a favoured people you could run the risk of running on a record and that is a risk we can’t afford. I have had a deep empathetic desire to see us move on into God and experience dimensions of God’s visitation and power and Presence which will fill us with an abundance of God’s wonderful water so that we will be equipped unto every good work so that not for a moment will we settle on our record or our accomplishments or settle on our illustrious foundations but that we will press on into God and not run the risk of calling a war council and saying to one another, “Which way shall we go up?”. I think if there is anything I have appreciated since I have come here it is the fact that there is clear cut leadership and clear cut definition of leadership but I have never since a more realistic relational plurality than I have seen here. I hold Brother Charles Simpson in high esteem. My esteem has only appreciated since I have watched him moving in the responsibility of his leadership but in the humility of council and I promise you that where that exists you have reduced the possibility of error to a minimum. Jehoram and Jehosaphat made the mistake of trading on their covenantal names and the fact that they were the kings of Judah and Israel respectively and somehow that released them from having to seek God as to how they should go up to Moab. God said, “Alright men if that’s the way you want it, I will withdraw My Presence and My guidance – you are on your own. That’s the way you wanted it. One of you said to the other, ‘Which way shall we go up?’ and the other said, ‘Well let’s go this way’ and the other agreed and away you went. Now away you go”. I say to you tonight God never let us say to each other, “Which way shall we go?”. God never allowed us the questionable luxury of determining our own future but may we in our leadership and in our pastoral oversight and in our counsels and our flocks and our associations – may we always be conscious that the word of the apostle James rests heavy upon us;

“Go to now ye that say today or tomorrow we shall go into such a city and buy and sell and get gain for you know not what a day shall bring forth. Rather you should say, God willing we shall do this or that”.

There is an abundance of God’s guidance! The one thing He has promised is wisdom! He said, “Ask largely – ask often! It doesn’t matter how often you come to ask – I will never scold you. Stand there and ask perennially – I don’t care! I will give you wisdom!”. What is wisdom? Wisdom is the ability to use knowledge and I want to know how to live and how to act, where to go and what to do. And God has promised that we don’t have to have a war counsel and depend on a consensus but that we can depend on a supernatural direction.

Well they were lost. They were out of water. And they did what so many of us have done and they blamed God. Jehoram said, “God has brought us here to deliver us into the hands of Moab”. Just a minute Jehoram! God didn’t bring you here. Getting lost was your idea. God didn’t bring you here. Running out of water was your idea! You never consulted God and now you want to blame Him. Don’t blame Him for something that happened when you didn’t consult Him about your direction. While Jehoram is full of despair and has nothing to say, Jehosaphat speaks up. Jehosaphat says, “Is there not a prophet of the Lord here somewhere?”. Now Jehosaphat had a hint of the right direction. Jehoram didn’t have a notion. He said, “Is there a prophet of the Lord around”. He was careful to qualify the kind of prophet he wanted. He didn’t want a prophet of Baal or Ashtoreth – he wanted a prophet of Jehovah. “Is there a prophet of the Lord around?”. You know all things are working together for good. God has got something arranged – there is always something ready. There just happened to be a soldier who just happened to know that Elijah just happened to be somewhere around. So he stepped up and said, “Yes there is a prophet – he isn’t too well known. In fact his reputation is that he poured water on the hands of another prophet. But he has succeeded him. He is just a young fellow just getting started in his ministry but he is here. His name is Elisha”. I believe that Elisha was providentially present and I want to tell you something else I believe. I believe that God’s mercy is so abundant that even when you and I pull boners like Jehoram and especially Jehosaphat I believe God has all kinds of gracious means around to meet our situations. I believe that there are prophets around and angels around – I believe that there are visitors of God around. I believe that there are situations that God is just waiting to be merciful in.

So they said, “Well send for him”. When the prophet showed up and took one look at Jehoram, he said, “You disgust me. If it weren’t for Jehosaphat I wouldn’t even speak to you. I wouldn’t even look at you”. Now I am not going to discuss here whether Elisha’s disgust was valid or normal. I just have to say I really identify with him. (*laughter*). It’s interesting the way Jehoram responded. Elisha had said “Go to your own idols and go to your own prophets”. And Jehoram came back and in the English Version he said, “No”. In the Hebrew that “No” is bigger than just “No”. What he said, “Oh please don’t send that to me. Please don’t say that. You are right to rebuke us but if you don’t help us the Moabites will kill us”. In that moment Jehoram faced truth and he realised that his idolatrous prophets could provide him with no help and this man alone could. I think probably Elisha’s disgust soured his soul a bit. When he looked at Jehosaphat and realised he was going to have to do something he said still half-disgustedly, “Bring me a minstrel”. Someone went out and got a harpist and in he came and Elisha looked at him and said, “Play a few choruses”. (*laughter*). Now at this moment dear people we enter into an inexplicable dimension called the Charismatic dimension. I don’t understand it. I don’t understand what happened here anymore than I understand what happened tonight when a burst of glory came in on the congregation and Brother Charles Simpson under the anointing began to say and do things that took us into a dimension of the Holy Spirit that none of us would know how to rationally document other than as I looked at you with your hands raised and your faces shining and your bodies jumping and your voices screaming, you had entered into an inexplicable, strange, wonderful but nevertheless very real dimension of the unseen. This incidentally is eternal.

So what we were involved in for a little while tonight is not something temporary and novel. What we were involved in was something permanent. For it is the things that are seen that are temporal, it is the things that are unseen that are eternal. And it was the eternal that we became involved in – and who understands that? I said to Brother Charles, “What happened to you?”. He could give me a certain answer and some idea of what it was like because any man of God who has ever been anointed to lead people in that kind of charismatic dimension knows that suddenly something happens. What is it? Well it’s God. Who’s God? Well you know who God is. But what happens? I don’t know what happened – it is a strange spiritual chemistry of some kind – I don’t know. But it is real! It is more real than hands or feet or breathing itself. It is ultimate reality – it is eternity breaking in through time – it is the permanent breaking into the temporary – it’s the real breaking into the unreal. I don’t know the relationship with music – I just know that there is a relationship. I know that I can grow discouraged and distressed and sit at the piano and start to sing my heart out and something happens. I know that in moments of exquisite joy when I have run out of words and my vocabulary is destitute of adjectives that I can start to sing in an unknown tongue and my spirit starts to ride on the high places. I don’t understand it but I believe it. “Bring me a minstrel”. Why does the Lord say that we are to come into His Presence with singing? He knows something. He knows something! How many will acknowledge that we have entered into experiences of the Holy Spirit in singing that you haven’t any other way? I don’t understand it – I just believe it.

Now as the minstrel began to play Elisha’s spirit began to get calm and God-directed and wait for the word. Someone said, “What do you mean, wait for the word?”. I don’t know. I have read every passage in the Bible that tells how prophecy came and they are strange passages. Isaiah saw a word. Ezekiel saw a vision. Another prophet heard a voice behind him. I don’t know all of the modus operandi of the Holy Spirit but that doesn’t mean that it’s not real. It’s very real and Elisha is waiting for something. Why didn’t Elisha say, “Now look fellows let’s sit down and have a counsel?”. They had already had a counsel and they were lost and thirsty so having a counsel wasn’t the answer. Elisha knew that the answer for these men lay in a dimension of the supernatural and Elisha was a prophet, a man called to deal in those things and he knew that he had a responsibility to get a word from God. He was a man called to stand in the counsel of the Almighty. Blessed be the day when there is a restoration among the servants of God of an understanding that to be a servant of God and a leader is not to be theologically instructed or ministerially ordained. It’s not to have a charge or a parish but it is to stand in the counsel of God until you feel a burning of the Word of God in your spirit and until your mind is blanked out with a consciousness of the Almightiness of God and you come out of that counsel with the Word of the Lord burning in your spirit and you know that then and only then have you fulfilled your responsibility of being a prophetic voice to God’s people. (*applause*).

Would any of us sitting down to counsel on the conditions of those kings have thought of what the Holy Spirit told Elisha to say? Suddenly Elisha begins to quiver, throws back his head and begins to speak.

“Make this valley full of ditches for ye shall neither see rain nor wind but this valley shall be filled with water and this is but a light thing that the Lord did for in addition to this He shall deliver into your hands the Moabites. Make this valley full of ditches!”.

Jehoram said “Fancy that”. (*laughter*). Jehosaphat said, “That’s a strange one”. The king of Edom said, “Boy have I got in with a funny bunch”. (*laughter*). Now can you imagine when these three kings when they retired from the presence of the prophet and go back to their armies and their officers and they stand there and ask their officers that they are to send word throughout the armies that they are to dig ditches all night? Now there is no PA system – they had to send it by word of mouth, so you can imagine as this runs through the army. “Dig ditches … dig ditches … we’ve got to make this valley full … dig ditches … dig ditches? I didn’t come here to dig ditches! I came here to fight a war! I don’t use my sword to dig, I use it to kill! … You dig ditches”. That was the word of the Lord. “Dig ditches … dig ditches … dig ditches”. And you know what? I think that is the word of the Lord tonight. The Bible says in the morning about the time of sacrifice the miracle occurred. But all night long those soldiers mumbled and grumbled and dug ditches. Awkwardly with their swords and their hands removing the soil to make pits and trenches so that when the miracle water came it would be retained and their animals could drink and be refreshed. By faith they dug ditches. There was nothing in the lexicon of rationality that said if you fill that arid valley full of ditches then those ditches would be full of water. They moved on the sheer faith in the prophetic word. The prophet had said if you fill this valley full of ditches then God will send the water. The human side is dig ditches – the divine side is sending the water. No ditches – no water. Ditches – water.

Now take up your position. So all night long in the darkness they dug ditches. I can imagine some of them stopping and saying this is the craziest thing – here I am digging ditches because that crazy prophet said that there will be water. This is the driest valley and there is no moisture here! All night long they dug ditches. In the morning miracle water came and you can read the commentaries about this and they will say that it rained way up in the mountains somewhere and came rushing in. I don’t care if rained in the mountains or what happened. All I know is that the word of God said if you dig those ditches then God will send the water. And God sent the water. I don’t care where it came from – God sent it supernaturally and miraculously. It was miracle water. But that miracle water came and was retained to the degree that men dug ditches. Men made room for the retention of that water as it came miraculously. Now I want to generalise again before I finish up by being specific. I believe that Christianity worldwide is cursed with the councils of kings. I believe that Jehorams and Jehosaphats have met in counsel all over the world as leaders presumably of God’s church and have planned this and that. They have said to each other, “Which way shall we go up?”. And then they counselled about it and have decided to go this way. The record of historical Christianity is tragic. Someone says that he has an unhappy task who has been called upon to write church history. There is a sense in which that’s true. It is a horrendous record of kings going in circles and running out of water.

Every time there has been a visitation of God in history some man – some unofficial prophet who wasn’t even invited to be there – has come on the scene and got a word from God. I can’t take the time to tell you but let us start with the most illustrious prophet of all. One who was born in a manger and raised in semi-poverty. The Son of a peasant girl and the foster son of a carpenter – who never went to theological school and was never ordained but who broke upon the scene of time in association with another strange character who lived in a desert. This too is a strange man. No ecclesiastical hands were laid upon him! No theological seminary degree followed after his name. This was an odd one. He emerged every morning from somewhere in the desert and no one really knew where he lived. He was dressed rather strangely too. If you look closely you will see a grasshopper wing hanging on a bit of honey at the corner of his mouth. (*laughter*). But there was something about this strange fellow. He would make his way down to the muddy waters of the Jordan and wade in and he would take up his position there. He would send out no circulars or no radio advertisement. He hadn’t got on TV. He was just in the purposes of God and for some strange reason this man standing knee deep in the muddy waters of Jordan had an attractiveness in the supernatural realm that caused people to flood out of all the adjacent towns till the banks of the river became crowded with eager people coming to hear the word of this strange unofficial prophet.

At last the Pharisees and the Sadducees realising that something was going on thought that they had better go out and see what was happening because their congregations were dwindling. So out they went and they were amazed to find that there were their people. They said to one another, “Why there’s Joe. He’s our church treasurer – what’s he doing out here? There’s Mary our choir director!”. John the Baptist looked at them with eagle vision on these official functionaries and was full of love … (*laughter*). He said, “Your generation are snakes. Who told you to flee from the wrath to come? You go and bring forth fruit fit for repentance”. And they slunk away through the crowd to their toe-kissing officialism. One day a dignified man of poise and mean came walking down the side of the river and this prophet standing in his watery pulpit felt a strange vibration and he looked and realised that this was someone special. As this Man approached him he realised that it was the Messiah. Because the One who had sent him to baptise had told him in a private conversation that he would be preparing the way of Messiah. He wanted the people called to repentance so that it would be a straight road. He said the prophet would be sure because when he baptised Him. When our Lord presented Himself to John the Baptist for baptism, John said, “No you should baptise me”. He said, “Please go ahead and baptise Me. I must fulfil righteousness”. So John baptised Him and when He came up the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove settled upon Him and a voice from heaven said, “This is My Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased”. The point I want to make is this that all of this was going on apart from the counsel of the Sanhedrin and apart from the Sadducees and the Pharisees. This was all going on para – this was all going on outside. My point is that these were not official prophets and as Jesus launched on His ministry and as the multitudes followed Him the Sanhedrin and the Pharisees and the Sadducees ground their teeth at Him because He wasn’t official. Listen I don’t want to be offensive but I have to say something. If it’s a matter of being official versus unofficialism and the issue is the Presence of God then it has to be unofficialism because the issue is the Presence of God. God was with John the Baptist! God was with His Son! One of the first converts our Lord had was with the same kind of unofficial people. Peter and John were ignorant, unlearned men. They didn’t have the hands of the Sanhedrin laid on them and yet they were the ones who turned whole towns upside down. So much for Bible times!

As you run through church history it is not the great official voices it is not the great official voices that make the spiritual impact. It is man who comes unofficially out of the womb of God’s purposes and suddenly emerges. The British Isles were filled with probably the most brilliant theological minds in the last century that had been there in all the centuries previous. Great definitive theological works had been written by names that were brilliant in the last century but these great men able as they were and capable in exegeting the sacred Scriptures didn’t have the ability to precipitate spiritual revival. God reached down into Boston and laid His hand on an illiterate show clerk by the name of Dwight L Moody. And D L Moody with his rough English and his strange idiom went across to the British Isles and sat on the same platform as all these brilliant, scintillating theological brains but it was on this unofficial show clerk that the anointing and charism of God rested. It was he who stood up and under such anointing at times became incoherent as the Spirit of God moved him and God shook Great Britain as a result of this.

A young nineteen year old boy was laid upon by God – a boy who never saw a theological seminary who all his life long said, “You don’t call me Reverend – you call me Mr Spurgeon”. That nineteen year old boy shook the people of London as he packed the people into his Baptist church and his voice rang out with a sound they hadn’t heard in that great city for many a year. They moved from there until they were forced to build one of the most magnificent auditoriums in London and for 35 years this unofficial prophet thrilled the heart of 5, 000 to 6, 000 people every Lord’s Day. I could go on and on and on. God is not bound by the machinery of crowns and horses and spears and swords. God is bound by His own purposes and when He can’t break down the gates of officialism He will call out a John the Baptist. He will bring His own Son from the womb of a virgin and He will raise up a fisherman or a tax gatherer. One of things that has been levelled at us again and again is that we are not official. Well if forfeiting officialism will guarantee that I can be bathed in the Presence of God like I was tonight then forever and a day let officialism be banished! (*applause*). I think what I want to say to you is that you have no need to feel your second class citizens because you don’t carry great official names and titles. The badge of your validity is the Presence of God. I would rather have been here tonight than sit in the most illustrious official group of unregenerate theologians in the world.

But here’s what I want to say. I would like to suggest to us that battle scared bedevilled and bedamned by our enemies, harassed and persecuted, cussed and discussed that we don’t make the mistake of drawing into ourselves and licking our wounds. That I would like to say to you tonight in God’s Name make this valley full of ditches. I would like to say to you if I can interpret what is stirring in my bosom that there is supernatural water waiting to come flooding down this valley. I have felt it since I have come here – there is a visitation standing in the wings. There are angels standing in the doorways – heaven is waiting to break in upon us and I urge you in God’s Name – make this valley full of ditches. Be ready for it – by faith expect it. I would feel badly if I thought God did not have a divine intention to send us wave after wave of supernatural visitation. I would feel our time was wasted – my time here was a waste, your time was a waste. We are here tonight because we are divine receptacles for the glory of God. We are a valley where water can come. We are a place where ditches can be dug. We are a people of God whose hearts are open to the supernatural – God send Your water! It’s been a long night! We have dug our swords into the arid sand and we have sweat over the sand as we plunge our swords in to make the holes yet larger. Sometimes it seemed like morning would never come but the prophetic word said it will come and come it shall and I will dig on! I will dig pits and trenches and ditches because as sure as God is alive when morning breaks there shall be torrents of miracle water! (*applause*). Over almost 50 years now I have seen revivals come and go. I was in the world on time to touch the retreating end of the Welsh Revival. I came into the world almost coincident with the great Pentecostal Outpouring. I saw and shared in the great earthshaking visitations of the Healing Movement. I saw the astounding and amazing acts of God in the Latter Rain visitation. But with all of them there has been one thing missing if I may say so respectfully and sadly. They hadn’t dug ditches to keep the water. So the water came, looked for a place to stop and there was none, so the water went on. The water had been there alright. They saw it, got wet with it and tasted it but it didn’t stay. I hope I am not saying too much or too little. I believe God has brought us into a relationship of understanding. The manner in which we have been put together, the structure of valid biblical authority and I have to say this (this is my opinion and I don’t want to appear pontifical about it) but I believe that people have got the wherewithal to handle it without wasting it and without losing it.

Now as I was praying about coming to you tonight the Lord said to me, “Well that’s fine – you tell them all of that but you better tell them some practical ways in which you can all start to dig ditches”. So let me in closing give you some practical things. I hope you don’t feel I am laying something heavy on you because I don’t feel to do that. I don’t feel God wants me to do that. I want this to be exciting to you. I want this to be a word of encouragement to you. I want you to hear the voice of God’s prophets saying to you, “I will send you water but make your valley full of ditches”. Alright you Israelites – to your swords and your spears and lets dig some ditches. I would like to mention firstly that we;

1. Dig Ditches in Our Time.

‘Redeem the time’ Paul says. I don’t know what you do with your time and I’m sure that you probably are very responsible in your stewardship of time. But I remember the old hymn that said, “Take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord”. In the last meeting (which was my first) I stood up here and I said, “Oh God say something to me of what you want me to do since I have moved to Mobile”. And I remember He spoke to me so clearly and He said, “Seek My face”. I remember as I walked off the platform after the service I said simply to God, “Thy Face Lord I will seek”. I didn’t know what I was saying and I still don’t know what all of that means. I just know from that time to this I have had a strange renewed desire to seek God by whatever means I understand. Pray more. Wait on the Lord more. Find more time to refresh my soul in spiritual singing and spiritual prayer. I haven’t arrived any place yet that I want to be but I am better than I was. All I am saying to you tonight is that the Lord is going to send miracle water. Will you have time to handle it? Lets dig some ditches in our time.

2. Dig Ditches in Things.

Brother Charles Simpson used this verse tonight, “Life consisteth not in the abundance of things which a man possetheth”. I am not saying you shouldn’t have things. I would like to quote a worldly philosopher who said, “The wise hold all earthly ties lightly – they are stripping for eternity”. All I am saying to you is that how many things you have can you hold them so lightly – can you dig ditches in them that so when the miracle water comes it will not be obstructed by love of things? I am not saying you should go out and have a garage sale. Not saying you should go and throw things in the incinerator. I am just saying should we sit down and evaluate things as to how our hearts are attached to things and maybe dig a few ditches in things? How many hear what I am saying? You know I am not saying go out and burn your house down – that’s not what I am saying. I am saying take a responsible look at what things are doing to you and say, “I am going to dig some holes here because when that visitation comes I don’t want things to hold me up”. The third thing I would like to suggest is:


3. Dig Ditches in Relationships.

Someone says, “Oh boy we are high on that! That’s one area where we have really got it together”. Well I’m sure you have. So this is just a little auxiliary suggestion. I would like to put it in the form of a beautiful verse from Malachi which goes like this;

“Then those that feared and loved the Lord spoke often of Him to each other and He had a book of remembrance drawn up in which He recorded the names of those that feared and loved Him and spoke about Him”.

Here’s what I want to say to you. I know you’ve got great relationships. So have I. God knows how thankful I am for them. But I am wondering if in my relationships – my relationship with Ruth, my relationship with my brethren – it may be that I don’t need to dig some ditches. Maybe in my relationships there should be a bigger God factor.

I remember when I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit in 1932. My chum received the baptism in the Holy Spirit at the same time. And we were so excited about Jesus that I remember we hauled our cots out of the men’s dormitory where we were and we put them out under the apple trees and we couldn’t go to sleep at night and we would look up at the stars and talk about Jesus. Oh I know that was initial and that was early and I was young and crazy and fanatical – oh blessed fanaticism! (*laughter*). If I could only recapture some of that youthful romance! The first six months after I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit I kept a pad and pencil by my bed and wrote love poetry to Jesus. Now it wasn’t Shakespearean or Miltonian but it was the best that I could do and I knew that He appreciated it. I don’t write love poetry to Jesus now – I’m too grown up and too mature. (*laughter*). God restore my youth! God give me another poem to celebrate the majesty of Your Son.

4. Dig Ditches in Devotion.

This is probably the most difficult of all. Prayer and spiritual warfare. Getting before God. We need to dig some ditches there. Finally and far from least I think we need to:

5. Dig Ditches in Our Faith.

I want tonight to have right faith expectations. I do not believe we are going to die and shrivel on the vine. I do not believe that we are going to pass away – that we are going to sort of peter out. I don’t believe that! I believe that we are going to glory to glory. I believe that the next glory that is coming up for us will require that we have reservoirs to contain the visitation. How many here tonight would like to enter into a new dimension of God’s power? May I ask then very simply that we all start to dig ditches and make ready for the miracle water? I am not going to tell you my reasons for believing that it is coming. But I have some good ones! And I want to dig some ditches to make ready to hold the water when it comes.
[1] Ern Baxter used the New American Standard Version.

"Ditch Diggers Revival" by Dr Ern Baxter - forthcoming!

I became acutely aware when I biked home after I wrote the post; "With Signs Following" that one takes an awful risk as soon as one makes any statement about what God might do in the forthcoming year! The fear is - well what if He doesn't? And as I pondered this I reminded myself of the awesome luxury of Calvinism and a trust in God's complete and utter rule over time and space. If He doesn't ... then He doesn't! He is yet still God and He is worthy of our praise! That verse sets the tone so powerfully; "Though You slay me, yet I will praise you".

That aside, the fact remains that this New Year I have never been so aware of the hope, excitement and potential that awaits us. God seems (to me) to be giving encouragement after encouragement that He has not abandoned us or forgotten us.

So the question must be asked again; "If the tide is turning - what must our response be?". Dr Ern Baxter again provides one of the most profound answers in a sermon that he preached at Covenant Church, Mobile in Alabama in 1981 just after he moved there. It was the New Wine Tape of the Month and with good reason. I have almost completed transcribing it and will be making it available on my next blog entry.

I hope you will see how once again we can be amazed at the awesome prophetic nature of Ern Baxter's preaching and teaching. At the time it is possible that many didn't understand quite what he was getting at. Yet Wendy Virgo was surely right when she wrote of Ern Baxter; "Now with the passage of time we can see some of his prophetic predictions coming into being". I deeply feel that this sermon - "Ditch Diggers Revival" - is THE sermon that MUST be heard in 2007! If God is truly moving then we cannot wait passively for Him. There is a mission to be fulfilled! There is work to be done! Ern's text was 2 Kings 3. Here are some key quotes to wet your appetites;

"I have had a deep empathetic desire to see us move on into God and experience dimensions of God’s visitation and power and Presence which will fill us with an abundance of God’s wonderful water so that we will be equipped unto every good work so that not for a moment will we settle on our record or our accomplishments or settle on our illustrious foundations but that we will press on into God and not run the risk of calling a war council and saying to one another, “Which way shall we go up?” - Doesn't that sound familiar?

"Now at this moment dear people we enter into an inexplicable dimension called the Charismatic dimension. I don’t understand it. I don’t understand what happened here anymore than I understand what happened tonight when a burst of glory came in on the congregation and Brother Charles Simpson under the anointing began to say and do things that took us into a dimension of the Holy Spirit that none of us would know how to rationally document other than as I looked at you with your hands raised and your faces shining and your bodies jumping and your voices screaming, you had entered into an inexplicable, strange, wonderful but nevertheless very real dimension of the unseen".

"But what happens? I don’t know what happened – it is a strange spiritual chemistry of some kind – I don’t know. But it is real! It is more real than hands or feet or breathing itself. It is ultimate reality – it is eternity breaking in through time – it is the permanent breaking into the temporary – it’s the real breaking into the unreal. I don’t know the relationship with music – I just know that there is a relationship. I know that I can grow discouraged and distressed and sit at the piano and start to sing my heart out and something happens. I know that in moments of exquisite joy when I have run out of words and my vocabulary is destitute of adjectives that I can start to sing in an unknown tongue and my spirit starts to ride on the high places".

"One of things that has been levelled at us again and again is that we are not official. Well if forfeiting officialism will guarantee that I can be bathed in the Presence of God like I was tonight then forever and a day let officialism be banished! (*applause*). I think what I want to say to you is that you have no need to feel your second class citizens because you don’t carry great official names and titles. The badge of your validity is the Presence of God. I would rather have been here tonight than sit in the most illustrious official group of unregenerate theologians in the world".

And note this particularly because it is chilling yet highly motivating at the same time;

"I was in the world on time to touch the retreating end of the Welsh Revival. I came into the world almost coincident with the great Pentecostal Outpouring. I saw and shared in the great earthshaking visitations of the Healing Movement. I saw the astounding and amazing acts of God in the Latter Rain visitation. But with all of them there has been one thing missing if I may say so respectfully and sadly. They hadn’t dug ditches to keep the water. So the water came, looked for a place to stop and there was none, so the water went on. The water had been there alright. They saw it, got wet with it and tasted it but it didn’t stay".

At the end of his extrodinary life, Ritch Carlton - Ern Baxter's Administrator - wrote that he looked through church history and with disappointment cried out; "Where is the Church?". This comment puts such disappointment in perspective. Ern experienced the thrilling excitement of movement of God after movement of God erupt in power and yet dwindle so quickly because "the water came, looked for a place to stop and there was none".

Let that charge be not levelled at us! The thrilling thing about this amazing sermon is that Ern did not just preach an etherial general sermon but he concluded with some very practical remarks as to how we can "dig ditches" to contain and channel the water of the Spirit of God. I urge you - read this sermon! Let's hear his voice and make this movement of God (if and when it comes) one that changes and transforms our generation!

Resisting the Holy Spirit and the Treachery of Tradition by Dr Ern Baxter ...

It seems a shame to follow on the positive note and exciting hope of my last post with one titled such as this and focusing on the negative. Yet I am scared (a righteous fear I hope) that once again the people of God will blow it and we will miss the moving of God (should He decide to move) because of the reasons why we have ALWAYS resisted Him.

Ern Baxter was and remained to his death, the most open man I know to the moving of God and the coming down of the Spirit of God. He always hoped for more - always looked for more and always asked, "Is this it?". So this blog reproduces a large chunk from Ern's book; "The King, the Kingdom and the Holy Spirit". It's warning must be heard and held in tension with the excitement and hope that the New Year holds for us all. We can be open to what Ern wrote and said because his ultimate longing was that the Holy Spirit would be able to find a people who will not quench Him or resist Him or turn from Him through fear of excess yet at the same time stay safely within the bounds of the Word of God and not fall into doctrinal error. May this post contribute to avoid us making the same fatal mistake again. Over to Ern Baxter:

"We have examined an important historical principle; God is an active, changing, transforming God. On the other hand we are ... well from a historical perspective, we're simply not so hot. In Acts chapter 7 Stephen is talking to the religious leaders of Israel who had engineered the death of our Lord Jesus. He tells them, "Oh you stubborn people, hard of heart and hard of hearing. You are forever resisting the Holy Spirit. Your ancestors did it and you're doing it still" (Acts 7:51).

What were they resisting? Actually who did they resist? They said, "The Holy Spirit? We never saw the Holy Spirit". "But you did and you didn't recognise Him. You resisted Him in Isaiah. You resisted Him in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Obadiah and Zechariah. You resisted Him in Malachi and Zephaniah. You resisted Him in Moses and you resisted Him in Joshua. You resisted Him. Every time He spoke through the servants of God you resisted Him". "We didn't know that was the Holy Ghost. We thought that was Isaiah". "That's not the problem. You didn't resist Him because you didn't like Isaiah. You resisted the Holy Ghost coming to you through Isaiah because there was something in you that wouldn't have heard the Holy Ghost even if the Holy Ghost had been manifested in a personal form with a big sign over His head saying, "I'm the Holy Ghost". You would have still resisted Him because it wasn't the form of His coming. It was what was in you".

A brief glance through the Scriptures or at Stephen's speech to the religious leaders of his day clearly demonstrates the historical habit of man with God. Now let me give you the historical reason. It's very important to have a sense of history and learn from it's example. Why? Many of us don't realise we are resisting the Holy Ghost now.

"Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, 'Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? ... Jesus replied, 'And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? ... Thus you nullify the Word of God for the sake of your tradition". (Matthew 15:1-3, 6 - NIV).

That didn't mean the disciples ate with dirty hands. It means they didn't go through the religious ablutions that were purely symbolic. Jesus responded to them with another question; "Why do you, yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?". Your tradition empties the commandment of God of all it's meaning. This is a difficult issue for me to teach.

I remember being invited to address a denominational convention a few years ago. I spoke from this type of scriptural base. I told them, "So the time has come for us to find biblical, documented evidence to support the things we are doing. We have built up a system of traditions, rites and ceremonies that are not biblically based. And we are so dedicated to keeping our traditions that when we hear the pure Word of God we can't attend to it because we are busy handling the substitutes".

I remember the leader of that denomination who drove me to the airport after the convention. I knew I hadn't been heard for with a smile he said very simply and dispassionately, "Ern I've always considered you to be one of the outstanding Bible teachers of our day and I've always enjoyed hearing you. But I need to tell you that I disagree with what you taught at this convention. I cannot document 50 percent of what I do in my church and I have no intention of changing".

One of the last things I heard about that man came from a friend who said he'd been in that leader's church one Sunday morning and watched the man standing behind the pulpit with tears streaming down his face saying, in essence, "Where is God?". I'm not that man's judge but as far as I was concerned that day while we were driving to the airport that man served notice on God that he had no intention of changing his traditions for the commandments of God. I am not trying to push something hard on you, but at the same time I am not willing to withold for my own sake or comfort what I feel the Holy Spirit is saying. I know men who would cut my throat from ear to ear simply because I may suggest that one of their traditions cannot be biblically documented.

I heard once that there are 942 individual acts you have to perform as a Jew, rituals that the rabbis laid down as things that must be done every day. That is the goal of religion. Religion wants to burden you down with a lot of rites and ceremonies that appear very religious but the general aim is to keep you from hearing and receiving the life-giving voice of the Holy Spirit. There is a difference between religion and relationship. What I want you to do is examine everything you are doing. Find out if you are engaging in a tradition or if you are obeying a command of the Father.

The treachery of tradition comes from a satanic source ... (John 8:44) Jesus told those religious leaders, "The source of your disobedience and hatred of Me, the fact that you challenge Me at every turn of the road and the reason you hang onto your traditions and won't submit them to the commandments of God rises from a deeper problem within you. You are of your father the devil. You are being driven by a satanic spirit".

The title of this teaching is "Restoring the Balance between the King, the Kingdom and the Holy Spirit". I have called it that because the people of God seem to tend to stop short of becoming the people God created them to be".

Let us hear Ern Baxter's plea from beyond the grave! He may be dead but he still speaks and would have us learn from the mistakes of church history! God has great things in store for His people! He will have us become a praise for Him in the earth! Lets conform to His desire and allow His Spirit free reign to take us where He will and do with us what He will!

With Signs Following ...

2007 is going to be quite a year!! Dare I write that? Even as I do, I can feel unbelief and cyncism rising up within me like bile. How many New Years have I said that and it has turned into a terrible one?! Yet I am so encouraged. The signs seem to be that indeed the tide is turning and the crest of the wave is growing and growing.


Terry Virgo has written his invitation to the "Together on a Mission 2007" and it has some exciting news! He writes:

"Last year those who attended Rob Rufus’s very instructive training track were particularly appreciative not only of the very helpful instruction they received but also the impartation of faith and Holy Spirit activity that was so manifest.

This year I have invited Rob to take three main sessions, with the anticipation that even greater numbers will be further equipped and inspired for our great calling to make Jesus known in our contemporary world".

In an age where paranoia of excess seems to abound in the evangelical world, I am deeply encouraged to be in a movement of churches where the leader and father of the said movement is prepared to make a resounding statement about his hope of the moving of the Spirit in our nation. Far from backing off from men such as Rob Rufus, Terry has given him and Newfrontiers an opportunity that is thrilling. The chance to give three main addresses and the chance for the whole conference to be impacted by the incredible ministry of this servant of God.

My feeling (and it is just that) is that if God is pleased in His grace to visit the United Kingdom again in a tremendous tidal wave of power, I am not sure whether He will be raising up what Ern Baxter called, "Stars shining in their unilateral glory". I think Dave Holden got it right when he spoke at Brighton about our corporate role as "ministers of the Spirit". Dave said himself that he didn't think we should be looking to men such as Rob Rufus or Paul Cain to "do the stuff" anymore. They will indeed set us an example and show us the way in equipping us but the onus rests with us to seek God, to pray for an anointing of the Spirit to move in signs and wonders, to fast, to seek Him and to step out in faith and dare to believe Him!

This wave of new anointing we so long for will come in the corporate. Terry Virgo's invitation could so easily be applied to us as a church inviting the lost in;

"You yourself need nourishment and inspiration. Come and be refreshed in the presence of God. Come and be further trained and inspired so that you can serve God with fresh zeal encouraged by a fresh encounter with Him".

Dare we believe that 2007 will be the year?

Looking forward to 2007!!

Many use the New Year as a chance to look back and reflect on what kind of year they had. I'm not one of them because looking back doesn't seem to be always looked on favourably in the Bible. Lot's wife looked back and she didn't fare too well. If we accept that the Christian life is a journey, then surely the majority of our time should be spent looking forward to see where our steps are taking us - with the occasional look back to encourage us with our progress.

For me the key question for 2006 concerns the fact that Rob Rufus said at "Together on a Mission" that the Lord had told him that this was the year that He would move in the United Kingdom. I could have missed it. Maybe Rob got it wrong. Maybe the Lord started the work but as yet it is invisible and we are yet to see the results. Dave Holden's message is absolutely key here - "What we do when the Lord is not moving in power". We carry on working! We carry on ministering in the Spirit! We carry on praying and fasting and hoping and looking for revival!

So I want to devote this blog to my friend Jon's website - "Prophetic Reformation". He was key in me starting up the "Spirit of God!" blog and his site is one of the few sites I read regularly. He has updated his site recently and it is well worth a visit. There is much on the prophetic here that is devoted to developing in maturity in this essential gift and he writes from experience. This particularly excited me - he said;

"Credibility is returning to the prophetic".

This particularly caught my attention and has been true in my experience;

"Something so valuable and encouraging has been spoiled by those who have not really applied integrity to what they say and do".

Amen! Rather than getting scared off life in the Spirit (as I bemoaned a few days ago) let us heed Jon's call;

"Return to a biblical model for the prophetic gift and ministry".

He writes a useful piece on Paul Cain and is sound and balanced in dealing with "fallen leaders". This has been on my mind concerning William Branham. Why is it that we who have been forgiven so much are so good at shooting those we should call brothers? If the prodigal's father silenced his plea for forgiveness, threw his arms around him and held a party - should we show any less passionate welcome of returning prodigals? I remember Rob Parsons said once; "When the Father's house is filled with the Father's love then the prodigals will come home". What worries me is that there are some prodigals out there who don't actually want to come home because of the lack of love in the Father's house.

With this in mind there are two exiting posts I want to point out before I go. My friend Pete has reflected on the interview I posted on Christmas Day with Ern Baxter regarding William Branham. He brings some awesome reflections which really back up what I have been trying to argue. Also see "Spirit of God!" blog for a new prophecy website I have found.

Let 2007 be a year characterised by passionate welcome of the Spirit of God's moving among us, and let it be characterised by love for the unlovely! And maybe, just maybe this will be the year that we see the tidal wave come crashing in.