"PATTERN FOR REVIVAL IN THE YEAR 2000"
MF BLUME
DECEMBER 26, 1999 pm
TEXT: Exodus 17:1-16
Israel had seen God defeat Egypt and all Pharaoh's
power and left in awesome glory to God.
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In time, they journeyed to a region where water was
nowhere to be found.
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They complained and Moses sought the face of God
as to what to do with the people.
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God told him to take His rod and smite the rock and
bring forth water for the people to drink.
Water flowed and Israel was given drink.
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But as soon as the water began flowing, the next
thing we read is that Amalek fought with the people of Israel.
A river of water is representative of the moving
of the Holy Ghost in the Bible.
John 7:38 He
that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they
that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet [given];
because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)
The Spirit is compared to a river of living water.
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And as soon as God's Spirit is able to move in our
midst, the devil acts up and the flesh acts up to hinder Him from moving.
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The devil cannot stand the moving of the Spirit of
God.
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Devils walk through dry places, and the Spirit of
God is a river of living water.
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The two do not mix.
When the river of the Spirit flows, the Church requires
unity more than ever.
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And we find a pattern for revival in Exodus 17.
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Many people can see the Spirit begin to flow like
a mighty river, but many assemblies do not see this continue.
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The reason is that the flesh and the devil stir up
when the Spirit moves, and unless we understand the proper way to see the
river continue to move, and to defeat the flesh and the devil, we will
lose the battle and the revival will be aborted.
Amalek came and fought with Israel when the river
started to flow.
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Amalek is a descendant of Esau.
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Esau was Jacob's brother.
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He was the one who sold his birthright just so that
he could satisfy his flesh.
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Jacob wanted that birthright because it was a spiritual
blessing from God.
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But Esau would sooner trade the things of God for
a fleshly pleasure of feeding himself porridge.
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So we find that Esau represents the element of the
flesh.
Since Amalek was a descendant of Esau, we see that
Amalek not only represents the enemy of our souls, the devil, but also
the FLESH.
Gala 5:17 For
the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh:
and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things
that ye would.
Joshua was directed by Moses to go into the valley
and fight the enemy.
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Moses took Aaron and Hur with him to the top of the
mountain and held up his hand that held the rod of God.
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The rod of God was the same rod Moses used to shepherd
in the wilderness when God first called him.
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It is the rod that God told him to cast down.
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It turned into a serpent and Moses picked it up again
and it became a rod once again.
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THE ROD REPRESENTS MOSES' MINISTRY AS LEADER.
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Moses shepherded the Israelites.
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God told him to GO BEFORE ISRAEL.
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Notice that God did not tell him to go behind Israel
and DRIVE them, as a dictator would do.
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No, God told Him to LEAD.
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True believers would FOLLOW.
Exod 17:5 And
the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take
with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith
thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go.
When Moses' hand was upheld, the battle went for
the Israelites and they prevailed.
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But when Moses' arm became tired of holding the rod
up, the battle saw the Amalekites prevail.
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Aaron and Hur noticed this and they sat Moses down
on a rock and got on either side of him, and held his arms up.
This is very significant.
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It shows the pattern for revival.
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They held up Moses' arms that held the ROD OF GOD.
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They held up Moses' leadership, in other words.
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They held up the fact that he was their pastor, or
shepherd ... their leader.
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And God caused Israel to defeat the FLESH AND THE
ENEMY.
The pattern for the revival for the church is to
recognize that God set up people to be pastors in the church.
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These are people who are not dictators but who LEAD.
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They do not drive people.
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They do not force people.
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They simply hear from God and relate what God's word
teaches.
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There may be some preachers who are dictators, but
that does not mean all preachers are dictators.
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Those who are dictators are not real pastors.
And the church must UPHOLD the pastor's ministry.
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She/he has a rod.
Acts 2:16-17 But
this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to
pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all
flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young
men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
The OLD men in this verse speaks of elders or leaders.
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OLD is from the greek word:
presbuteros {pres-boo'-ter-os}
comparative of presbus (elderly);
AV - elder 64, old man 1, eldest 1, elder woman
1; 67
1) elder, of age,
1a) the elder of two people
1b) advanced in life, an elder, a senior
1b1) forefathers
2) a term of rank or office
2a) among the Jews
2a1) members of the great council or Sanhedrin
(because in
early times the rulers of the people, judges,
etc., were
selected from elderly men)
2a2) of those who in separate cities managed
public affairs and
administered justice
2b) among the Christians, those who presided
over the assemblies
(or churches) The NT uses the term bishop, elders,
and
presbyters interchangeably
2c) the twenty four members of the heavenly Sanhedrin
or court
seated on thrones around the throne of God
This is where the term PRESBYTER comes from.
The old men dream dreams.
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This means that the pastor receives insight from
God.
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And the pastor gives that direction to the church.
The young men are the ministers who work with the
pastor, like Joshua worked with Moses.
Josh 1:1 Now
after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD it came to pass, that
the LORD spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister,
saying,
The vision that the young men have are fiery pieces
of the dreams of the elders.
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They do not have a vision that is different than
the pastor.
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That would be DI-VISION.
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The prefix DI means split or made into two.
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DI-VISION means TWO VISIONS.
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A church cannot have people who have a different
vision than the pastor who promote that different vision.
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That would cause confusion in the Church.
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And that is actually rebellion.
You may not agree with your pastor's vision, and
you may be correct.
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But DO NOT SPREAD YOUR VISION TO THE PEOPLE OF THAT
CONGREGATION, for it will cause confusion.
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If you do not agree with your pastor's doctrine,
then do not spread your view amongst the people.
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That is rebellion.
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Believe anything you want to, but do not spread a
different vision than the pastor is promoting.
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OR YOU WILL CAUSE DIVISION.
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And God hates that.
Imagine what would have happened if Aaron felt Joshua
should do something other than what Moses felt he should do.
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Aaron would not hold up Moses' hands and the Amalekites
would prevail.
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People, you must uphold your pastor's ministry.
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Do not worship him like God nor idolize him as a
god.
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He is only one who hears from God and relates it.
Joshua actually received the spirit of Moses due
to his commitment to work with and uphold Moses' vision and ministry.
Numb 27:18-19 And
the LORD said unto Moses, Take thee Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom
[is] the spirit, and lay thine hand upon him; And set him before Eleazar
the priest, and before all the congregation; and give him a charge in their
sight.
Deut 34:9 And
Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid
his hands upon him: and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and
did as the LORD commanded Moses.
A preacher called to work for God did not see the
Lord open the door for his ministry fro quite sometime after God called
him.
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He settled in a church and dedicated himself to work
with the pastor, after waiting to be used and doing nothing.
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Soon this man caught the spirit of the pastor.
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This is not something occultic as though two people
share a man's ghost.
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This is simply getting the burden of the pastor.
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And often the pastor would preach and stop in the
middle of his message and ask the young man to prophesy the rest of the
message.
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And it was exactly what the pastor had in his notes
to continue preaching!
I began seeing the same thing in our assembly here
in Dartmouth.
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At least four people are now used by God to actually
study the very same scriptures and thoughts that I minister, before I actually
minister them.
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Without knowing what I would preach that sunday,
the saturday before was spent by some of these people in seeing God speak
to them about the very message I would preach the next day.
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They caught my spirit.
I work very closely with our senior pastor, and feel
much like Joshua sent by Moses to fight the devil, since our senior pastor
is not able to speak each service due to physical weakness.
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And while I am preaching and fighting the devil,
the church must uphold the senior pastor's ministry, and submit to the
leadership in the church here, so that I can defeat the devil when I preach.
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When I preach and the Spirit is moving like a river,
the flesh of every sinner who comes will prevail and the person will never
be saved unless the church understands the pattern for revival.
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The church must be united to the vision and leadership
of the pastor.
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Then God can move and the flesh and devil will not
be able to hold back the sinner from giving his/her life to God.
In Acts 6, the people of the church grew in number.
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The preachers found they could not deal with the
problems that arose once the Spirit was moving so mightily in saving souls.
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The flesh and the devil act up when the Spirit moves.
Acts 6:1 And
in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose
a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were
neglected in the daily ministration.
Notice the enemy stirring up trouble in the revival
of the Church.
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And what did they do about it?
Acts 6:2-4 Then
the twelve called the multitude of the disciples [unto them], and said,
It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables.
Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report,
full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.
But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of
the word.
The preachers must hear from God and study the word,
so the preacher requires "deacons" to do the hospital visitation and such
other issues.
Let the preacher hear from God and study the Word.
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The preacher's role is to feed the flock of God.
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To SHEPHERD.
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The preacher must be free to do that.
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Uphold that pattern and we will see God win the battle
for us!
The deacons needs the spirit of the Pastor.
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Don't even speak difference of opinion from the pastor.
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We want the Spirit of God to win and the flesh and
devil to lose the battles for every sinner who comes to our assembly.
Let us unite!
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Let us follow God's pattern.
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Let us uphold the dream of the pastor.
During services in which people received the Holy
Ghost, and such liberty and moving of the Spirit of God, you would not
believe what I had to deal with after that service.
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You would think the whole congregation would be ecstatic!
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But the devil stirred up in some of the people.
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And I had to bind spirits in people after service.
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But that is to be expected.
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When the River flows, the devil is scared!
Praise God for revival!!
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Let us follow God's pattern and have revival in the
year 2000.