Wow! God is doing some awesome things in many places around America and the world.

His Spirit is being outpoured and we must continue to pray and believe for awakening in
Catawba County. After many years of ministry, let me make some observations about
revival, cautions and some general principles present in any real move of God.

1, All genuine revivals have their root in prayer. From the days before Pentecost in Acts
2 until now, every awakening has been birthed and sustained by faithful believers who
refused to be content and stayed faithful in prayer. Tommy Barnett made a statement at
His pastor's school that everything happening in Phoenix was a result of prayer. He stated
they do not talk about prayer alot to the pastor's because they assume pastors and
churches should already know this. However, sometimes this is not the case. If we are
hungry for a move of God, it is essential we pray. Any purported revival that does not have
prayer at its core will be short lived and a work of man and not God. Find out where the
prayer meeting is taking place and you will know where God is moving by His Spirit.

2. All genuine revivals are founded on the Word of God. Throughout the scripture and
church history, the Word has been preached in fullness and great authority and power in
spiritual awakenings. Powerful, biblical preaching has always been at the heart of great
moves of God. Paul said " it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save those
who would believe ( I Cor 1:21)." God's intent in any revival is two- fold: To refresh the
church and bring repentance to the world. A revival without repentance is like a cloud
without rain. Revival preaching opens the way for the Holy Spirit to deal with the hardened
heart of man and reveal Jesus to the world. The gospel is still the " power of God for the
salvation of everyone who believes ( Romans 1:16 )."
3. We do not gauge the validity of genuine revival by spiritual experiences alone but
by the guidance of scripture. The word is the " Plumb-line"of faith and practice. Having
said that, there are many examples of God's revealing himself to man in the word, we may
not totally understand today. We tend to evaluate manifestations based solely on our
personal experience alone. If I haven't experienced it, then it is not valid. The problem with
doing this is that my walk with God is limited to my finite nature instead of an infinite God.
Pentecostals often use phrases such as " Being slain or drunk in the Spirit. To those who
have not been brought up around that kind of terminology, it may seem confusing and even
anti- biblical and one can certainly understand reason for concern. To those new to biblical
manifestations it might be better to say, " Being overwhelmed by the presence of God,"
because there are many biblical examples of that kind of experience. So that we are on the
foundation of the word, let me cite 4 examples.

• When Ezekiel saw the glory of God, he fell facedown and heard the voice of God
speaking (Ez. 1:28). The Hebrew word for fell here is Naphal, which means to "
overthrow, overwhelm, slay, throw down, or cause to fall." The implication here is
that this was more then Ezekiel voluntarily bowing but an overwhelming presence
of God that brought Him to the ground.
• The prophet Daniel tells of an experience, where after seeing a vision from heaven,
his strength left him and he fell into a deep sleep with his face to the ground (Dan
10:9). The experience was so overwhelming for him that a heavenly hand had to
help him to his hands and knees and then he stood up trembling (v.10). God spoke
to him and he received divine ability to function (v.19).
• When Paul was describing his conversion experience, he says the glory of God
from heaven caused him (and his companions) to fall to the ground (Acts 22, 26)
and God spoke to him. On can hardly imagine they all bowed together in unison
and on cue as the text implies otherwise.
• When John saw Jesus on the Isle of Patmos, he fell down as a dead man and then
Jesus spoke to him (Rev. 1:17). Please note, that each of these experiences was