Bring Back the Testimonies!

When I grew up in a small South Texas Assemblies of God church, the testimony service was an important part of each gathering. Sister Evans might stand up and tell of the miracle that God had performed during the past week. Sydney Smith might stand up and dance a Holy Ghost dance as he told about how God had saved a family member. Almost weekly, there would be someone who would testify of a healing that had taken place.

I miss that portion of the church service. Sadly, our time together each week has become so regulated and/or the crowds have become so large that our people are sporadically hearing testimonies given only as a faith-builder before the offering is to be received or as an occasional illustration in the preacher's message.

In our children's classes, testimony services are almost nonexistent. Like the adult services, its absence could be due to having too much to do in such a limited, regulated time structure. Or, even worse, it could be due to the fact that there's nothing to tell about. The few testimonies given are often about what God did years ago in other moves of God or about what God is doing elsewhere in other revivals.

Where are our testimonies? Are we giving our boys and girls an opportunity to answer God's challenge of "prove me now"? Are we daring to actually pray for the sick in our services and expecting a miracle as we pray? Are giving our children the opportunity to call out to God the names of their unsaved family members or the ungodly kid down the street and expecting salvation testimonies in the days to come?

I'm thankful for what God did in kids in the Welch Revival and the Azuza Street Revival. I'm thrilled at what I see happening with boys and girls in the Lakeland Healing Outpouring. But each of these moves are either from a different date in history or a different zip code.

Let's bring back the testimony service. Let's make room for God to move supernaturally at 33463 or whatever your zip code might be. If you make room for Him, He will always show up!

The Power of Solitude

Sadly, in our pursuit of God's power and glory, we often have mistaken activity for hunger. We feel as though that we need to go to one more meeting or read one more book or listen to one more CD teaching. The glory doesn't come through activity. It comes through solitude.

God's instructions in Psalm 46:10 still rings true in 2008. "Be still, and know that I am God."

Meditate on these words ...

"We live in a noisy, busy world. Silence and solitude are not 20th Century words. They fit the era of Victorian lace and high-buttoned shoes and kerosene lamps better than the age of television, video arcades, internet, and jogger's wired earphones. We have become a people with an aversion to quite and an uneasiness with being alone." Gene Fleming Finding Focus in a Whirlwind World

“I think the devil has made it his business to monopolize on three elements: noise, hurry, and crowd. Satan is quite aware of the power of solitude.” Jim Elliot (recorded in his personal journal)

Calling All Revivalists

I know that this may seem strange. Many of you read the blog each week looking for thoughts about revival or flowing in the supernatural. But one more time, I really feel an urgency to communicate my desire to connect with other children's ministry revivalists. You can search the backlog of previous blogs and see that I have only voiced this urgency in two blogs, last week's and this week's blogs. This urgency isn't for the sake of gaining additional meetings or selling more product. I just know that iron sharpens iron, passion fans the flames of passion. Together, we can do much for seeing Joel's prophecy fulfilled in this generation of boys and girls. You can connect with me by emailing me at billy@billyburnsministries.com.

10/10 in 2008

Rather than share a thought about flowing with the Holy Spirit this week, let me share with you what I consider to be a directive for my life. If you have been to any of our national or regional Ignite the Supernatural Conferences, you have heard me share about the assignment that I received from God while flying home from Fiji in 2001 about raising up a generation of Children's Ministry leaders who will lead their children and ministry into a Holy Ghost revival.

A couple of weeks ago, I received what I consider to be an important directive to facilitate this assignment. I felt an urgency to go to 10 cities this year and invite 10 Children's Ministry leaders in that city and surrounding area to spend 2 hours with me on a Friday evening. The purpose is to impart the vision that God has given me and ignite and fan the flames of revival in that geographical area. I am convinced that the 2 hours will make a monumental impact in that area. There is absolutely no cost for this. I will cover every expense.

If you are interested in more details, please contact me at billy@billyburnsministries.com.

The Missing Ingredient

One of the only things that I learned in 9th grade history was found in the preface of the textbook. There was a quote that said in essence that the only thing that we learn from history is that we don't learn from history. In other words, we fail to learn from our mistakes and blindly keep repeating them and reap the same results.

Evidently, the apostle Paul was familiar with this thought. First Corinthians 2:1-4 is his answer to learning from his mistake and his resolve to never repeat it again. This letter to the Corinthian church was written after his disappointing time of ministry in Athens. (Acts 17). In Athens, Paul preached one of his finest sermons. Everything was perfect from a cultural standpoint. (Acts 17:23, 28). His sermon was one that every Bible school homiletics and hermeneutics professor would use as the perfect example of how a sermon should be researched, composed, and delivered. And yet, after the masterpiece was delivered, Paul anguished over its dismal results. (Acts 17:32, 34).

What was Paul's resolve? While he didn't discount his preparation and excellent delivery, he came to the conclusion that these alone won’t bring about the desired results. Enticing (Greek peitho …craftily chosen, persuasive) words of man's wisdom (Greek sophos … wisdom that is naturally obtained) didn't bring salvation to those in Athens. His resolve was that from this time forward he would validate his message with the display or evidence of supernatural ministry.

Together, let's learn from history. Let's not make the same mistake. From this day forward, together let us resolve that in every ministry opportunity, we will share the good news in an intellectual format that everyone can understand (just as Paul did in Athens) and confirm the message with demonstrations of the Spirit and of power. We aren't abandoning preparation and connecting with people through culture. We aren't leaving our brains at the front door. But, we are resolving that preparation and delivery alone aren't sufficient. From this day forward, we are resolving to demonstrate that God is behind our message!!!!