Revival In Our Time

Revival in our Time by Lee Stoneking

Signs of the Believers

Mark 16:17-18, “And these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name shall they cast out devils, they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.”

Because of the times we are living in, there is one last wave of revival coming. If we miss this last wave of revival, then we have missed it! We cannot lose this last wave of revival. Whatever it takes, we are going to have to do it. We are going to have to do it like we have never done it before.

The Bible says in the beginning of the church, every believer was a preacher. Every believer was a soul winner. They shook their world. They did it outside; the miracles were performed in the open. They shook the Roman empire from center to circumference. There was nothing that could stop it. It wasn’t like anything that Judaism or religiosity had ever seen in the history of their existence. It was because every man was a preacher. Every woman was a preacher, and signs followed them. The miracles happened in the streets.

Our problem is that we have kept this inside four walls, but now it is time to take it to the streets. Just the other night, Bro. Suber prayed for someone in a restaurant, and they were healed. The waitress was an eyewitness to it and broke down weeping and crying and received the baptism of the Holy Ghost in the restaurant. That did not happen 2,000 years ago but that happened this week! That means Jesus is the same. That means if they could do it, we can do it. We can do it!

Fastest Growing Religion

We have heard that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. Nonsense! In the New York Times newspaper the week after New Year’s, they did a whole page article that said that the Pentecostal religion is the fastest growing religion in the world. It had pictures of people with their hands raised, weeping and crying, speaking in other tongues. Every country in the world gets that. It does not say that in the last days Islam will cover the earth. It is written that, “in the last days, sayeth God, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh.” That’s what the Bible says!

I am talking about POWER! If you think Jesus is coming back for a watered down version of the church from the book of Acts, you are totally void of understanding. You don’t have a clue, friend. He is not coming back for a weak and watered down version of His church. He is coming back for a church without spot or without wrinkle, full of power and demonstration of the Holy Ghost. I can hear the sound of the abundance of rain. I can hear the rushing mighty wind. It is the power of God.

God is networking people of like precious faith and bringing them together for such a time as this. The reason He is doing it is because God is getting ready to do something mighty in the earth, and He needs a network of believers to carry out His Plan. God is bringing a unity to this conference like never before. What’s being born here is never going to die. God is preparing you to do a mighty work in the earth.

Jesus Can

I was in Singapore in July for an “Encounter Jesus” crusade. I was told on Friday night that the next night they were bringing two Muslim men crippled and in wheelchairs. On Saturday night, I saw two men sitting over to the left in wheelchairs. They appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent so I assumed that these were the two Muslims they had told me about. God spoke to me and said, “I will heal them but don’t go to them until I tell you.”

One of the men was younger than the other. The younger man had suffered a stroke. His arm was in a white sling, and he was just sort of stooped over. But the other man was much older. His hands and arms were paralyzed. His legs and feet were paralyzed. And he could not move. He was kept in a nursing home. You know what this aged Muslim man told the Apostolic Christians who witnessed to him? He said, “The god that I have prayed to all of my life doesn’t love me, and he can’t help me.” And they said, “But Jesus can.”

I began to preach about Jesus and as the Holy Ghost began to move in that place, God said, “Go.” I walked down off the platform and went to the younger man in the wheelchair. I took his arm in my arm, and I carefully pulled him up and began to walk with him. And as we began to walk, I kept saying, “In Jesus name, in Jesus name.” Suddenly, he caught his weight and started walking on his own. When this Muslim man realized that the Jesus whom I had preached about was healing him, he pulled the sling off his arm and raised it up over his head. When he did, the audience came running and surrounded him. He raised both his hands and started sobbing, and God filled him with the baptism of the Holy Ghost. He began to speak in other tongues.

Then I went to the older man and did the same thing. He had just seen what had happened to a fellow Muslim. So we put his arm through mine, and I pulled him up. It was difficult because the leg muscles had become atrophied as they had not been used for so long. But he was giving it all he had, and we only took about 15 steps when he caught his weight and began standing under his own power. The place exploded in praise and worship. God also gave that older Muslim the Holy Ghost, and he began to speak with other tongues.

Signs Shall Follow

Seated behind them was an elderly Chinese man who was dying of liver cancer. He was just skin and bones, but his stomach was swollen the size of a basketball with the cancerous tumor and hideous infection. So the people gathered around him and began to pray for him. This aged Chinese man who could not speak a word of English began to weep and raise his hands and speak in other tongues. God filled him with the Holy Ghost as his Buddhist relatives watched. They had no idea what was happening to him.

The saints had taught the man in Chinese about baptism in Jesus name, and he wanted to be baptized. So they took him to the baptistery and when he began to climb into the baptistery, his stomach went flat right in front of their eyes. This is the only kind of Jesus I preach. And this is the only kind of Jesus I’m going to preach. These signs shall follow them that believe. It is written!

Five Fold Kingdom

Ephesians 4:11 says; “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” God wants to create a kingdom unto Himself. But in order to have a kingdom, He has to have a government, and so He called apostles to govern this kingdom. What good is a kingdom without guidance? So He called prophets to guide this kingdom. But a kingdom has to have subjects, so He opened the office of evangelists with powerful anointing to gather the subjects for the kingdom. But you can’t leave the sheep with no shepherd, so He called pastors to guard the ingathering. Pastor and shepherd are synonymous within the context of the Holy Scriptures. But then He called teachers to ground them.

So, in the beginning, the apostles governed the church, the prophets guided the church, the evangelists gathered for the church, the pastors guarded the church and the teachers grounded the church. It is a master plan. It was flawless. The simplicity of its context and purpose and its magnificent effect staggers even the most intellectual mind. A master plan!

Influence is Power

In the Old Testament, prophets were more powerful than the kings. We’ve always thought the position was power. The position is not power. Influence and anointing is power. But influence is like respect; you don’t demand respect, you earn it. You can’t manipulate or manufacture influence. It comes by years of service, faithfulness and living and preaching the truth and adhering to it.

I prophesy here to you tonight that before Jesus comes in the clouds of glory, the most powerful people on earth will not be kings or queens, dictators or politicians. It will be a man of God, a woman of God who has the power and anointing of the Holy Ghost in their lives. And can you believe that God has called everyone here tonight; no matter who you are — man, woman, young person — if you are preaching the gospel, God has entrusted you with the greatest call that the human heart or life can ever receive. He has called you to be an ambassador, a spokesman on His behalf.

There is no higher calling. I tell young people, why stoop to be a king when you can be a preacher? There is no one more powerful than a true believer. The mantle of anointing is falling. I command in the name of Jesus that the anointing that has slipped away be restored in Jesus name. Something very prophetic and very Apostolic is about to happen. There is something hanging in the air above us.

God spoke to me this afternoon and said that He was going to pour out the five-fold ministry upon the believers. If you have a desire to be used of God in any of these offices of the ministry, lift your hands and it will fall on you. It is falling all over this place. I feel it! It is falling on the missionaries, it is falling here tonight. That office is upon you, you will never be the same after tonight. Receive it in Jesus name!