The Lord took me in a vision of people standing in a room with walking canes. There were hundreds of people with canes and even thousands. Some had their canes raised in the air like “Here I am Lord” while others were using them to stand as they needed them. In the vision a great healing wind came into the room and people were healed of all manner of physical things, things that was the reason for them to have the cane. As they were healed, they either simply dropped the cane or threw it in the air. The bulk simply dropped the cane. I said to the Lord this is great. A healing wind has finally come. I felt the vision was over, but it wasn’t.   

Then the Lord took me into what seemed like a large room that was a large field covering thousands of acres. It was the room of the United States church. It held millions of people. He showed me the people standing with canes, but these were different than the first group. He said “they have much propping them up. Look what is helping them to stand.” I looked and saw many with canes again. Some were leaning on them and some sitting on them. But then I saw words written on each cane. Pride. Self-righteousness. Intellect. Rejection. Anxiety. Open believe. Almost any word you could think of was written. Some words that were good like humility, or goodness, etc. as well. I asked the Lord what about these words they seem out of place to prop someone up. He responded, “these are taken to extremes as well and have become out of balance. I could easily kick these canes, and they would no longer be propped up. But then the person would fall.”

I could easily see the masses that had things out of balance. Places of attaining and then no forward growth. Things that caused them to think they had arrived, so they settled there. I sensed a realigning with being held up by Christ alone and not all the things he brings us. I sensed a move of the spirit coming that would bring a plumb bob again. It would measure if you were standing upright or are propped up and leaning on your cane. God was going to correct this with a refocus. I could see a deep repentance coming, a deep metanoia that would occur. I saw many drop their canes once they realized they had not been given the full counsel of God. But I also saw others who hung to them. A move of God was emerging after the letting go to sweep the nation.

Then the Lord took me to another room. It too was a large field but not like the field or room of the church. It was behind the stage of the room of the earth. In this room I saw leaders of ministries again. This was the leaders’ room, it represented both leaders and ministries. I saw again the canes propping people and ministries up. This time different things were written on each cane. These were different than the church canes. These had multiple writings. Some were the same as the church room and I knew they had reproduced some of the people’s canes the church room had. But they also had things such as fame, importance, money, wealth, notoriety, prestige, accomplishment, and a long list of names leaders strive for, all very different than the church room canes.  

The Lord said to me, “Unlike the church canes, in this room I will kick the cane out from under them. They will fall and you will see in this hour what happens when what was propping them up has been removed. They fall so far you no longer see them.” I saw thousands of leaders and ministries propped up. I saw a few the Lord kick the cane, and they fell as if to disappear in the floor of the room. You never even saw them as if they disappeared. I saw the ones I knew in the last months who had fallen. I saw the names they leaned on. I saw others who were propped up or sitting on their canes. They were looking to see if the name on the cane that was kicked out was on their cane. If it wasn’t they felt, they were ok. But as far as God saw all were the same no matter the name. It was the fact they had allowed something to prop them up. I felt God really doesn’t need these who are leaning on the canes. What He will do, does not depend on their response. The contentment of this group to stay propped up was higher than the previous 2 groups. The first group seemed more desperate and serious. The second group was settled but not pursuing.

Then the Lord recapped it all to me. I saw the Lord was gracious to those in need in the first group. They had genuine need and were pursuing. It seemed they had found a cane that had no name on it. They saw it as temporary until the wind blew. They knew the wind was coming.  I saw those in the second group, the church group, had received a cane that was never addressed by a leader. It was as if not addressing issues created the cane. The ones who dropped their cane and got free were surprised when the wind blew. But to the leaders who knew better they had been given a chance of repentance. It was a high level of accountability. Many wanted the wind to blow because it was right but did not pursue removing the hinderances that were stopping it. Then the vision ended.

Afterwards I contemplated how easy it is to be propped up once success comes. Or even if you plateau to get accustomed to what is and never reach maturity. May God bring us understanding of what each of us must do. May God have mercy upon His Church and its leaders.

Today we see three words being used at times almost interchangeable. Awakening, revival and reformation. Lately reformation seems to not be as dominant as it once was. All three are very different in both outcomes and what we are talking about. We really need to understand our terminology better. Perhaps it’s due to the loss of our vocabulary over time. At the time of Shakespeare, the vocabulary used daily was 54,000 words. Todays modern culture it is reduced to 3,000 words. Because of this we lump words together to have a similar meaning.

The terminology we use causes us to not be on the same page as well. A revival many times has a great stirring of emotions to stir up the loss of passion for the Lord. Really it is saying we have lost our first love. Many revivals also have a heightened time of the gifts of the spirit moving as well. But these should be normal Christian life. When we look historically, we see locations where past revivals occurred are historically actually worse 100 years later than at the time before the revival. This is due to the fact of outward influences that caused the revival have been removed. So, there isn’t anything to build upon. Revival means to return to a former state of being or to revive such as to raise from the dead.  That is a sad state of affairs to say we need a revival. It means we have lost the life we once had and need to return to it. We should never get ourselves into such a place.

Awakening is an internal moment an individual has that forever changes them. It means to get out of sleep, or to come alive to a new understanding. It affects how we see God in life and affects our perspectives, what we put effort and energy into and affects the people around us. If enough people experience awakening, we call it a great or mega awakening meaning enough individual people being awakened during a set time has reached a mass affect upon culture. This is when bars are closed, and people’s lifestyles are changed for the better. It becomes a cultural shift. Many of the past revivals were awakenings that occurred. These caused cultural reformation and realignment. Revival generally touches a smaller group, while great awakening touches the masses. Awakening being internal has a lasting effect and carries a foundation to build upon.

Do we see patterns of revival or awakening in scripture? We really don’t see revival. What we do see is an ongoing awakening. Even when things seemed stagnated or at a pause, another moment of seeking God produced a new insight in what to do, an awakening to a new dimension of faith unfolded.  The church actually moved from one awakening to the next progressively. New revealing of truth happened and new experiences because of that revealing unfolded. It was going from glory to glory. This happens every time we read the word of God, and something is highlighted to us by the Holy spirit. We are awakened to another dimension of God we never knew. We constantly experience awakening on a daily or weekly basis.

The early apostles were very adamant to maintain authenticity to the original awakening truths. We see this in Acts 4 where they continued steadfast in the apostle’s doctrine. There are several written works concerning these truths and maintaining them. Polycarp, who was a disciple of Apostle John was one who tried to maintain what was most important that John and told him. He was eventually burned alive, and the flames did not consume him, so they drove a stake through his heart. Ignatius was another disciple of John who also maintained the integrity of the original truths. Both of these men made sure the apostle’s doctrine was documented correctly. Even in this second-generation of apostle’s people were already beginning to shift the scriptural understanding. By the third generation a battle with men’s influences was beginning, trying to bring men’s opinions into true spiritual faith and taint it. These times of sightly drifting from truth had an effect. It began a realization over time of missing something that had once been. This was the beginning of the modern-day revival mindset we have today. In all honestly it seems what we do as revivals today is actually “living faith outside the walls” more than finding what was lost. Revivals as we now know is really a new thing started in the 1700’s. They believed men had lost faith in God and focus on God was lacking terribly. They held meetings specific for people to either renew faith or experience it for the first time. Really it was more of an awakening than a revival.

When it comes to revival or awakening, I am more concerned about the fruit that is being produced. I am looking at 2 things in this. One does the outcome last and can I taste Christ within it. Second does it have the seeds to reproduced Christ, so he is multiplied. Does it have the longevity and legacy the early fathers were looking for in people’s lives? These things are kingdom minded and advancing.

 Am I against revivals? I see it as something we should say we will work towards to not being needed. Our mindset should be that it is revealing something more detrimental than a fix to our current situation. Should our focus be on the church? Yes, to make sure it is in constant awakening. This requires an ongoing kingdom revelation to be allowed to flow. We must challenge people to pursue growth and their own disciplines.  Do I think we need to change our terminology? Absolutely.  We will, once we see ourselves different because we see constant awakening occurring in our own lives.