Chapter 5 Corporate Revival (from book "Desiring One Thing" by David Nelson)

Posted: 2007-06-26 13:46:21

Chapter  5      Corporate Revival

We are on a very important journey at this time, it is a venture into the Lord’s realm as never before in history, exactly like this.  We need to go to a new area. The Lord wants us to go to a place we have never been before. Where we have been going in this book is toward the Lord’s revival.  In this chapter we are going to emphasize a little bit more the corporate side of revival.   

Corporate revival is somewhat different than the things we have been talking about so far.  We have been taking about our own excitement, our own zeal, our own fire, our own relationship with the Lord, that we would have the fire of the Lord, and that we would get close to the Lord.  However, there is an aspect to what we have said that will lead to coming together with other people and this will develop into a journey together with others

In Acts 15:14 James says, “Peter has declared to us how God at the first visited the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, “After this I will return, and will build again (or raise up again) the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: that the residue of men might seek after the Lord and all the Gentiles, who bear my name, saith the Lord, who does all these things.”  What God is doing right now is raising up again the Tabernacle of David.  It is not the Temple, that he is speaking of here, it is not the tabernacle of Moses, it is the Tabernacle of David.  It was a particular time in history when David lived and David was a prophet.  He was also a king. David heard things from God.  David wrote a lot of the psalms.  David prophesied things about the coming Messiah and he also had other prophets around him, one of them was named Gad and another was named Nathan.  So, he had prophetic people around him and David saw things in heaven about what God wanted to do on the earth, and God gave him a revelation about the Tabernacle of David, and it involved music. As you may know, David was gifted in various areas of music. He played music for Saul and he even wrote psalms that were put to music.  And David was a prophetic person also, he prophesied things in some of the Biblical writings.  He was a music person too.  He wrote psalms and he was very skillful on the harp. And so, the revelation that has been given to many people in our day is that this is the time that God is raising up the Tabernacle of David again and rebuilding it.  It has to do with music and it has to do with the prophetic.  It has to do with revival, 24 hour a day revival.  That is what we are going to talk about, corporate revival, 24 hour a day revival, 7 days a week revival.  But it is already being formed in us, we are already being prepared for corporate revival by the individual revival we are beginning to experience. There is an every-day abiding in Christ, where we are learning to abide in Christ 24 hours a day.  It is the life that we are living where we are tuned in to his voice and he is speaking to us more, and we are hungering for him more.

I will give you a summary of what the Lord showed me a few years ago about the Tabernacle of David in I Chronicles and II Chronicles.  In I Chron. 25:1 we read, “David and the captains of the host were separated to the service of the sons of Asaph, and of Heman, and of Jeduthun, who should prophecy with harps, with psaltries, and with cymbals: and the number of the workmen according to their service was….” Now Asaph was very skilful with musical instruments. (cymbals and percussion especially)  And his sons were also skilful with musical instruments. Asaph also had a prophetic gift. Heman and Jeduthun were also skilful in music and prophecy. They would prophecy with harps, so there was music and prophetic utterance together. This is also happening more and more even in our day. In the coming corporate , revival meetings there will be music and prophecy and prayer unlike normal types of meetings in the past. God is going to restore the Tabernacle of David. These men and women given by name in I Chron. 25 played music and prophesied according to king David’s orders (verse 6). David said, God showed me that I am supposed to do this, and so now we have brought together some gifted people assigned by God to accomplish this. Heman was called the king’s seer. A seer is someone who sees what God is doing and tells people what he sees.  They see things other people don’t see (this is very much like a prophet or could be synonymous with what a prophet does, seeing and hearing what God wants to communicate to the people). In I Chron. 25:5 & 6 it says that Heman had 14 sons and 3 daughters who were gifted in song for the service of the house of the Lord. David had a “vision” from God as to what to do and he explained it to the gifted people God had prepared to carry out the “vision.” In verse 7 we read, “So the number of them, with their brethren who were instructed in the songs of the Lord, even all that were cunning (in these things), was 288. And they cast lots duty against duty, both the small and the great, teacher and scholar  (student) alike.” Everyone had their place and their duty and they were divided into 24 divisions (with 12 persons per division). So they served in the Tabernacle of David 24 hours a day with song and prophecy, prayer, praise, thanks, and service to the Lord that never ended. In Leviticus 6:9-13 it says that there will be a fire at the Lord’s altar burning 24 hours a day. In the Tabernacle of David there will be 24 divisions of people that will take their turns before the Lord 24 hours a day. This is to be the flow of the Spirit of God 24 hours a day through people. Not just a physical fire at an altar but the fire of God in people all the time. And that this would never die, it would never go out. When I saw these things I did not know that God was showing many people around the world the same things, independent of one another. As to how all the details will be worked out here and there for this 24/7 service to the Lord, that remains to be seen. The Lord might do things differently in Iowa than he does in Florida but wherever he works out his plans there will be the real fire of God and real revival. 

This is how I saw corporate revival begin in the state of Georgia. In Leviticus 8:33-36 it says that the priests were to be consecrated for 7 days. We are not to say to the Lord, we are going to do the “quickie” consecration in just 3 days. If God said 7 days then he wants us to be set aside or consecrated for 7 days. In Leviticus 8:33 it says that the priests were not to depart from the holy place for 7 days and 7 nights. When young people go to youth camp they may go for 5 or 6 days straight. And the young people may be thinking, “We’re going to go swimming, and we’re going to have fun, play volleyball, go for hikes in the woods, and they may be anticipating “fun” and spiritual things too. But when they get to Christian youth camp, for the morning, afternoon and evening meetings, God is desiring to speak to them through the youth leaders and change these young people’s lives forever. The youth leaders hopefully are ready by the Spirit of the Lord to be used for God’s purposes. God is not there only to promote the “fun part” but would like nothing better than to turn these youth to be on-fire and in love with Him. Let’s say for 6 days the fire of God is flowing through these youth leaders and touching deeply the hearts of the young people. Morning, afternoon, and evening they are basking in the presence of God (assuming God is free to do what he wants and the leaders are God’s anointed servants). And guess what, it works. By the end of the week, the swimming and the fun things seem to have faded into the background as the presence of God takes center stage. (In the light of His glory, the things of earth grow strangely dim). These youth have been drawn to the altar weeping and crying and are so on fire that they say, we don’t want to leave, can we stay another week? The answer is no. They have to go back home and go back to school, etc. But they come back to their home churches and they share in the evening service, and they begin to cry again in the service. You can see the fire of God all over them, flowing to the people in the congregation, hopefully to touch their lives and hearts. We have been changed and we are close to God as never before! But guess what, it lasts for a few days, it maybe lasts for a week, but soon they are back in their old world, in their “same old” routines, back in the church that didn’t challenge them and didn’t create the fire they needed. And so, the youth fire dwindles out, but God never meant for the fire to go out. When God says prepare yourself for 3 days to meet with your God (Exodus, chapter 19), He is wanting us to get ready, to experience his realm, to taste his fire. Three days of preparation can change us (acclimate us) to see God and hear God and be with God. The 7 days of consecration where the priests never left the Temple is similar to a youth camp that prepares us and consecrates us for God. We are away from the normal routines of life and God touches us with his fire. And he would like us to stay at a certain level of consecration and not go back to the worldly things that cool us off (stay at a place of closeness to God). There is this individual revival and there is a corporate revival that is going to happen.

In Numbers 19:9 it says that the ashes of a red heifer are to be put in water to make the “water of purification.” I have heard that in Israel today they have everything prepared to begin Temple sacrifices again. They have the priests, they have the holy anointing oil, they have the utensils, everything ready to resume sacrifices. It says in the Bible that when the antichrist comes he is going to stop the sacrifices. So, Israel is close to beginning sacrifices again except they are missing an acceptable red heifer. They still need to make the water of purification. In Numbers 19:12 & 19 it says that the water of purification is to be sprinkled on a person on the 3^rd day and on the 7^th day and then they shall be clean. But if he purifies not himself the 3^rd day then on the 7^th day he shall not be clean. We should do what the Lord tells us to do and not leave things out or do things the way we want. As we read earlier, the priests were to stay in the tabernacle for 7 days, 24 hours a day and not depart. No matter how the world pulls on us, if we are with the Lord continuously for a season and he draws us into his fire, the world fades away and loses its grip on us. Even the hardest young person can be touched deeply by the presence of God. And that’s where the Lord wants us to be. The Lord’s anointing is greater and purer and more powerful than the world if we will allow ourselves to get close to the Lord’s presence. Even the hardest heart can be broken and they will begin to weep in God’s presence. God wants to break us, God wants us to be close to Him. And then after the “7 days” he wants us to remain close to him at a different level than we have ever been before. By analogy, if we are sprinkled on the 3^rd day and sprinkled on the 7^th day then we will be consecrated, set apart, clean for the Lord. But if we only get sprinkled on the 3^rd day and we do not get sprinkled on the 7^th day we will not be clean. Or if we think we don’t have to do the 3^rd day thing, just forget that, we will only go on the 7^th day and get sprinkled, that should be good enough. We’re not going to be clean just coming on the 7^th day. We need the 3^rd day and the 7^th day sprinkling both, to obey God and get what the Lord wants. What I have found in my travels is that on the 1^st night that I come into a church, the Lord’s message begins to change people’s lives. Many others are being used in this way also, and this does not mean that I am better than the people I came to visit either, each one is to do what the Lord has told them to do. If we are sent somewhere to bring something that is the job we have been given by the Lord. The 1^st night is the beginning, the 2^nd night brings us farther, to another level, and the 3^rd night the Lord has acclimated us more to his realm and there is an excitement and an anointing that the Lord has accomplished if people’s hearts are right. This will happen if people are not side-tracked, if they are hungry and if they are not turned away by something. Then God will transform us the way he wants to. What will develop is a corporate dynamic that will not just be me speaking or me sharing good things and just the audience observing, I leave and nothing changes (people go back to where they were), but people will never be the same after those days, they have tasted of something and they will never be satisfied with the “same old” again. 

The thing that can be done for corporate revival is you begin meeting with 2 or 3 or 4 people. The messages that God wants to give to his people may cause some people to want to leave and go to some “easier” meetings. The messages may make some people not want to come back. People might say, we don’t want to do that, and pretty soon it becomes apparent that some people really don’t want to change. We need to get rid of this guy because we want to go back to where we were before. But the pastor in Georgia said, no, we don’t want to go back to where we were before. We want to move on with God. And so, after some people left it boiled down to a handful of people who said, we want to seek God and see what he wants us to do. Now I’ve preached the sermons, I’ve given the messages, now we need to get together and pray and see what God wants to do next. The instruction time and preparation time is over, it is now time to seek the Lord.

There’s a song that came out in the last few years that says, “I’m desperate for you and I’m lost without you.” You can sing this song (if you really don’t mean it) over and over, but is it really true in your heart of hearts? If you are not desperate for God where will your intensity of seeking for Him be? Can you say you are lost without Him, really? If he doesn’t come, then you really do have other things you can do, don’t you? Are we really lost without Him? We have to come to a place of wanting individual revival and corporate revival so bad that we can honestly say, I want nothing else, nothing else will satisfy me, everything else is empty till that comes. Could we ever come to the place where we could say we are waiting for revival and we have nothing else to fall back on till it comes? Can we honestly say we want nothing else and we have nothing else? As I traveled if God did not bring real revival right away, then people must say we’re not just going to return to having normal meetings, we’ve done that and we’re not going back to that, we want more (what God wants) and we won’t give up till the more comes. We are venturing into this new area and if God doesn’t come (which he promised he would if we don’t give up), we have come to the place corporately where we say, “We’re not going to give up till God comes.” We are going to pray for a break-through and seek God till we find Him. We must become acclimated to what God is and will be requiring of us. The messages will prepare us to the point where we say, now we are in the thick cloud, we are face to face with God, and we say, “What is next, Lord?” The Lord will steadily and surely transform our lives into a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week personal and corporate revival (or move of God), which will fulfill His restoring of the Tabernacle of David. It will not just be 3 meetings a day, but 24 hours, through the night, listening for God, walking with God, and hearing his voice. The revival in Argentina that has been going for over 50 years started out with desperate people in meetings that were just seeking God, with no sermons, no songs, just, “Where are you, Lord?”

In Exodus 33:7 it says that Moses had a tent of meeting that was outside the camp. It is a theme throughout the Scriptures, and yet we would not believe how much God wants to meet with us! (but we are coming to know how true this is). The Lord is really not interested in coming to a meeting that we are in charge of and watch our meeting. He wants to be at the center and show himself and speak to us as we love him and worship him together. In Ex. 29:35-46 it says that the Lord wants to be with all his people not just the leaders. God is saying, “Come,” everywhere and in many ways he is saying, “Come,” to those who have ears to hear. God is tenderly pulling us or drawing us back to where we are supposed to be. And he must get us ready in our hearts to want to be with him and to be consecrated in our hearts so we don’t come with a flippant attitude but a heart seeking attitude (with humility). Otherwise we would be burned up when he comes to us, but as it is he is desiring to burn up our dross only. In Ex. 33:7 it says that anyone who was inquiring of the Lord could go to the tent of meeting outside the camp (away from the normal, every day things). Whenever Moses would go to the tent the people would rise up at the doors of their tents and the pillar of cloud or pillar of fire would come down to the tent of meeting as God talked to Moses. In Ex. 33:11 it says, “And the Lord would speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend.” But the Lord wants this kind of relationship with all of us. Then Moses would go back to camp. But his young aid, Joshua, would not leave the tent. That has to be the attitude God is looking for. Somehow we have to get to the place where we say, “I’m desperate for you, God, I want more of you, I want to see you Lord.” Yes, it will be an individual journey but it will also develop into a corporate journey with others with others who are seeking as you are. The Lord will bring us together and place stone to stone to become his beautiful house of many facets and personal giftings. The Tabernacle of David rising up again, all things that the Lord has ever wanted for his people and Him together restored. Not just coming to a 3 day revival and going home, or going to a 7 day revival, but 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, a fire that will not go out. He touched Joshua and now he’s touching you and me in this glorious day.

What you can accomplish by yourself is one thing. No matter how gifted a person is, how many mysteries of God they see and proclaim, or how powerfully a person’s life abounds with miracles, or whatever, it will not compare with the many-faceted, glorious house the Lord wants to build with you or I just being one stone in that house. We as living stones are to be placed side by side with others and what may seem like the most humble stone God can exalt to show forth his greater glory through whoever he chooses at the moment, wherever, whenever, however he wants. We must always remember that it is His glory, his anointing, everything comes from Him, everything points back to Him, without Him we can do nothing, if he steps back, we are nothing without Him. As we are placed together the world will see much more of His glory through many and diverse vessels. What is accomplished by a solo trumpet player or violinist will not compare with the symphony of an orchestra with every artistic player playing the Lord’s music as He conducts.