Repentance Necessary

In 2006 our church experienced a revival-like period that lasted ten to twelve weeks. There are several factors I believe contributed to its waning. These factors are related to a misunderstanding or misappropriation of biblical thinking. I want to look specifically at four of them in the weeks to come.

In Jesus’ parable of the sower (Mark 4:1-8, 14-20), the second type of soil was shallow and rocky, causing the plant to have no root. Jesus does not expound on what that missing root represents but it is clear from other passages what kinds of roots must be in place in order to produce a fruitful life. One of the foundational roots that must be in place in order for us to sustain God’s work is repentance. I am convinced that this was missing in some people’s lives causing the outpouring of God’s Spirit to not having a more lasting impact.

The fact that salvation is by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8-9), does not negate the need for a person to repent in order to be saved. John the Baptist, Jesus and the apostles all preached the need for it. Some people believe they have only “received Christ” but without ever turning from sin. But this is not saving faith according to the Word.

Furthermore, even those who are truly saved regularly experience the gift of repentance as they undergo the sanctifying process of the Holy Spirit. Repentance is the heart’s natural and logical response to experiencing the reality of a holy God. This is why repentance accompanies every true revival. It’s been said that the depth of repentance will determine the depth of the revival.

When I was in my early twenties, trying to find myself, I participated in a New Age seminar put on by an organization called Lifespring. After our group had spent several days together, we did an exercise called the Lifeboat Game. We were instructed to imagine that we were on a boat that was sinking. Though our group numbered 40, there was only room on the lifeboat for twelve people. We had to decide as a group by voting which of the twelve of us would be saved.

Each of us took turns walking around the circle looking each person in the eye and saying “you die” or “you live.” Each person was allotted twelve “you live” votes. Staff members stood behind the circle and tallied the count.

I had a high opinion of myself and was confident that I would be one of the twelve winners. I figured people would favor me over most others. When the results of the voting were announced, each of the twelve chosen ones moved into the center of the circle. I was not one of them.

As I looked at the twelve that had been selected, I was filled with jealousy. In fact, I felt hatred toward the ones picked. As I recognized the ugliness of this intense jealousy and hatred in my heart, it broke me. Although I hadn’t cried in years, I wept uncontrollably for several minutes over the condition of my heart. I was not familiar with the verse at the time, but I was realizing the truth of Jeremiah 17:9 (NASB): “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it?”

Brokenness over our state is crucial to both salvation and to the revival of believers.

Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, David wrote: “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:18). Hosea 10:12 says, “Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground.”

How does this plowing of the heart and broken-heartedness happen? A person hears the high standards of God as revealed in His Word, in His Word and as lived out by Jesus. In view of this s/he says: “I have fallen short. I have blown it big-time. I deserve God’s wrath and I need a new heart.”

Comprehending God’s high standard, it is like holding up a pure white sheet of paper next to a person’s teeth. That individual may have thought that their teeth were white but the pure white sheet exposes the yellowing of their teeth. So also, exposure to the perfection of God reveals our sinfulness.

This kind of divine work prepares a heart to see its need and to truly receive Christ. After coming to Jesus, a person has a tremendous appreciation of the salvation he or she has in the Lord.

Imagine that you are with a small group of outdoor enthusiasts on a snow shoeing trip in the Cascade Mountains. The temperature is above freezing, it’s dry and your party comes across members of a search and rescue unit. How might you react to seeing them? It would not be that big of a deal given that you are doing okay and no one in your group is in any kind of danger.

But suppose the conditions were different. The temperature is below freezing and a blizzard is causing the visibility to drop to zero. Some of your companions have frostbite and others have hypothermia hampering their ability to make good judgments. You’ve built a snow cave and are desperately clinging to life.

Now suppose that a search and rescue unit comes by under those conditions. Desperate and needy, you would greatly appreciate them and what they have to offer. When you got home you would sing their praises and tell people all about your experience. You would be eager to donate money to the unit because they saved your lives.

So it is with Jesus. It is those who have deeply recognize how far they have fallen short that truly embrace Jesus’ grace and come to appreciate what he has done for them on the cross. Have you done this?

As Isaiah wrote, it is the poor in spirit that God revives: “For this is what the high and lofty One says-- he who lives forever, whose name is holy: ‘I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite’” (Isaiah 57:15).

Copyright Ed Skipper 2013

For more information about Ed’s ministry, to listen to him speak or to contact him about speaking to your group, visit heartofrevival.net.

Preserving a Powerful Work of God

When my three girls were young we lived in Springfield, Oregon. We liked to collect maple seeds from the ground, bag them up and take them to Kelly Butte which overlooks Springfield and Eugene. On top of that butte my daughters and I would repeatedly throw the seeds over the edge of the cliff one seed at a time. We would then watch with amazement as the seeds hovered in the air like helicopters making their slow descent. Unlike a rock, which drops straight down, unaffected by the wind, the maple seed hangs suspended in the air as it spins. The wind has the ability to carry it in whatever direction it is blowing.

I see the contrast of the maple seed and the rock as a picture of what can happen to us as the Spirit of God moves powerfully in our midst. We can be like a rock largely unaffected by the wind of the Spirit or we can be like the maple seed: fully available to the Spirit and at His disposal, resulting in the course of our life being significantly changed.

A question worth asking yourself is this: How can I be more like a maple seed and less like a rock? How can I let the wind of the Holy Spirit have its full and lasting effect on me when it blows?

After longing for revival for many years God granted the desire of my heart and enabled me to experience a “move of God” in my life, in the life our church and beyond. I was certain it would spread and become far reaching, believing it would have a major impact on our community and a lasting effect on our local body of Christ. When that didn’t happen I was greatly disappointed and I struggled to understand why people who had gotten on fire for the Lord had backslidden. Then I came across a Scripture passage that seemed to accurately describe what had happened.

In the parable of the seed and sower, the farmer sows seed on four different types of soil. The farmer’s sowing represents the Word of God being proclaimed. The four different types of soil represent the human heart and its receptivity to the Word. As you read the parable and Jesus’ interpretation of it, note the details of the second and third types of soil:

Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge.  He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said:  “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed.  As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow.  But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.  Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain.  Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times” (Mark 4:1-8).

Jesus interpreted his parable this way: “The farmer sows the word.  Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.  Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.  Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.  Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown” (Mark 4:14-20).

It was the second and third type of soil that explains what went wrong in our situation and caused people’s spiritual decline. In my next few blogs, I’ll take a closer look at the second type of soil that describes shallow ground in which plants were sun-scorched because they had no root. This describes people who are unable to cope with trouble or persecution due to their insufficient root system. In short, the Word is not dwelling richly in them.

What I observed among some of the people who were not able to sustain the work that God had begun in them was that they had a faulty worldview, one not adequately grounded in Scripture. As a result, the trials and tests that came their way were too much for them.

Can any of us expect to thrive in our Christian walk without viewing life from the perspective God has revealed in His Word? God’s ways are far different than ours. His Word, and His Word alone, equips us to view our lives from a proper point of view. A thoroughly biblical outlook on life is necessary if we are to continue the spiritual growth that God accelerates during seasons in which He moves in revival-like power.

Copyright Ed Skipper 2013

For more information about Ed’s ministry, to listen to him speak or to contact him about speaking to your group, visit heartofrevival.net.

Big-Time Disappointment

Historically, revival activity always dies down. This happened in my church after about ten weeks of revival-like activity. Despite the amazing things the Lord did this “move of God” seemed to have little lasting impact. The church, as a whole, seemed to return to the same spiritual state that it was in beforehand and most of the people who had been profoundly impacted by God’s visitation struggled to maintain the spiritual progress they had made.

This was most disturbing to me and to my family. In fact, it was among the most confounding turn of events in my lifetime. It made no sense to me that God would reveal His glory as He did for so many weeks only to result in so little lasting impact. I asked myself and God why He would do such a thing. The answer I received: “Trust me.”

God is worthy to be trusted whether His actions (or lack of actions) make sense to us or not. He is God and we are not. He has a right to do as He pleases. We will not always be able to understand the why of what He chooses to do and not do.  As He says through the prophet Isaiah: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).

Our responsibility is to put our confidence in Him and not to try to figure Him out. As Paul wrote: “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out. Who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Who has ever given to God that God should repay Him? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen” (Rom. 11:33-36).

Many of us have a misunderstanding of what serving the Lord really means. We get mixed up about who is serving who in this relationship. Our reasoning goes something like this: “I am doing what I am supposed to therefore God should bless me in such and such a way.” In other words, the Lord owes me things like good health, a fulfilling marriage, a well-paying job because of my service to Him. At the very least I deserve an explanation when things don’t turn out the way I expected them to.

When our faith is based on this kind of thinking, it gets shaken to the core when God does not deliver as expected. Often what He does or does not do makes no sense to us. We must have a faith that is solidly based on the character of God not on circumstances. We must be enamored with who He is and believe that what the Scripture reveals about Him is true even when our experiences seem to say otherwise.  

Drawing near to God brings no guarantee that circumstances will work out as we think they should. In fact, Christians experience the same kinds of tragedies that others experience. Nonetheless God is faithful and good. It’s just that that faithfulness and goodness are not always expressed in the way we would expect. This requires us to live by faith and not by sight.

This was one of the problems some of the revived people in our church ran into. God did not come through for them in the way they expected Him to and it caused them to lose heart. They were thrown off course because their view of the Lord was too small and too human.

Is your confidence in God strong enough that your faith is unshaken when He greatly disappoints you? This is the kind of trust that He wants to build in us through confounding circumstances.

Copyright Ed Skipper 2013

For more information about Ed’s ministry, to listen to him speak or to contact him about speaking to your group, visit heartofrevival.net.

Christ Is Enough

I have learned that every passage of Scripture, when I really grasp its meaning, is absolutely astounding and life-changing. The Bible is full of truths that have the potential to renew, exhilarate, encourage, convict, and challenge us. Since the powerful move of God that I experienced in 2006, certain spiritual principles have come fully alive.

One of those truths, in particular has caught and maintained my attention for the last several years. The profound verse that got my attention was Philippians 4:13. As you read this, think about what impact it might have on you if you fully believed it: “I have strength for all things in Christ who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency]. (Amplified Version)

By faith we can take hold of the unlimited resources of God, knowing that they are more than adequate all day and every day.

My oldest daughter illustrated this beautifully a few years ago when she went to Thailand for a term during her last year of college. Like her Dad, she is not inherently an adventurer but felt strongly led to go.

While there, she had several challenges to overcome: her roommates stayed up late interfering with her sleep; the temperature was extremely hot; she didn’t know the language; it was very difficult to find privacy; the food was unfamiliar and there were numerous bugs all over her bed and bedroom. In addition to all this, her wallet and I-pod were stolen while she was at a market. The thief quickly ran up several thousands of dollars on her VISA card.

Hannah called her Mother and I to inform us of what had happened and told us not to worry. If you are a parent of a teenager or a young adult you understand that being told not to worry does not mean that there is nothing to be seriously concerned about! It only means that your child doesn’t want you to be upset. But in this case, we could hear the calm in her voice. She explained that God knew ahead of time that this would happen and she was confident that He would take care of it.

This is not the typical reaction to such distressing circumstances. Instead of panic Hannah had the confidence and calmness of one who was “ready for anything and equal to anything through him who infuses inner strength into” her.

I have a long way to go to fully incorporate this truth of Christ’s all-sufficiency into my thinking. I want to get to the place in which my first reaction to disappointment is to remember that Christ is enough and to be at peace. The transformation process into this kind of thinking is taking a long time but I’ve come a long way.

For example, one Sunday I was about to preach in a church in Sweet Home, Oregon. The service was about to start when I realized my sermon notes were missing. I looked for them in vain. They were not in the front pew, not in the pastor’s office, not in the restroom. I couldn’t find them anywhere. At that moment I said to God, “Lord, if you want me to preach without notes today I trust that you will provide what I need.” There was no panic as there would have been in earlier years. When we grasp the concept of Christ’s all-sufficiency, we can live with this kind of calm and confidence all the time.

We can start living in this reality today. There is no need to wait until the economy improves, till our family life gets better, till we finish school or get another job. We can walk victoriously today. It is faulty thinking to believe that when this or that happens, then things will be good. Right now Jesus provides all we need and is all we need.

No situation, no pressure, no problem, no responsibility, and no temptation can arise in which Christ is less than adequate. What joy, confidence and rest this brings to our souls!

I encourage you to incorporate this perspective into your thinking: Jesus Christ is always enough for whatever you face. As each new situation arises throughout the day you can simply welcome it, and say to yourself: “you are enough for me as I face this.” No fear, no anxiety-just Christ and his all-sufficient power. This great truth is changing my life and it can change yours as well.

Copyright Ed Skipper 2013

For more information about Ed’s ministry, to listen to him speak or to contact him about speaking to your group, visit heartofrevival.net.

A New Concern for Youth and Lost People

One of the remarkable and enduring things that the Lord did in me during the move of God we experienced in 2006 was to give me a new love for youth. Our church was hosting a Bible quiz competition with students grades four through 12. I was eager to share with the group a testimony of the powerful things that were happening. It was late in the afternoon and I knew that teams from around Oregon and Washington would be eager to get on the road after a long day. Nonetheless, I went through with my testimony believing that God was bigger than physical weariness. God moved on the hearts of those young people and they poured forward for prayer. As I prayed individually for them, He gave me an appreciation for them as precious to the Lord and I felt a love for them like I had never experienced. My concern for their spiritual condition was very intense. The compassion I felt for these young people was only the beginning of what God was doing in me regarding teens.

The church I pastored is located right next to the high school. For decades students from the school have come on or near the church property to smoke. There were large numbers of students there before school, during lunch and after school and smaller numbers throughout the day.  One time at lunch I counted about sixty students in our parking lot.

Over the years I had observed fights in our parking lot, drug deals, vandalism and even the remains of a fire that could have burned the building down. The biggest problem was the massive amount of litter that they left behind each week. For years I ignored these students and viewed them primarily as a problem.

But then God softened my heart toward these kids. He opened my eyes to the mission field we had in our church’s backyard. I realized I could keep my distance, judge them, and agree with others about horrible they were or I could see their presence as a God-given opportunity to engage with them and to share the gospel.

In my final three and a half years as pastor of the church, I chose to spend time with these students almost every school day. Not everyone was happy with my decision to do that. The police, who sometimes had to be called to deal with problems, were baffled when they saw us serving the students hot chocolate or donuts. They expected us to chase them off, not befriend them. One officer said, “If you give them an inch, they’ll take a mile.”

Some in the church were unhappy because of the extra work involved cleaning the litter. Others felt that we were encouraging under-age smoking by reaching out to the kids and being friendly. There were even some neighbors who called to express their anger that the church was encouraging bad behavior.

As the months went by, the criticism sometimes caused me to question whether I was doing the right thing. Was God really calling me to this? Maybe befriending sinners as Jesus did was a great principle but not practical in this case.

At one point I was alone in Florence when my wife called to inform me that students had put cigarette burns all over the church’s front porch carpet. I felt terrible and wondered whether this outreach was such a great idea. That very day in the midst of my struggle, I received a letter from a woman I had taught school with and had prayed for over a twenty year period. She wrote to tell me she had become a Christian. God encouraged my heart with this news. God knows what we are going through, and in His mercy, sends what we need at just the right time. I was strengthened to persevere with these students, being convinced that this was God’s heart just as it was His heart to save my teacher friend.

In Luke 15, when Jesus was criticized by the Pharisees and teachers of the law for hanging out with “sinners” and tax collectors he told them three parables that all made the same point. The parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the prodigal son teach that heaven rejoices whenever a sinner repents.

God’s heart is for lost people to come to Him. Not everyone understands this. Some people are like the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son wanting justice to be carried out rather than grace shown. But when we understand that we ourselves deserve God’s wrath and that it is by his mercy and grace that we are saved and changed, then we will have a heart of compassion and not one of condemnation toward “sinners.”

I learned to overlook the tattoos, piercings, boys’ low-lying pants and foul language, to see those kids as people that God longed to have a relationship with. I learned that love and respect were languages they understood very well and responded to.

On one occasion I was preparing to eat breakfast in the parsonage and I could see that the students had gathered as usual before school in front of the church. I had spent lots of time with them and began to debate with the Lord about going over there. “Don’t I have a right to enjoy my breakfast now?” “I spend enough time with them already!” Often when I start debating something in my head, it is an indication that the Holy Spirit is prompting me to do something.

So I left my breakfast and walked over to the church. It turned out that one of their friends had committed suicide the night before and kids were in tears. God opened a wonderful opportunity for ministry and prayer.

On another occasion, I was talking to a couple girls with a Catholic background and was trying to see whether or not they understood the gospel. As I talked with them they showed a moderate amount of interest in the gospel but a fifteen year old guy standing nearby heard the conversation and was very interested. After talking more with him, he gave his life to Christ.

What is your attitude toward “sinners”? In view of the mercy and grace you’ve been shown, is it becoming more in line with God’s heart? In Ezekiel 18:23 God asks: “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? ...Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live”?

Copyright Ed Skipper 2013

For more information about Ed’s ministry, to listen to him speak or to contact him about speaking to your group, visit heartofrevival.net.