“There is a shift coming to America.” Those were the words God spoke to me after almost 100% of conference attendees spontaneously flooded to the altar in a meeting where I was speaking. “What just happened God? I asked stunned.
“There’s a shift coming to the Body of Christ. There is a shift coming to America and a shift to our world. Reposition God’s people for revival!” It was at a conference near Chicago when God prompted me to speak spontaneously out of Ezekiel 37 on the Valley of Dry Bones. When I got to verse 10 where it says, “… breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army” the audience stood to their feet, seemingly just as the vast army in Ezekiel 37! Without an invitation, almost everyone ran to the altar.
Then miraculous signs and wonders broke out. It was the second time I had seen such a response in recent days when the Lord spoke of the shift coming.
Shift is an interesting word. It means to change, exchange, transfer position, reposition, to turn around, or to turn for good. We are living in a time where the Church has become prevalent, but not powerful. We have become recognized behind our four walls, but not much outside of them. The cultural result is that we have come to live in a society that is:
• Pluralistic: Where any religion will do, and all religions are of equal value.
• Postmodern: Modernism examined all truth and proposed an objective or absolute truth. In postmodernism, the truth about truth is there is no truth. All truth became 2 subjective or relative. Relativism advocates all truth is relative to what the individual thinks it is…even though its definition contradicts the definition of truth itself.
• Post-Church – The Church has little or no relevance to the culture we live in. The prefix “post” means after… after modernism or after the Church. In other words, these entities no longer have significant influence upon the culture and its’ functions. The result is the Church has become prevalent, but not powerful. Thus, it has allowed the culture to invade society of its own values that are in stark contrast to God’s.
Someone once said when you rely upon organizations, you get what organizations can produce. When you rely upon technology, you get what technology produces. When you rely upon eloquence you get what eloquence can produce. But it is only when you rely on God that you get what God can produce.
Today in the Church we have unwittingly come to rely upon technology, organization, leadership skills and eloquence. While these things are needed, when we rely upon them to the exclusion of God, we find ourselves impotent and succumbing to the wiles of culture.
That is why Paul says in Romans 15, “I venture to speak of nothing except what Jesus has accomplished through me…by what I have said and done…by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Holy Spirit…I have fully proclaimed the Gospel” (Romans 15:18,19). Acts says of Paul and Barnabas, “… for the Lord confirmed the message of His grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders” (Acts 14:3).
The obvious implication is without the supernatural endorsement of God upon what we say and do, we will not fully proclaim the Gospel. God’s calling us to a shift in our perspective and operations. Signs and wonders are no longer optional as we proclaim the Gospel.
When the Church becomes prevalent, but not powerful, it gives culture license to invade society with values that are not reflective of biblical perspective. It is then, that we need revival.
So What Is Revival?
It is not a four-day meeting with a guest speaker or a conference with the most notable speakers in the world. While those are not bad things, they are not revival.
• It is the reinvigoration of God’s people with the power, truth and the (conspicuous) Presence of God. It is the manifest presence of God that brings transformation.
• It is the revitalization of the Church for a loving attack on a wayward culture.
• It is the marshaling of forces fatal to the kingdom of darkness.
• It is the mobilization of the Church to reestablish Kingdom principles. In a time where everything shaking around us (Hebrews 12:26-28), we need a revival. 1950’s rocker, Jerry Lee Lewis, had it right, “There a whole lotta’ shakin’ going’ on.” The pandemic has had us shaking. The economy has had us shaking. So has the war in Europe, mass shootings and inflation.
It is time for a shift! It’s time for revival! It has, in fact, begun, but more is yet to come as God repositions His people—and the world for what He is about to do.
ABOUT:
Ron McIntosh is president of Ron McIntosh Ministries and I.M.P.A.C.T., a leadership and coaching ministry for leaders and churches. He is the author of several books including Shift: Repositioning God’s People for Revival and The Quest for Revival
A gifted communicator to this generation, Ron has a Bachelor of Science degree in Christian Education and a Master of Divinity from Oral Roberts University. He and his wife, Judy, live in Tulsa, Oklahoma. For additional information click here.
