This last Sunday, September 5, marked Reality’s 7 year anniversary and the first anniversary of our campus in Ventura. In order to celebrate we got both campuses together at the High School Amphitheater in Carpinteria. I was excited to preach after having the summer off due to a sabbatical that then rolled into my daughter’s second cancer diagnosis. By Saturday night I had written three different sermons for the occasion but wasn’t really feeling good about any of them. I went to bed somewhat discouraged and got up around 3:30am and started to pray. The Lord spoke to me and said, “Pray from now until the service (10am) and I will tell you what to say.” So, I spent the morning in prayer and worship and sensed a new and profound filling with the Holy Spirit… I was buzzing!
The text the Lord gave me was Luke 9:23-26:
23 Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me. 24 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. 25 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed? 26 If anyone is ashamed of me and my message, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in his glory and in the glory of the Father and the holy angels.
The preaching went fine and was basically a plea for us to begin to quit merely playing church and to truly follow Jesus by denying ourselves and fully surrendering our lives to Him no matter what the cost, and to examine ourselves to see whether or not we actually meet Christ’s criteria to be called a follower of His… have we ever truly died to self and lost our lives for His name’s sake?
Toward the end of the message we all realized that what we needed in addition to our own surrender was to be filled with the person and power of the Holy Spirit! I explained this and offered for people who were serious about it to come forward and get on their knees and begin to cry out to God in repentance and surrender and for a filling of the Holy Spirit. Hundreds started rushing forward before I even finished the invitation. The front of stage area was packed and people just began to get on their knees in the aisles and at their seats (on the concrete!!). Over a thousand people were on their knees calling out to God. Some were on their faces (on concrete!). Many of us began to weep. We were repenting and confessing our sins to one another and asking for new transformation and clear calling to take the Gospel into our communities and to the nations. We were laying hands on each other and praying for the gifts to be given generously by the Spirit. We were asking God to heal our nation from the effects of pornography. We were asking God to heal the abused and the abusers. We were asking for an honest, radical, dangerous expression of Christianity to be birthed in and among us.
It was radical. So real and powerful. People have reported feeling a warm breeze blowing through the crowd as we asked for the Spirit to come. We all felt broken and humbled. Speechless. Free. It was a genuine visitation of the Holy Spirit. I have never experienced that many people on their knees sincerely calling out on God with fervency in such a raw way. People are wondering if this is what a little glimpse of revival feels/looks like.
We are looking for lasting fruit now. We are all feeling it… still buzzing. There seems to be a new humility among us; that’s important! There are small signs of continuance: This weeks Tuesday morning prayer meetings were better attended, more fervent, and felt fresh and prophetic. I’ve talked to people who are feeling new calls to ministry and mission, putting it all on the line to serve Christ. Other couples are having radical conversations, asking if they should be doing something different with their lives than the average nine to five routine. People are talking about giving away their life savings, cars, even houses to the needy. Pretty crazy stuff. As a staff we are trying to discover how we can cultivate and continue in the good work the Lord has begun.
It was beautiful. A very kind thing of the Lord to do to visit us that way on our 7th birthday. We will never forget it. And hopefully, we will never be the same.