Are you ready for the revival?

• Are you and your Church ready for a harvest of souls?
• Are you ready for the revival?
• What does the coming harvest look like?
• Have you got in place the mechanisms to disciple large numbers of people?

It was during a time in my life when I was co-leading Intercessors for Melbourne that God spoke to me and asked: “What does revival look like?”

From study, I knew that during the Welsh Revival some 80% of the population was touched by God and professed to be Christians. But 10 years later there was very little evidence remaining of the mighty outpouring of God’s Spirit.

When I read this, I was saddened to see the harvest lost back to the Kingdom of Darkness and concerned that history did not repeat itself.

What Does the Coming Harvest Look Like?

We are told continually by respected Prophets that what is coming is larger than any previous outpouring of God’s Spirit, and it is on a global level not just restricted to one locality.

Well I can think big, but, on a global level?

So to help it make sense and comprehensible to my mind, I asked myself this question;

“What would revival look like in my city, Melbourne Australia?”

“What if only 20% of Melbourne was touched by The Spirit of God?

How many people would that be?

The June 2019 Census, reveals Melbourne has a total population of 4,850.000 with 31 municipalities of various size populations.

For the sake of the exercise, let’s just average out the numbers.

4,077,036 divided by 31 = 156,452 people per municipality

Divide that by 20% = 31,290 people

That’s 31,290 new converts in your municipality if you live in Melbourne!

Now, I know I have oversimplified this because this includes every man, woman and child.

BUT, do you get the picture?

God is saying very clearly to His people, “the coming outpouring of My Spirit is larger than any previous outpouring of My Spirit!”

A strong resolve was rising in my heart

After much searching, I found the Cleansing Streams 20-week course.

One evening I mentioned it in our home group and immediately 18 people wanted to do the course with us.

To cut a long story short, we completed the 20-week program, had the ministry weekend, and saw the lives of 18 people transformed.

God spoke to us and told us to bring the ministry to the Church in Australia.

It was amazing times, the miracles, the provision of God for the trip to USA, the printing, the connections we made, the growth, and etc.

From 1998 to December 2000, we saw some 150 churches get involved and approximately 3000-4000 people in Australia and New Zealand go through the course.

But, as good as it was, I could see that people needed more.

We caught the Christian where they were at in their walk with God, it was based on an assumption that they already had some knowledge of God and his Word.

At the conclusion of the 20 weeks, the small groups and relationships that had developed were disbanded and some needed further ministry, yet we had no further input or influence.

Once again I started talking with God and sometimes He answers in very unexpected ways.

God answered my prayer in 2000 with two very unexpected events.

First, in August 2000 through a prophetic word which at the time I did not fully understand.

Second, in December 2000, we resigned from the ministry. We loved the ministry of Cleansing Streams, but God had a bigger plan.

Prophesy predicting our future

I have added extracts from the prophetic word so that you understand how the next phase came to pass. The word was this;

“I saw you standing with a book in your hand and the pages were blank, And I saw the Lord writing the vision He was going to put in your heart and as the vision was written down the Lord spoke to me about Habakkuk and He said, “I will give this man a vision that he will write down and when he writes the vision down there will come a time again for him to run with the vision and when he runs with the vision many will herald it, many will hear the cry of this man’s heart and the vision that’s inside him and it will cause the next generation to erupt. It will cause the next generation to say I want stand with this father in the faith.”

And I felt like the Lord said to me I saw a picture of an old vision in the book and the Lord said, “I have taken the old out and I’ve blanked the pages and now I am going to rewrite in the book a new vision and that new vision is going to catch the hearts and it’s better than the old one, it’s a whole new one, it’s not a renewal job it’s a brand new one with a whole lot more details than you could imagine.” The Lord said, “at times you will be a prophetic voice to some that will come that are covered in leprosy and you will tell them to dip in this river and they will be healed like Elijah said to Namun.”

I felt like the Lord said, “the next stage of the vision carries with it a whole new dynamic of power and freedom for marriages and families and for the next generation.”

Little did the prophet know that already in my heart, I knew we needed more than just the Cleansing Stream Ministry course to catch and hold the harvest, but my plan was different to God’s plan.

In 2001, two significant events took place.

One is that we did a year in Ministry Training College and the vision for a complete discipleship package continued to grow within me.

Second, I met a very gifted theologian, our friendship began to grow and I began sharing the vision I had about a complete discipleship course for brand new Christians, who like us, came from an unchurched background and had no or very limited knowledge of God and his Word.

At the end of 2001, my wife and I believed that God was asking me to write a complete discipleship package for new and maturing Christians.

After much prayer and discussions, I accepted the call thinking that it may take about six months, not realising that it would take six years and collectively some 35,000 hours.

I think if God had told us six years, I may not have accepted the call.

Growing Deep and Strong® is born

In early 2002, I began to formulate and write a discipleship/mentoring program for new Christians.

It is a complete step by step off-the-shelf 12-months Bible Study Mentoring Program, called the Growing Deep and Strong® Series.

It consists of 4 nine-week modules and two encounter weekends, it’s simple to use, easy to understand and multiplies small groups organically.

The program is designed to take a person from a pagan background to a Small Group Christian Leader in 12 months or less.

We have seen many lives absolutely changed and transformed.

I now feel ready to “catch and clean” the harvest, that I can say to The Lord, “I am ready Jesus, I have done what you asked us to do, we are ready to catch the harvest.

We have in place a mechanism for the Christian to not only clean the catch, but also raise up others to do the same.”