Awakened

By Francis Anfuso

WHAT WOULD IT TAKE TO:

• awaken a nation that has ceased to depend upon God?

• awaken the mind of those who no longer fear or reverence Him?

• awaken the conscience of those who have grown numb to discerning good and evil?

• awaken the hearts of those who consider it a choice to end the lives of their unborn children, while rejecting God’s order for marriage and the family?

• revive the spirit of a church that has grown sleepy and indifferent toward the broken world around them?

What would it take? It would take a move of God... a revival of Biblical proportions! Rekindle your passion for Jesus and prepare for the sovereign outpouring we so desperately need. May we each find our unique role for all that is ahead and be fully protected during the ensuing battle.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Francis Anfuso
• Release date: Aug 20, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476047089

Francis Anfuso

Francis Anfuso and his twin brother, Joseph, were born one year prior to their father being eleted to the first of five terms in the United States Congress. But their father’s absorbing career left little time for his family. They could merely watch from the sidelines as their Dad’s attention was wholly given to the work and prestige of being a famous, influential person. Though Francis felt lost in his family life and Catholic upbringing, God had not lost track of him. His First Communion, at age six, took place on May 14, 1955. Seventeen years later, to the day, Francis received Jesus as Lord and Savior. His godly mother’s intercessory prayers had finally caught up with him. God always has a plan and a timetable. Psalm 27:10 says, “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take care of me.” He is truly a father to the fatherless. As God is the “God of happy endings,” so shortly after Francis received Jesus, his mother, brothers and sisters all whole-heartedly gave their lives to the lord. As each of us fervently cry out to God in prayer for our loved ones, he promises to draw them back to him. Francis and his wife, Suzie, ministered throughout the Body of Christ for 18 years. In 1997, they planted The Rock of Roseville near Sacramento, California. Francis’ ministry focuses on an intimate, transparent relationship with Jesus Christ and the freedom and fullness of abundant life in Him. Francis has authored eight books including Perfectly Positioned: When Perspective Triumphs Over Circumstance, Father Wounds: Reclaiming Your Childhood, Church Wounds, and 2029—Church of the Future. Each of his books, sermon series, and conferences proclaim the message of God’s sovereign love guiding our wholeness and destiny. Francis and his wife Suzie have twin daughters, Deborah and Havilah, who serve alongside them with their husbands, Daniel and Ben. They have also been blessed with six grandchildren: Judah, Gabriella, Hudson, William, Wesley, and Grayson.

Book preview

Awakened

by Francis Anfuso

Copyright © 2012 The Rock of Roseville.

Smashwords Edition

The Rock of Roseville

725 Vernon St., Roseville, CA

95678 U.S.A.

www.rockofroseville.com

Cover design & book layout by Hans Bennewitz

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by the Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-936417-87-2

Dedicated to my longtime friend and intercessor Mike Grant. He is now with Jesus, having pioneered two Houses of Prayer. When an awakening finally arrives, it will be in part due to your many years of life and death prayers for Heaven to come to Earth. I love you and miss you, my dear friend.

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Prologue

Filming in Wales

1 Desperate Times

2 Life and Death Prayers

3 Gift of Repentance

4 Supernatural Surprises

5 Selfless Serving

6 Making Disciples

7 Healing Breaches

8 Representing Jesus Well

9 Esteeming Others First

Leaders: Are You Safe?

Appendix

Awakened Small Groups

Notes

Additional Resources (Books)

One-hour video may be viewed at:

www.revivalstories.org/awakened

FOREWORD

For more than three decades it has been my honor to know and deeply appreciate my friend in the faith who is the author of this small book. He is a man who through his other writings and speaking gifts, by evangelistic and counseling materials with visual and audio communications to both the church and the street, has constantly sought for all of us one thing; a fresh visitation in our day of the Living God.

Francis is a creative exhorter. His solid biblical studies, succinct insights from recorded history by analysis of the words and lives of passionate prophets and truth-seeking people of the past have always carried a core mission. It has marked all of his work. It is the goal of this book. And we need it now more than ever before.

What is this book about? To take key DNA of a special spiritual past and restore it again in our needy present to see Christ create a new future. To help the Church rediscover a path to an awakened present in the hope of having another Divine mercy chance for the nation.

In summary: to see again a God-given genuine revival.

I believe Awakened can and will prove for many to be one of the most useful, practical contemporary series of studies in one of the most needed and significant focuses of our time.

Winkie Pratney: June 2012

(Revival; Twenty Centuries of Vision and Visitation, The Revival Study Bible)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I have at times thought my tombstone might read, He persecuted the Church, due to what I ask others around me to do, and when I ask them to do it. My mind is always active, schedule brisk, and timeframes for completing projects often taxing. Though I may willingly submit my life to what some call this Tyranny of the Urgent, I often feel sad for those who have to ski in my wake. In the past, my leaving town would provide a needed respite. That is, until the marvelous inventions: email and texting.

So, the least I can do is express my sincerest appreciation to the mighty warriors who help me fulfill what I believe is God’s script for my life. May eternity reward your willingness and obedience, and may you find more margin in the present than I am aware of.

Suzie, my beautiful and wise wife, what I lack in patience you model every day. Lydia, you have been a faithful and flexible assistant for many years. Stephanie, thanks for helping me structure this book. Kathy, you are a perfect and selfless editor for my many books. Betty, you’re brilliant in making sure every detail and footnote is precise. Adena, thanks for jumping in and refining the chapters’ questions. John, your coaching me for the final section was a difference-maker. Hans, Mr. No Problem, you always make the book, inside and out, exquisite.

Sean, your book, I Am Your Sign gave me a new gear of hope for the future. Winkie, years ago you jumpstarted my understanding of revival with your book, Revival. Now, you’ve added fuel to my fire with, The Revival Study Bible. Thanks for your supportive Foreword, and being a bright light all these years.

Joel, I loved filming with you in Wales, and watching your creativity flow. Ben, your music gave the film the warmth and heart it needed. Dick and Gladys, you received us into your home and guided us as we traversed your beautiful adopted nation: Wales. Intercessors, only Heaven will reveal how your prayers bolstered and protected me throughout the writing and filming of this project. Interns, your all night prayer made the difference. God knows! My children and grandchildren, your future inspires me to believe for a global awakening. Jesus, You are the One I live for, love most, and long to see face to face.

Francis Anfuso

INTRODUCTION

The Holy Spirit has made it exceedingly clear to me that unless there is a mighty move of God in America, the Church cannot be revived, nor the lost awakened. The Church is not ready. Not unless we pray and obediently believe for a revival of His Spirit.

Shortly after I received this distinct impression, I went away to a retreat center for three days to pray and fast. During that time of focused reflection I reread many of the books on revival and the biographies of great evangelists and intercessors who had inspired me during my 40 years of following Jesus.

I came to the following two conclusions:

1. Though revival is a supernatural act of God, and not contrived in any way, there are clear Biblical and historical dimensions that we can obediently pursue in preparation for God to revive the Church before awakening the lost.

2. Commitment to step into these areas requires full surrender and whole-hearted abandon to Jesus.

3. The greatest revivals in Church History were filled with grave dangers before, during, and after the moving of God’s Spirit.

This book was written to rekindle our passion for Jesus while preparing us for the sovereign outpouring we so desperately need. May we each find our unique role for all that is ahead and be fully protected during the ensuing battle.

In the book, The Ten Greatest Revivals Ever, the authors list in order the historic revivals that had the greatest impact.¹,²

1. Revival of 1904–1906 (Welsh and Azusa Street Revivals)

2. Great Awakening, 1727–1750 (Wesley, Whitefield, Edwards)

3. Second Great Awakening, 1780–1810 (Cane Ridge Revival)

4. General Awakening, 1830–1840 (Charles Finney)

5. Layman’s Prayer Revival, 1857–1861 (Lanphier, Moody)

6. World War II Revival, 1935–1950 (Graham, Campbell)

7. Baby Boomer Revival, 1965–1975 (Jesus People)

8. Pre-Reformation Revivals, 1300–1500 (Lollards, Wycliffe, Hus, Savonarola)

9. Protestant Reformation, 1517 (Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Knox)

10. Pentecost, the Beginning of Revival, A.D. 30 (Peter and Paul)

In each of these ten periods of awakening, the expressions of revival appeared differently. The most common demonstrations of God moving are described as nine faces of revival and are listed in the book, Rivers of Revival.3 While most revivals demonstrated a cross section of these historic faces, as the revival spread, individual locales tended to focus on one predominant face.

1. Prayer Revival: movement of intercession and prayer.

2. Repentance Revival: stresses cleaning up one’s life and society.

3. Worship Revival: emphasis on magnifying God’s presence.

4. Liberation Revival: God’s Word and freedom from sin.

5. Deeper Life Revival: experiencing God’s indwelling Spirit.

6. Reconciliation Revival: healing racial and relational divisions.

7. Evangelism Revival: God’s servant heart rescuing the lost.

8. Holy Spirit Revival: emphasis on the Spirit’s manifestations.

9. Spiritual Warfare Revival: victory over powers of darkness.

Though we have not compartmentalized our chapters in the above-mentioned format, these faces of revival are seen throughout this book. It is our hope that they will once again permeate each of our lives, being part of the great birthing process for the next great awakening.

In closing, the following quote aptly describes how God interrupts our mundane lives and transforms a community. It was written by Jonathan Edwards and recounts how God touched the little town of Northampton, Massachusetts in 1734–1735.

This work soon made a glorious alteration in the town. So that in the spring and summer following, the town seemed to be full of the presence of God. It never was so full of love nor so full of joy and yet so full of distress as it was then.

There were remarkable tokens of God’s presence in almost every house. It was a time of joy in families on account of salvation being brought to them. Parents rejoicing over their children as newborn, husbands over their wives and wives over their husbands.

The doings of God were then seen in His sanctuary. God’s day was a delight and the congregation was alive in God’s service. Everyone earnestly intent on the public worship. Every hearer eager to drink in the words of the minister as they came from his mouth. The assembly in general were from time to time in tears while the Word was preached. Some weeping with sorrow and distress, others with joy and love, others with pity and concern for the souls of their neighbors.

This is God visiting His people. Days of heaven on earth, the presidency of the Holy Spirit in the Church, life abundant given to