Seize the Moment: How to Fuel the Fires of Revival

By Michael L. Brown

Revival is dependent on how much we allow the Holy Spirit to move.

After reading this book, you will have the confidence to share the good news of what the Holy Spirit is doing in our world with everyone who will listen. You will no longer sit on the sidelines, but rather you will partner with the Holy Spirit to do all that He has asked you to do.

Respected theologian and Bible scholar Michael L. Brown, PhD, saw firsthand the impact of the long-running Brownsville Revival on the church and the nation. He believes another powerful move of God is on the horizon, and he doesn’t want believers to miss or squander that moment.

In Seize the Moment, Brown lays out twenty-five proven ways readers can cultivate and sustain revival so it becomes more than an emotional experience and changes their lives, communities, and nations. With insight gleaned from years of experience, Brown challenges readers to:

• make Jesus and the cross central
• reach the lost
• never downplay the importance of holiness
• steer clear of doctrinal weirdness
• keep the main thing the main thing
• and more

For those who want to be a part of the next great move of God, Revival Rising is essential reading. It will show readers how to embrace revival with wisdom and discernment and avoid the pitfalls that can sabotage a move of God, safeguard the purity of revival, and cultivate an environment where God’s presence dwells unhindered.
 
Christians have been praying, fasting, and longing for revival for years. This practical and inspirational book will help them be ready for it when it comes. If readers apply Brown’s wisdom, with the Spirit’s help, instead of messing up a move of God they will enjoy the fruit of revival for many years to come.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Charisma House
• Release date: Jan 2, 2024
• ISBN: 9781636413402

Book preview

PREFACE

I BEGAN WRITING THIS book during the days of the Brownsville Revival, putting together the table of contents and finishing several of the chapters. But then the revival ended, I was involved with other writing and ministry projects, and it seemed as if the window of opportunity had been missed. After all, this is a book about how to sustain a revival, but there was not a major revival in sight—at least not here in America.

Then, a few years later, I was teaching one day in New York City when I felt the Lord say to me, You will need to finish that book. This meant that another wave of revival was coming and that I would have the joy of participating in it. What an encouraging word! Now, with the first signs of a new wave of revival already in the land, I knew it was time to finish the book. When it came time to write, though, the publishers and I agreed that it would be better to frame things in the positive, hence the current title and emphasis.

Interestingly, when I drew up my initial table of contents about twenty-five years ago (at that time, consisting of thirty chapters, which have been merged into twenty-five chapters here), I was surprised to see how similar it was to a list of twenty hindrances to revival that Charles G. Finney had composed.¹ Some things never change! But this also means that adhering to these biblically based, historically proven principles will help us avoid messing up what God is doing. We dare not miss (or squander) the moment of His visitation.

At the same time, as I emphasize throughout the book, all this is easier said than done. In fact, earlier this year (2023), I organized a phone call with six pastors who had been in steady moves of God for several years now, seeing consistent growth as they welcomed the Spirit’s presence. The purpose of the call was to brainstorm ways that I/we could help the thousands of pastors and leaders who would soon be experiencing revival for the first time. How could we help them steward the move of God? (This book, of course, is meant to be one of the resources that we offer these leaders.)

One of the pastors, however, missed the call that day, despite him being highly disciplined and very responsible. What happened? It turns out that his congregation was experiencing a fresh outpouring, and the staff/corporate prayer meeting that had begun at 8:00 a.m. continued all day, causing him to miss the late-afternoon call. The outpouring itself took precedence over the phone call to discuss how to handle an outpouring!

Not long after that, he was texting me for prayer, feeling totally overcome by the burden of the Lord. He was undone by the Word and the presence of the Lord.

About that same time, one of the other pastors on the call wanted to talk with me. His church was also experiencing a fresh outpouring, and he was so overwhelmed by the power of God that he was literally in his office shaking. How, he asked, does one function at such times? How does normal church life go on, including leadership and staff meetings?

I found it ironic, then, that two of the seasoned leaders whom I was recruiting to help newer pastors steward the coming revival had themselves been overcome by the Spirit. They were asking me what to do!

That’s why I say that all this is easier said than done. Still, if we appeal to the Lord in our weakness, if we fall on our faces and ask for His grace, if we reaffirm our desire that Jesus, and Jesus alone, would get the glory, then the Lord will be merciful, recognizing our human frailty. If we maintain that posture, we might just see a lasting, even historic revival sweep our congregations. It is certainly the Father’s desire.

As for how best to read this book, I recommend reading it from beginning to ending. But each chapter is self-contained, and I constantly refer back to other chapters to connect the dots whenever that is helpful. So, dive in wherever you like, but be sure to read everything along the way. All the points are essential for bearing long-term, Jesus-glorifying fruit.

I also encourage you to watch for the second book in the series From Revival to Reformation, in which I will lay out divine strategies for moving from an outpouring in the church to an awakening in society. The time is now!

My appreciation to Steve and Joy Strang, Debbie Marrie, Adrienne Gaines, Ken Peckett, and the rest of the Charisma Media team for embracing this project and agreeing to get it out on fairly short notice, as well as to all those who support me in prayer. I am carried by your intercession! And to the AskDrBrown team, which enables me to give myself to the calling of God, and, above all, to my bride, Nancy, of forty-seven years, who constantly reminds me that I am nothing and He is everything, my heartfelt appreciation is due. May our wildest, holy dreams come true!

—MICHAEL L. BROWN

AUGUST 8, 2023

CHAPTER 1

REMEMBER THE LOST

THERE ARE MANY things that will mess up a move of God, but few are as fatal as neglecting the lost. How dare we receive a fresh outpouring of the Spirit and keep it to ourselves. How dare we saturate and soak ourselves in the living waters of God while forgetting about the famished, drought-stricken sinners who are dying outside our doors for lack of the smallest drink.

The great revivalist Charles G. Finney warned against this very temptation over a century ago:

Another thing that hinders revivals is neglecting the claims of missions. If Christians do not feel for the heathen, neglect the monthly concert, and confine their attention to their own church, do not even read the Missionary Herald, or use any other means to inform themselves on the subject of the claims of the world, and reject the light which God is throwing before them, and will not do what God calls them to do in this cause, the Spirit of God will depart from them.¹

Step back and consider how this might look to the Lord. The heavenly Father loved the people of this world so much that He sacrificed His only Son on their behalf. Jesus, sent on a mission by His Father, suffered and bled and died to pay for the sins of this planet full of rebels and offer us a free and gracious pardon. Then He rose from the dead and sent His Spirit to empower His followers to take the wonderful message of that pardon for sins to all humanity—and I mean all peoples everywhere. Wherever there was a people, a nation, a tribe, a family, an individual, the Lord’s followers were to go, spreading the good news and offering hope for a dying world.

Jesus made it emphatically clear: the Spirit would come upon His followers to enable them to fulfill this Great Commission. That is why He was sent! As Jesus explained to His disciples immediately before ascending to heaven, It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:7–8).

And so these first disciples, baptized in the Spirit’s mighty power, sacrificed and labored, following in their Master’s footsteps. One of their most devoted leaders, a Jewish man named Paul, went as far as saying, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace (Acts 20:24).

That says it all: Paul’s race was to win souls; Paul’s task was to win souls; the whole purpose of Paul’s life was to win souls. After all, it was Paul’s Savior, the Lord Jesus Himself, who said to the very first men He called, Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men (Matt. 4:19, EHV).

God’s heart beats for souls! That’s why John Wesley, who carried God’s heart, said to his workers, You have nothing to do but save souls. Therefore, spend and be spent in this work.²

Unfortunately, as worldliness and compromise and lethargy and complacency have set in among us, we, the followers of Jesus, have lost sight of our mission, our task, and our calling, instead putting almost all the emphasis on ourselves—our lives, our needs, our desires, our goals, our aspirations, our dreams. We forget about the Father’s love for the lost; we forget about the Son’s sacrifice for the lost; we forget about the Spirit’s mission to the lost. We backslide! In fact, one of the surest signs of a backslidden heart is the lack of burden for the lost.

It is tragic but true: the burden that drove Jesus to the cross and drove missionaries to the ends of the earth doesn’t even drive many of us to our knees. Yes, this passion for the lost that moved the Lord to make the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf doesn’t even hold the interest of our backslidden hearts.

And this is where revival comes into play because God, who is relentless in His determination to have mercy on humanity, rebukes and chastises and calls back His sleeping saints, urging us to return to Him so that we might enjoy His favor and be used by Him to touch the world. He puts a hunger and a thirst and a burning desire in our hearts to experience His presence afresh. And when we call out to Him with fasting and prayer, He sends revival from heaven. He answers in power and glory. He refreshes and renews His weary and beaten-down people. He makes us alive again!

But I tell you in the strongest possible terms: if we neglect His heart and passion, if we turn His blessing inward on ourselves instead of outward on the lost, we will quickly grieve His Spirit. He is touching us so that we will touch the world. He is changing us so that we will go and change our generation. He is pouring out His grace on us so that we will pour it out on others. He is giving and giving and giving to us so that we, in turn, will give to those who have nothing.

Of course, He is blessing us because He loves us, because He enjoys doing good things for us, because He cares deeply about our well-being, because He wants us to reflect His image. That’s why He sends revival. He enjoys flooding our hearts with a tidal wave of His blessings. But He also sends revival to empower us to reach the lost, to restore our burden for souls, to invigorate us to fulfill the Great Commission. If we miss this, we miss it all.

From first to last, God’s heart beats for souls. From first to last, the cross is Jesus’ cry for souls. From first to last, the Spirit’s passion and purpose is souls. The salvation of the lost brings glory to the Father, rewards to the Son, and satisfaction to the Spirit. A revived church, therefore, will always be a church that is about souls, and a church that wants to sustain and deepen the Spirit’s move in its midst must continue to prioritize its outreach to the lost. In the famous words of Oswald Smith, The church that does not evangelize will fossilize.³

Has the Spirit fallen powerfully in your assembly? Have you personally been revitalized by the Lord? Then go for the lost! Pray for the lost, reach out to the lost, share your faith with the lost, pour out your hearts for the lost, do whatever your hand finds to do for the lost, and give yourself away for the lost. Seek to cultivate a heightened awareness of the central importance of reaching the lost, both in your own community as well as around the world. God will continue to give as long as you keep giving away.

I believe that is one reason the Lord saw fit to continue to pour out His Spirit