Revival: Must We Lose Our Minds, Part 1
By: Les Herron
The Bereans were congratulated out of all the churches for checking Paul’s preaching of the gospel with the then only testament, the Old Testament. He congratulated them and encouraged others to do the same. Paul was preaching a radically new thing that was considered outside the teachings of the majority of the Jewish priests yet with study the Bereans were able to see that Paul’s teachings lined up right alongside their sacred scripture.
They did not lose their minds but rather engaged their minds with the help of the Holy Spirit and the written word of God. Because of their daily search of the scriptures to find out what Paul and Silas were teaching many believed…Jews and Greeks and prominent men and women.
These were men who were more fair-minded or more noble than the men of Thessalonica in that they received the words from Paul and Silas eagerly (emotionally) and with scripture study (intellectually).
It has been said to just “turn your minds off” when it comes to revival services or ‘river’ services. Is that really what God is asking us to do? Is the Creator of our entire body and the fullness of who we are asking us to check our brain at the door before He can touch us and we can experience Him?
This is the God who said that the greatest commandment is to love Him with all of who we are, including our minds. Is it a true experience with Him if our mind is not engaged? Are we able to know Him in His entirety if we neglect loving Him with our minds?
“Teacher which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment” (Matthew 22:36-37)
The Apostle Paul, arguably the smartest guy and the most educated one in the New Testament, said that our lives are transformed by the renewal of our minds. So, if we are all about transformation then how will that happen without the mind engaged?
And maybe this is part of the problem people have with what passes for revival in this generation: the lack of transformation in people’s lives.
What if the intellect was engaged and the gifts of discernment and wisdom and the ministry gifts of pastoring and leadership were added to the mix of the anointed evangelist instead of allowing the evangelist to determine how the revival ran its course?
When one gift is evident should all the other gifts cease? When one gift is being appreciated should all the other gifts be depreciated? It must not be so. Paul, in II Corinthians 12 (check reference) states that the entire body works together with each part contributing to the success and maturing of the body. In Ephesians (chapter 5) it says that each part works together for the maturing and the stability and the growing to full maturity of the body.
Is it any different when ‘revival’ hits? Maybe the anointed revivalist needs some assistance from the rest of the body when God hits the local church. Maybe the reason the anointing leaves so quickly and the feeling fades is that the body has not been engaged in what God is doing but is rather on the sidelines watching the show, which allows us to just step right back into life as normal.
It appears that the very gifts that are needed during this time are the ones that are underappreciated at the very least or ignored and rejected at the most. Things like hospitality are left out with statements such as “I just want to be a Mary and not a Martha”. I Corinthians chapter 14 states that the prophetic should judge words of the prophet that is speaking yet we rarely see this dynamics in a church setting.
We speak about freedom in our services while at the same time putting people of intellect in bondage. We dance and call it freedom yet subtly state that if you are not dancing then you probably lack freedom, instead of thinking that maybe some are so free that they do not have to dance when a specific song comes on or when the preacher says they must dance for breakthrough.
What about the great men and women of the Bible? Did they lose their minds in order to walk anointed in their call?