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Video Transcript: Spirit-Anointed Revival Leaders (Dr. Feddes)

Hi, I'm David Feddes, and this talk is about spirit anointed revival leaders. What happens to people who later become very, very powerful in mighty movements of God? A place to begin is simply by looking at the book of Acts and at some of the words that are used there to describe people whom the Holy Spirit used mightily during that time of great expansion of the gospel and great power, in the church. You remember that revival is really a repetition of some of the aspects of the book of Acts in the life of the church today. So let's look briefly at the book of Acts. 

We read about anointing, or filling with the Holy Spirit a number of times in the book of Acts. The first and most famous, of course, is in Acts chapter two. When the Holy Spirit comes on the day of Pentecost, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. And they began to speak in other languages that people could understand. And the Lord used them mightily on that day. We read a bit later, though, that Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit said to the leaders who were challenging him, that's Acts four, verse eight. So evidently, this filling that occurred on Pentecost is something that could be repeated on various occasions, when Peter is confronted by various hostile leaders, he's filled with the Holy Spirit and begins speaking to it, after there's been this challenge by the leaders and these threats and warnings in the believers all get together and prayed. And the Bible says, The place where they were meeting was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and continued to speak the Word of God with boldness Acts four verse 31. So again, and again, this language of being filled with the Holy Spirit. When there were some difficulties, and they had to pick some leaders to handle those difficulties among the Grecian widows, they had to choose people based on certain criteria. And they said, This pick out from among you, seven men of good repute, full of the Holy Spirit, and of wisdom. And then it says, they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and and the Holy Spirit, as well as six others. 

Then in Acts chapter 11, we read a Barnabas he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit, and of faith. That phrase full of the Holy Spirit seems to characterize a person's way of life, and not so much the phrase filled with the Holy Spirit where they would be filled with power for a particular challenge, or occasion. Then Acts chapter nine, we read of how a man named Ananias came to Saul who had just been converted on the road to Damascus. And he says, brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And so on that occasion, Paul is filled with God's Holy Spirit. And then later, when he's on the island of Cyprus, he's challenged by a false teacher named Bar-Jesus. And we're told Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit looked intently at him, and struck him blind. So he was filled with the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit's power for that particular challenge, and occasion. Now, when you're reading about this anointing, or this filling or being full of the Spirit, in the book of Acts, of filled with the Spirit can mean a life, a life governed and controlled by the Spirit, as Jesus was, Stephen was filled or full of the Holy Spirit. Barnabas was a man who was just described as full of the Holy Spirit. And then there are also times when it's not so much a way of life, but it's a particular targeted empowerment for a specific challenge or task.

And what happens in revival is that it comes through a spirit ruled person, that's his way of life is full of the Spirit and of Jesus, who also has empowerment, to launch a major movement. There are many spirit filled people, that is people whose life is governed and controlled by the Spirit, who never actually launch a major movement or revival. They're solid Christians in whom God is working, and God loves them, but he doesn't call them to do this great region wide work or church changing work of revival and so that kind of empowerment might not be sent on a spirit filled person. On the other hand, there may be some people who have a targeted empowerment and are able to do some very mighty things. But unfortunately, their life doesn't remain governed and controlled fully by the Spirit and their life falls into scandal. 

There have been some revival leaders who have fallen on that track. So, there are two different aspects that we can kind of distinguish a life governed and controlled by Jesus being full of the Spirit. And then also, when there is a great power release or movement of God for a particular task, and you're filled with the Spirit for that. Now, having looked at that, in the book of Acts of thought a little bit about what it might mean, let's just read about some experiences of various people whom God used very powerfully in changing and reviving his church. Martin Luther, led the great reformation that was sparked in 1517. But before that, Martin Luther had his own personal experience and discovery of God's goodness and righteousness, revealed in Jesus Christ. He understood, after much struggle, that the righteousness of God was not something that he had to earn himself, but that it was a gift of God, earned entirely by Jesus Christ. Here's what he says. Then I grasped that the righteousness of God is the righteousness by which, through grace and sheer mercy, God justifies us through faith, I felt myself to be reborn, and to have gone through open doors into paradise, the whole of Scripture took on a new meaning, this passage became to me a gate to heaven. He has this opening of his eyes, and this discovery of justification by faith. Now, John Wesley was another person who was searching to be right with God and seeking to be right with God and was striving with a group of other people called the holy club to serve God. 

But he really didn't have peace in his heart. And then one night at Aldersgate Street, in London, he was listening to a preface to Luthers commentary on Romans being read, and just the preface to a book was being read. And he says, about a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change, which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warm. I felt I didn't trust in Christ alone for my salvation. And an assurance was given to me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the laws of sin and death. So that discovery that salvation is in Jesus Christ alone, and the warming of the heart of the Spirit, sealing that to one's heart was crucial in both the life of Martin Luther and of John Wesley, who was used so powerfully by God, in the Great Awakening. Another person used very powerfully by God in the awakenings, the first great awakening was Jonathan Edwards. And Edwards had a number of times when he spoke of experiences of God, by the way, the first great awakening in Edwards his congregation began when he was preaching on justification by faith and preaching a series of sermons and the Holy Spirit began to really powerfully come upon people. So one thing I want you to notice is the importance of being right with God through faith and justification by faith, the Holy Spirit blesses that gospel message. Now, here's an experience Jonathan Edwards describes and it is something that came even after he was being used in the awakening for a while. 

He says, Once as I rode out into the woods for my health, in 1737, having alighted from my horse in a retired place, as my manner commonly has been, to walk for divine contemplation and prayer, I had a view that for me was extraordinary of the glory of the Son of God as mediator between God and man, and his wonderful, great full, pure and sweet grace and love, and make and gentle condescension. This grace that appeared so calm and sweet, appeared also great above the heavens, the person of Christ appeared in affably excellent, with an excellent seat great enough to swallow up all thought and conception, which continued as near as I can judge about an hour, which kept me the greater part of the time in a flood of tears, and weeping aloud a tremendous experience by Edwards of the love of God and the excellent sea of Jesus Christ. I felt an ardency of soul to be, I know not otherwise how to express emptied and annihilated to lie in the dust, and to be full of Christ alone, to love him with a holy and pure love, to trust in Him, to live upon Him, to serve and follow Him and to be perfectly sanctified and made pure with a divine and heavenly purity.

You see how he's just filled with this love and His desire just to be nothing of him anymore and all of Christ. George Whitfield, who along with Edwards, and John Wesley was among the leaders of that first great awakening in America as well as in Britain. Whitfield was the mightiest preacher of the three. And here's something he says, occurred on November 5, 1740. He heard another person speaking and then he himself was given the opportunity to pray and to speak. He says, I then began to pray and to give an exhortation. In about six minutes one cried out, he is calm, he has come and could scarcely sustain the manifestation of Jesus to his soul. But having heard the crying of others, for the light favour, obliges me to stop and I prayed over them, as I saw their agonies and distress increase. My own soul was so full, that I retired and wept before the Lord and had a deep sense of my own vileness and the sovereignty and greatness of God's everlasting love. Most of the people spent the remainder of the night in prayer and praising God, yet was a night, much to be remembered. 

You see something that's in common with the others a sense of his own sin, and of the wonder and the glory, and the majesty and the goodness of Jesus Christ and of God's great and everlasting love. These are things that are going to happen when the Holy Spirit is poured out on someone because the Holy Spirit always points to people that Jesus and exalts Jesus, he shows us our sin, but also shows us the tremendous love of God. And when a person is full of the Holy Spirit, this becomes a mighty experience. Charles Finney later in a later awakening describes what happened to him in 1821. He says I was not much occupied either on Monday or Tuesday and had opportunity to read my Bible and engage in prayer most of the time. Notice here the Bible, it was in search in the Bible that Luther discovered justification by faith. 

It's in searching the Bible, that Finney enters into the experience that we're going to see here, my convictions increased, but still, it seemed as if my heart grew harder. At an early hour, I started for the office. But just before I arrived at the office, it was as if an inward voice said to be what are you waiting for? You do not promise to give your heart to God? And what are you trying to do? Are you endeavoring to work out a righteousness of your own? Just at this point, the whole question of gospel salvation opened to my mind in a manner most marvelous to me at the time. I think I then saw as clearly as I ever have, in my life, the reality and fullness of the Atonement of Christ, I saw that his work was a finished work, and that instead of having or needing any righteousness of my own, to recommend me to God, I had to submit myself to the righteousness of God, through Christ. You see that theme again. It's Christ's righteousness, and a sense of that being given to him, not him earning God's favor. Salvation, it seemed to me, instead of being a thing to be wrought out, by my own works, was a thing to be found entirely in the Lord Jesus Christ, who presented himself before me as my god and my Savior, without being distinctly aware of it. I had stopped in the street, right where the inward voice seemed to arrest one, how long I remain in that position, I cannot say. But after this distinct revelation had stood for some little time before my mind, the question seemed to be put, will you accept it now? Today? I replied, Yes, I will accept it today or I will die in the attempt.

Instead of going to the office, I turn and vent my course toward the woods, feeling that I must be alone and away from all human eyes and ears, so that I could pour out my prayer to God, an overwhelming sense of my wickedness took such powerful possession of me, that I cried at the top of my voice, the sin appear awful infinite, it broke me down before the Lord. Just at that point, this passage of Scripture seemed to drop into my mind with a flood of light, then shall you go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you, then you shall seek Me and find me. When you shall search for me with all your heart. I instantly seize hold of this with my heart. I had intellectually believed in the Bible before, but never had the truth, been in my mind that faith was a voluntary trust, instead of an intellectual state. I walked quietly toward the village and so perfectly quiet was my mind that it seemed as if all nature listened, but all sense of guilt, all consciousness of present sin or guilt, and departed from me. The repose of my mind was unspeakably great. I can never describe it in words, the thought of God was sweet to my mind. And that was profound spiritual tranquility and taken full possession of me. This was a great mystery, but it did not distress or perplexed me. I went to my dinner, and found I had no appetite to eat. I then went to the office, there was no fire, and no light in the room. Nevertheless, it appeared to me as if it were perfectly light. As I went in and shut the door after me, it seemed as if I met the Lord Jesus Christ face to face. He said nothing, but looked at me in such a manner as to break me right down at his feet. It seemed to me a reality that he stood before me, and I fell down at his feet and poured out my soul to him. I wept aloud like a child and made such confessions as I could with my choked utterance. It seemed to me that I bathed his feet with my tears, and yet I had no distinct impression that I touched him that I recollect, I must have continued in this state for a good while, I returned to the front office, as I turned in, was about to take a seat, the Holy Spirit descended upon me, in a manner that seemed to go through me body and soul, I could feel the impression like a wave of electricity going through and through me. 

Indeed, it seemed to come in waves and waves of liquid love, for I could not express it in any other way. It seemed like the very breath of God. I can recollect distinctly that it seemed to fan me like immense wings, so Finney as Christ exalted in this tremendous outpouring of the love of God. That's what the filling of the Holy Spirit does. No words can express the wonderful love that was shed abroad in my heart. I wept aloud with joy and love. And I do not know but I should say, I literally bellowed out unutterable gushing out of my heart. These waves came over me and over me and over me one after the other, until I recollect, I cried out, I shall die. If these waves continue to pass over me. I said, Lord, I cannot bear anymore, yet I had no fear of death. In this state, I was taught the doctrine of justification by faith as a present experience. I could now see and understand what was meant by the passage, being justified by faith. We have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. My heart was so full of love that it overflowed. My cup ran over with blessing, and with love. And Charles Finney went on to be a preacher mightily used of God. He was not always correct in his understanding, or in his theology, but he was a man who had been empowered and had met Jesus Christ, and was filled with the Spirit to accomplish mighty things. Dwight Moody 1872 tells him an experience he had Moody was a Christian man who already seemed to be quite effective in telling others about Christ. He had a big Sunday school and he spoke to a good sized congregation. Whenever he spoke, he noticed two women praying for him. They came up to him after a service and said, we've been praying for you. Moody asked, Why do you pray? Why did you not pray for the people?

They answered, you need power. I need power, Moody said to himself, I thought I had power. Their earnest talk about the anointing for special service set me to thinking says Moody, I asked them to come and we got down on our knees, they poured out their hearts that I might receive the anointing of the Holy Ghost. And there came a great hunger into my soul. I knew not what it was. I began to cry as never before the hunger increased. I really felt that I did not want to live any longer. If I could not have this power for service, I went on crying all the time that God would fill me with his spirit. One day in the city of New York. Oh, what a day I cannot describe it. I seldom refer to it. It is almost too sacred and experienced to name I can only say, God revealed Himself to me. And I had such an experience of His love, that I had to ask him to stay his hand. Remember, Finney thought he might die if God kept on pouring out that love and so did Moody. And finally moody said I can't take any more. Then he says I went to preaching again. The sermons were not different. I did not present any new truths. And yet hundreds were converted. I would not now be placed back where I was before that, bless it experience if you should give me all the world, it would be small dust in the balance. Well, Dwight Moody had no higher education he found in three schools. He had no theological training he reshaped Victorian era Christianity in the United States and in Britain. He had no radio or television. He reached 100 million people. That's what sometimes can happen when God comes in power and might on someone. Now Moody was not an exceptionally brilliant or educated man and neither was Evan Roberts whom God used in the Welsh revival of the early 19 hundred's. Let's listen to a little bit of what Evan Roberts says happened to him. He says, while I was on my knees, I was caught up into space without time or place, communing with God. Before then, I had only a god at a distance. I was frightened to that night, never afterward. And then a couple years later, he tells us what happened during a meeting. When revival had started to come in Wales, September 29 1904. I felt a living force come into my bosom. It held my breath and my legs shivered. 

The living force grew and grew and I was almost bursting. I would have burst if I had not prayed. What boiled me over was that verse God commending his love. I fell on my knees with my arms over the seat in front of me. And the tears and perspiration flowed freely. I thought blood was gushing forth there again, that being just overwhelmed to where he wonders whether he's going to survive the experience. For about two minutes, it was fearful. I cried, bend me, bend me. Bend us. And then oh and this miss Davy said oh wonderful grace. Yes, I said, Oh, wonderful grace, what bent me was God commending his love and I not seeing anything in demand. After I was bent, a wave of peace came over me. Oh, wonderful, this is life. You've heard it said of joy being felt by men to the tips of their fingers. Yes, it is literally true. This was a fairly uneducated quite young man who had more experience in gold in coal mining. They they had they had an any theology school. And yet God anointed him in such a way that for a couple of years, he was used mightily to bring many, many people to Christ in that whole region of Wales. Now, when we hear of these experiences of spirit, anointed revival leaders, we need to understand that the Holy Spirit did mighty things. And that it was the key to what happened in revival, it was just not their techniques, or their methods or anything else. But an anointing of the Holy Spirit. Just as in the book of Acts, it was the presence and anointing and power of the Holy Spirit. Now, as we look at these things, I want to raise a bit of a caution. Revival is exceptional. It is not the ongoing continual state of the church at all times. And these anointings received by these great revival leaders are not things that happened to everybody or that even happened to them constantly. They were things that did happen to them and made a huge difference. And of course, the Holy Spirit and his fullness are things that we should continue to pray for and to seek.

But we need to realize that revival is exceptional. And not just take it as the pattern for how things are all the time. Sometimes the Holy Spirit works in unusual ways through unusual people. Now, that doesn't mean they're unusual in and of themselves. But he makes them unusual. But we must be in tune also, with the spirits ordinary ways. Or we might be so busy wanting to be that one leader whom God is going to use with such exceptional power, or counting on God to send revival and and just not doing anything of his ordinary ways until he does this exceptional thing. And so I want to point out some of the ordinary ways that the Spirit works. Very often the Spirit works in a gradual and quiet way, not just in the sudden, and in the spectacular way. He sometimes does things that are sudden and spectacular. That's almost a definition of revival when God works in a very fast and accelerated and widespread and public way. And it's wonderful when he does, but he also works in his ongoing gradual and quiet way. And we must not despise or neglect that or discouraged Christians in whom his work has been more gradual and quiet and yet their lives are characterized and marked by the presence of the Holy Spirit and love for Jesus. A second thing to keep in mind, we need to pursue steady spiritual disciplines and not just instant empowerments daily time in prayer, daily time in the scriptures. 

If you look back to Finney, if you look back to Luther, if you look back to any of these great men to John Wesley and Whitfield, they were part of what was called the holy club where they encouraged each other to practice spiritual disciplines of prayer and fasting and scripture study, and of fellowship and encouragement together. And it was out of these steady spiritual disciplines that the Holy Spirit saw fit to anoint them in special ways. But let's remember that God calls us to this daily walk, and not just to the amazing once in a while empowerment. But also remember that it's not a bad thing to be organized, that the Spirit is a spirit of order, we might again get the sense that the Holy Spirit only works through an ecstasy or through a sudden impulse. But the fact of the matter is that John Wesley was an organizational genius, and that others too, who were leaders of revival very often were also very orderly, and organized people so we shouldn't set order over against the Spirit's impulses. A great letter for that in the Bible is Paul's first letter to the Corinthians as well as the second church, which seemed to think that disorder was a wonderful thing. And Paul says, Come on, you can restrain your behavior, you can control your utterances don't just say, Oh, I couldn't help but the Holy Spirit did it to me. He says, 

The Holy Spirit is a spirit of order. And so we in our desire for great things and for revival and in our appreciation for sometimes the sudden impulses that the Spirit might give, or the experiences of ecstasy, should not despise careful planning, and well organized activities. And, of course, ongoing biblical instruction, and not just special visions of Jesus, you say, boy, I would like to have what Charles Finney had and have an actual vision of Jesus Christ, or like Jonathan Edwards, this sense of Jesus, excellency of just raised about the heavens, well, go ahead, ask the Lord to reveal more of Himself to you. But he does that not just through special visions. The Bible is Jesus revelation of himself. And it shows so much of Jesus beauty and goodness and excellency, and glory, that the ordinary way that God reveals Jesus to most people is through feasting on the Bible. And even those to whom God gives special visions are often either people have no access to the Bible. I know that many believers in the world today even who didn't have access to the Bible had a vision of Jesus. This happens sometimes in Muslim countries, and in other areas. So sometimes God will use special visions where the Bible's not available. But very often where a special vision might come, he will give it to people who've already been feasting on Christ in the scriptures. So I want these things to maintain some balance. The Spirit works in gradual and quiet ways, as well as in the sudden and in the spectacular. The Spirit works through steady spiritual disciplines, not just through instant empowerments. And even if you have some of those instant empowerments, for special occasions, to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, you continue those disciplines of prayer and fasting and scripture and so on. Organization, not just ecstasy, and the scriptures.

The Word of God written, you can go wrong with visions, the devil can come as an angel of light, the devil can come with various deceiving experiences. But if you are rooted in the Scriptures, and listening to Biblical instruction, then you're far less likely to go way out of bounds from where God wants you to be. Now, when we think of true revival and of lasting revival with a positive impact, I want to emphasize that the Holy Spirit does at least three things in healthy revival, and in the leaders whom he prepares in the nights for healthy revival. He reforms, real revival reforms, teaching and the beliefs and doctrines of the church to be more biblical. Second, the spirit renews life to be more Christ like, our behavior, and our attitudes become more like Jesus. And thirdly, he recharges the power to be more effective. And all three are important in revival. It's a danger to listen to the kind of experiences I've described here. Or, in other talks have told about the tremendous power of the Spirit that comes during revival and just say, oh, I want that power.

Hey, God does not just want to give you a power trip. More important and more basic is the reforming of teaching to be more biblical and to be grounded in God's truth and the transformation of your life to be filled with the life of Jesus. Only then can you be trusted with more power. And so keep these together reform of teaching renewal of life recharging of power, and even those who have been empowered amen revival leader must watch doctrine and life closely. First Timothy four verse 16. Watch your doctrine and your life closely. If you do, you'll say both yourself and your heroes. Don't assume that an experience of power means that you're always going to be right in matters of truth, or that you're always going to be holy in matters of living, doctrine and life matter most. And there are some very sad stories of people who had an ecstatic experience or an anointing of power, who went far wrong. I'm just reading the Old Testament. Remember King Saul, the Holy Spirit came upon him. He prophesied, he had this tremendous overwhelming experience in the Spirit. He fell into a life of disobedience, the Spirit of God withdrew from him. He was tormented by an evil spirit. And he ended his life and misery and brought misery to his kingdom. There have been leaders in revival, who started out with great power of the Lord upon them were using the salvation of many. And yet they themselves began to wander from the Lord. There were some in the early 1800s, who were part of great revival, but then got to being so smart. 

They said, Oh, the word Trinity doesn't appear in the Bible. So we're going to get rid of that doctrine of the Trinity. So they ditched what had come through the Holy Spirit's work through the centuries showing the church, the truth of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God. You see how, without sound doctrine and godly life power can go to people's head, a man named Graham Pulkingham, was prayed over by David Wilkerson, the author of the cross of the Switchblade, a preacher of God that the Lord has used in mighty ways. And Graham Pulkingham had a tremendous experience that he describes in very similar terms to some of what we've seen in this talk. Well, Graham Pulkingham went on and he led a great movement in the church of the Redeemer in Houston and the Lord bless mightily and many people were brought out of addiction to drugs and ungodly life and messed up life and renewed life, and fellowship and community. But Graham Pulkingham himself became more and more bossy, and authoritarian, and dictatorial over others. He fell into a secret life of various homosexual relationships with young men he worked with, and his life collapsed. And he was booted out of the ministry. And eventually, much of the work that he did in that congregation fell apart in that congregation was reduced to nothing. So I don't say that to undermine the beauty of revival of the Holy Spirit's power, I say it to echo the Bible, watch your life and doctrine closely. Because you cannot afford to ignore that.

Didn't remember St Peter himself, Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, he was filled with the Holy Spirit on repeated occasions after that to communicate the gospel. And yet even Peter fell into hypocrisy and false teaching. He began to separate himself at one point from Gentile believers, and not to eat with them, and to pretend that you had to stick with the Jewish diet in order to have a right relationship with Jesus. You can read about that in Galatians chapter two, and the Apostle Paul opposed Peter to his face and corrected him. And Peter took that correction and return to the true gospel. But my point is this, you can be Peter himself, repeatedly anointed with the Holy Spirit, a close friend of Jesus, and fall away into wrong teaching and wrong conduct. If you don't watch it closely, and continue abiding in the spirit. So when we think about this, and and pray about this, that God would anoint and empower our lives. Just remember, Lord give me a whole life, not just a spurt of power. Remember, he said, Jesus sent out some people with great power to heal and cast out demons, and they came back all excited. They said, Lord, even the demons, submit to us. And Jesus said, don't rejoice that the demons submit to you. Rejoice that your names are written in heaven. Don't be so desirous of being a big shot in revival that your desire and glory is not in God Himself. And in the fact that your name is written in heaven. Jesus warns there are going to be some on that day, the final day who will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name, drive out demons and perform many miracles? And Jesus will say, I never knew you, away from me, you evildoers. 

There are people who will, who are used by God, who's whom the power of God even comes upon who themselves can be lost, what a staggering and terrifying thought. And so, let our focus always be on Christ, on the word of Christ in the scriptures on the character of Christ being molded in us. And then yes, let us pray. That if God sees fit that he make us mighty instruments of revival, that first of all, he come into our own life with great outpourings of His love, that we may know him better, and serve Him more faithfully, and that he may empower us for what the times in the situation, demand. But do that, with this awareness of reforming, teaching and renewing life, as well as being recharged by power. Having said all that, though, let us return to the fact that when God wants to do something mighty it often comes through someone who started seeking Him and yearning for Him and longing for Him and pursuing Him. And then God revealed a great deal of Himself and if is empowerment upon them. A.C. Dixon wrote, when we depend upon organizations we get what organizations can do. When we depend upon education, we get what education can do. When we depend upon man, we get what man can do. But when we depend upon prayer, we get what God can do.