For years, I prayed for God to send revival. I read Isaiah 64 and begged God to rend the heavens and come down, for people to turn out in droves to our church services and to get saved in the meetings.

One day I came to the realisation that God had already rent the heavens and come down to earth, born in a stable, despised by men, had given Himself up for me. He had died on a cross, He overcame Satan and all the powers of darkness and hell, sin, death, sickness and pain and commissioned His followers to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of Heaven. He told us to go and heal the sick, raise the dead and to love and forgive others as we have been loved and forgiven by our Father in heaven.

I realised that whilst I was begging God to do something, He was waiting for me to do as He had told me to. For many years we have been asking God to establish His Kingdom on earth and trying to build our churches, when all the time the Lord has been telling us to demonstrate and preach the Kingdom of Heaven and He will build His church. We have got it back to front.

I discovered that we have the same Holy Spirit in us who raised Christ Jesus from the dead and spoke Creation into being. As we are submitted to Jesus’ authority, He tells us to go (see Matthew 28) in the power and authority He has given to us (see Luke 10:19) and that demons and sickness, poverty and pain will bow to us. We are sons of God, full of the Holy Spirit, carrying the glorious Presence of Jesus everywhere we go.

So, instead of praying for revival I decided to start revival wherever I went. From that moment, miracles began to break out: instant healings, demons were cast out, drug addicts were set free, many chose to follow Jesus and supernatural miracles began to happen. Now this sort of thing happens every day, everywhere I go. Of course, I want to see more. I haven’t raised the dead yet (apart from a woodpecker) but I’ve tried a few times. But instead of praying and praying and praying for God to show up, I’m asking the Lord to show me where I missed His instruction, to train me to hear His voice more clearly, to practice acting upon what I think He’s saying and what I think He’s doing in Heaven, and bringing it down to earth. When you do this you will discover the favour of God is on your life. That’s when the fun begins.

Genuine and Counterfeit

The Creation has been waiting in eager expectation for the sons of God to be made known in the earth (see Romans 8:19). It is time.

One day I was in a business meeting with a woman who was not a Christian. In fact, she was involved in New Age practises: angel cards, reiki, yoga, Buddhism and other religions. She was open to the supernatural but had missed the legal entry way in, that is, Jesus. I had to tell her that I wasn’t interested in the business proposition she had for me, but I would like to tell her about Jesus. She began to ask questions and then let me pray for her. She stood up and as I began to pray she felt the presence of the Holy Spirit strongly. She asked some more questions and then revealed, “I have been searching for years and today I have found what I’ve been looking for: Jesus.” She renounced all the New Age practises and gave her life to Jesus. She is now in one of our groups learning how to follow Jesus. You do not need to go on a special mission to lead people to Jesus, just learn to do it in your everyday life.

Many people who are not followers of Jesus see into the supernatural realm more clearly than Christians do. This is not how it should be. We are supernatural beings, created as a spirit in a physical body and our spirits will live forever. Just as Jesus did, we need only do what we see our Father doing in Heaven. In order to do that, we have to practice opening our eyes in the heavenly places, in the spiritual realms and bring the heavenly reality into the physical reality.

In 1 Corinthians 14:1, the Apostle Paul urges us to “Pursue the way of love yet earnestly desire the spiritual gifts.” Like 1 Corinthians 12:1 mentioned in the introduction to this book, there is no word for gifts in the original text in this verse, although you will probably see it in your Bible. The words translated as ‘earnestly’ and ‘desire’ are actually both the same word in the Greek and together they mean to ‘burn with zeal or with passion’. It is clear from this verse that the Bible instructs us to passionately desire the spiritual (or the supernatural). But be clear on this: Do not attempt to enter the spiritual realms by any way other than through Jesus Christ who is the door. As you follow Him with all your heart, the Holy Spirit will take you to places that you could not even imagine, and He will show you what is about to take place around you.

Extract from ‘The Normal Supernatural Christian Life’ book by Aliss Cresswell. Purchase this book HERE

£12.99Add to basket

Save