Revivalution Podcast

#18 Conclusion

Around 1,000 B.C. Solomon penned the book of Ecclesiastes. It is presumed that he was in a backslidden condition.  In this condition and with all of his wisdom, he reasons with himself the plight of man and the utter fallacy of earthly sins, pleasures, and pursuits.  In 12 chapters he proves that the mind of man is the same 3,000 years later. We deal with the same things, the same people, the same desires. In two verses he sums it all up, and it is a truth that is written on all of our hearts. Ecclesiastes 12:13-14:
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:Fear God and keep His commandments,
For this is man’s all. 
For God will bring every work into judgement, 
Including every secret thing,
Whether good or evil. 
 
In the day and time, we have been placed on the earth most men who are, living, breathing, working, eating, and sleeping, are also striving to silence the truth written on their hearts. We give to God the things that are easy for us to give him, but if we struggle with something, we call it “precious”, we call it “our truth”, we call it “mine”, and refuse to give it up. We believe God’s word and His love for us, as long as it doesn’t make us emotionally conflicted. We are not emotionally conflicted, we are sin-conflicted. There is a war going on for our souls, and many of us our waving the white flag of surrender to the enemy because we are tired of fighting for what is written on our hearts.  We strive for what is ours, we wear ourselves out holding to the things God longs to free us from. We turn from our sins and yet feed our sinful selves with the junk of this world, and then we wonder why we don’t hear His voice. You are what you eat. Quit dining at this world’s table and then complain to the Father about how fat you are with sinful desires.   
 
Each of us from the most godly among us to the most agnostic, knows that our day is coming. It is written deep inside of us, it is a surety.  “Every secret thing, Whether good or evil,” will be judged. 
 
Father,
 
I feel a long way off today. Some may feel that what I’ve written today is in judgment of them, and not filled with love. You know my heart.  I’m not writing to anyone. This is what I see in myself, I’m passively sitting at the world’s table and feeding myself garbage and then I complain to You about how hard the fight is. It’s time to change seats. It’s time to get up from this table and come to the table of your presence and dine.  Thank you for this word today. You spoke quietly to my heart and then revealed to me a path to freedom. Set my heart, set our hearts afire for You. Feel us with all that You are. Make us strong in Your presence and send us into the fields filled up and overflowing with Your love, Your power, and Your freedom, onto the world around us. 
 
Thank you for going before me today and speaking to me all day long. You are everything.
 
I love you,
~Stacy

#17 Three Steps

Over the past several years I have been so blessed to have a small glimpse of God’s great love for us.  I now see how much of it is available but not fully realized. I say that because I believe that one evidence of knowing this love in the smallest amount would cause you to weep for anyone else who does not know Him. The lack of our love for others (all others) is proof that we not only do not know His love but that we do not know Him.  Because His great love for me has allowed me to rest in Him like I never have before.  I’ve gone from someone who doubted his salvation to someone so secure in Him, at times maybe even too secure. 
 
Over the past 6 or 7 months I have felt inside of me a call to Holiness, not the bondage of a list of don’ts, but the freedom of removing the things from my life that are contrary to His word. While reading Leviticus Chapter 9 we come to a scripture where God is calling His people to repentance.  It reads like this: 
 
“Then Moses said, “This is the thing which the Lord commanded you to do, and the glory of the Lord will appear to you.’ and Moses said to Aaron, “Go to the altar, offer your sin offering and your burnt offering, and make atonement for yourself and for the people. Offer the offering of the people, and make atonement for them, as the Lord commanded.”
Leviticus 9:6-7
 
Here are three things (or 3-steps) that I noticed about this scripture this morning.
 
First God said do this and the glory of the Lord will appear to you. It is a call to repentance, a call to separate yourself from your sins, but it is also a sacrifice. Holiness and being Holy is a sacrifice, but it is a sacrifice of unholy things, sins that separate me from the thing I long for the most. The presence of God. It’s almost a trade of my ways for His ways so that I can be with Him fully here on earth.  
 
Second, Moses said to Aaron, “Go to the altar, offer your sin offering and your burnt offering.” It’s time for those who are called to bring the Gospel, whether pastor or layperson, to lead by repentance, and separation. To know and see God to live in His glory while we serve Him here on earth.  
 
Finally, “make atonement for them, as the Lord commanded.” Our world needs people in love with God crying and weeping for them. Crying out for mercy for the meanest and vilest among us, and freedom for everyone no matter how close or far away from God they are. The lack of love that I know and show is so evident. 
---
Psalm 10:17
You have heard the desire of the humble;
You will prepare their heart;
You will cause Your ear to hear.
 
Father thank you for this... Thank you for preparing my heart, for causing Your ear to hear me. 
 

#16 Eclipse

Today is April 8, 2024, and here in the United States, we are awaiting a total eclipse of the sun.  Then I wake up and the first verse I read has to do with the end times. 1 Thessalonians 5: 1-11. It starts off with, “But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.”
 
There have been several Christian commentaries talking about the last 2 eclipses and the fact that they are 7-years apart, with 7 being the number of completion. That the path of the two eclipses creates an x in the center of the United States referring to God rendering judgment on this nation.  There are also partial truths about the eclipse from 7 years ago passing through 6 cities named Salem, which means peace, and then this one passing through 7-cities named Nineveh referring to God’s judgment.  Again partial truth, most of the cities called Niniveh are outside of the total eclipse, but still to say the least there are some pretty stark coincidences in the path. For a large portion of my life I’ve heard it said before that if God doesn’t judge the United States He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. Most of, if not all of the time that I’ve heard that spoken it was almost in a prideful way, almost rejoicing in God destroying a place.  After my small glimpse of God’s love for us, I find myself more broken over the loss of the souls of others than I am longing for judgment.  Be warned God will have His day, He will judge this earth, it has already been spoken it will happen.  
 
Here is my greater concern. It has to do with how much time I’ve wasted in my life, and how little influence on eternity I have made for the souls of men. Many Christians look for judgment longing for the day of “I told you so,” instead of falling on their faces and crying out to move the heart of God for those who do not know. We are looking to one day in time when an eclipse passes over the earth instead of the end times which we are clearly living in. We almost act surprised that there would be such a day, resting in false peace. My heart is too far from Him. I’ve not sought him the way I ought to, I’ve not let him work his life through me onto others, I’ve allowed my tongue to be stuck to the roof of my mouth, instead of allowing it to bring life and hope and His great love to those around me.  
 
Yet, “won’t the Judge of all the earth do right?”  These words come from Genesis 18:25 where Abraham starts to cry out and plead in such a beautiful way for God to hold off judgment for Sodom and Gomorrah.  He prays and converses with God asking multiple times for a better chance for the cities.  Each ask is granted until it is finally decided that God will hold off the judgment of two entire cities for the sake of 10 righteous people. 
 
Here is what I’m asking of myself and of you. Do we have the heart of Abraham? Are we intimate enough with the Father that we can change his heart and plead with Him for a chance for those around us? Are we interceding for those who don’t know Him, and also for those who do? Judgment affects us all. It is harsh, it is scary, it is deadly, but I can’t help but think that it may bring all of us to our knees in repentance. 
 
Father,
 
Thank you for Your great love for us. It is constant and it is perfect. I need You today to bring me to the place where You can use me. I long for a relationship with You that is alive and overflowing, or at least I say I do, but yet I lack so much. I’m weak in so many areas. This world holds so much of my heart and I know You need me and long for me to be fully enveloped and immersed in You. Why do I struggle so? Thank you for Your protection, Your peace, Your favor, Your love. Without it I would be undone, with it I have great hope. Have mercy on us. It’s completely undeserved but without it, we are undone.  Let me know Your love in a greater way today. Let me live in the fullness of it and let it pour through me onto a dry and thirsty land. Jesus be with me all day, may I walk with you so intimately, just like your disciples did. Holy Spirit dwell in me completely, speak to me, lead me, and help me give you everything.  
 
In Jesus name, amen.

#15 The Rock

Over the past couple of years, I’ve had something creep up in my life and it has started to dominate my thoughts and image of myself. It’s the thought that I’ll never change, and because of that, I’m doomed to failure. I mean... look at my life. Is it not evidence that I simply can’t overcome the ins and outs of day-to-day life? That I keep repeating the same mistakes failing in business and thus an inability to properly provide for my family? That what I offer to Dawn is way less than what she deserves? Even when things go well it seems that I look more for the thing that is coming to destroy it than for the One who has come to bless it. This wouldn’t be so bad if it was just the second or third time of going through such things but here we are and it has been a life of ups and downs with little if any stability. At this moment in my life, I have so little fight left in me, to once again get up from the mat after being dealt yet another knockout blow.  
 
Discouraged... I have not sought You. The enemy screams accusing me of what I am, which is failure. It yells to me “Give up.” My world shakes at the thunder of his voice. It’s in these darkest of times that Your love whispers to me... “I’ve got you”. Though I feel far from you and forgotten, the rock on which my life is built is secure. Yes, I’ve been knocked down but It’s only caused me to once again fall against You.
 
It’s here that the enemy is silenced and You use the encouragement of a friend to give direction.  Watching them in their struggles remain steadfast, documenting faithfulness in the simplest of ways. I’m convicted, yet lifted. You deserve my best and with the example of a friend and your still small voice, I wake this morning excited to seek you.  It’s been a while... yet it is so sweet and so familiar. It’s Your presence and it is precious.  Years of failure wash away. The lie is washed away and replaced with truth which is, You’ve never left me, You have only held me. 

#14 Something's Wrong

On October 23, 2024, God woke me up and showed me how I had not been protecting my family from the enemy, leaving doors wide open for him. This short story is about how God spoke to me that early morning. I wrote it down and it is just a glimpse of the seriousness of the situation.  

#13 Repent

On October 7 of this year, Israel was attacked. One of the most clear end-time events to take place in my life. It was so violent, with men, women, children, both elderly and infants losing their lives in horrific ways. Now the world watches to see how Israel will respond, to see if they will be the ones to commit war crimes. I watch as men of every nation are acting and reacting, trying to make the best decisions possible, thinking that it is them and their counsel that is making these decisions, yet it is God who moves their mouths and their actions like pieces on a Chess board. However, the state of the world is not my greatest concern, God has that and He is not shaken and never will He be, my greatest concern is the reaction of my heart. 
 
Continuing to look for Jesus in the scriptures I have been studying the book of Acts.  Today I’m reading in Acts 17 as Paul comes into Athens and begins to reason with them. He addresses an altar they have created for “The Unknown God.”  The Athenians were very religious, and blindly looking for something to fill that hole inside. So much so that they created an Altar for the God that they could have missed. Is my life and relationship with God a reflection of such ignorance? The greatness of who He truly is remains unknown to me even though He has revealed Himself in such incredible ways. I think the first response to that would be one of reasoning since He is so great, powerful, and awesome, that it is true that my mind could not contain Him. But it is not His greatness that is unknown to me, it is the simple things, the basics of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that remains unknown. In its place, I put things that shouldn’t be there, little trinkets to replace His Majesty. 
 
V. 30 “Truly these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent,
 
V. 31 “because He has appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by the Man who He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”
 
Is this not the “Appointed day” and should we not“Repent?” My heart does not like that word. To embrace it means once again to give up my rights.  I’m watching myself and this world grapple with the times as the spirit of the Anti-Christ raises up and people embrace the side of evil and death, led astray by good intentions, and choosing to be blind to truth.  Then there is me and those closest to me, we are not shaken, but is that a good thing? The Spirit of God whispers softly to us, and we hear it, “This is serious.” Yet we are spiritually asleep, warm and cozy we are resting while we should be warning others, or maybe we should be warning ourselves. “Wake up Stacy!!! Fall on the rock and be broken, before it falls on you and crushes you to dust” (Matthew 21:44). It’s strange how much I don’t want to be broken. How much I simply want to roll over and go back to sleep in my warm little bed of religion. 
 
Father,
 
Thank You for speaking to me and keeping me. I give You the right to take hold of anything in my life that does not fall in line with You. I long for you to own everything and with great joy I abandon it all to you. Thank You for revealing Your great love for me. Draw me closer and help me to dive deeper into all that You are. 
 
In Jesus name, amen.

#12 Rabbit Hole

We all have those days in our lives when something seems off.  Those times when our thoughts are not filled with peace, love, or mercy. Those moments where there appears to be a distance between you and the one who created you.  For me that day is today. I don’t know if it is the fact that I’m slowing down after the Thanksgiving break as well as my lack of discipline during that break. Or maybe it’s just a moment when God creates a little distance between the two of us wanting to be pursued like a Husband wants to be pursued by his bride.  Of course, I know He is with me and hasn’t left me but the distance, it makes me feel like I’ve done something wrong.  And now I feel like I’m head down and stuck up to my ankles in this rabbit hole. 
 
Father,
 
Thank You for teaching me so much. Thank You for not leaving me a slave to sin, but instead, You made me one of Your children. You loved me and because You loved me You changed me.  Thank You for washing and cleansing me and bringing me into right relationship with You. Thank You that You are never silent. You are always speaking.  Help me to listen. 
 
I love you
~Stacy

#11 Those Feet

Those Feet
I’m sure we’ve all done it. You know, walking through a beautiful lawn barefoot. The soft cool grass on a hot summer day is so comforting to those bare toes. Then, before you know it you’re looking to the sky as beautiful billowing white clouds sweep the world away. Until... you step in something. Now your foot is covered in mud or something worse.
It’s cool to me how scriptures that I’ve read time and time again can suddenly, with Holy Spirit’s direction, take on a brand new revelation, and this is what happened while working my way through life the other day. In the book of John, chapter 13 we find Jesus taking the lowliest role of a servant and after girding a towel around his waist he kneels and begins to wash the disciple’s feet. I don’t know how many of the disciple’s feet he had washed before he got to Peter, but it’s here that the story opens up. Peter straight up tells Jesus, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus’ response to that... “If I do not wash you, you have no part in me.” later in the verse he continues with these words “he who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean;”
Of all the parts of our body, it is our feet that come into contact with the world more often than anything else. It’s also our feet that oftentimes have no choice but to be the barrier between me and filth, and though they get soiled the rest of me stays clean. This morning as I sit here thinking about this it hits me that much like the reference in this scripture to our physical bodies, our spirits though they are clean are going to get soiled. Our feet have no choice but to carry us into and through our day-to-day life, and of course, along the way they are going to get dirty.
Could Jesus have been making a reference here in the same way? Like He is saying, “Hey, I’ve made you clean, yet I understand that you live in this world, and though the rest of you is clean, the world soiled you a little today, so... let me wash those feet each day.” Our spirit’s feet are going to get dirty. At times it may be unavoidable, or it may be on accident, and other times we may make the choice to jump into a mud puddle and stomp around, but it’s safe to say that somehow we are going to have dirty feet. It’s what we do with those dirty feet that makes the difference. If I decide to hold off from allowing Jesus to wash my feet, it could get worse, what I stepped in could cause disease and start to rott away my feet, and if I let that go it could become life-threatening.
I believe what Jesus is saying to me about this is that He knows I’m not perfect and I’m going to make mistakes. I’m going to step into something with my feet and it is going to cause me disgust and possibly even pain and while I could try to clean it up myself He takes the place of a servant and washes me completely clean.
Thank You Jesus for the way You care for me. Thank You for not only leading but also cleansing me. There is no condemnation in the way You keep us clean and I’m so thankful. It’s a joy to belong to You. It’s a joy to be in love with You. Thank You for Your blessing, Your presence, Your patience, Your protection, and Your peace in my life.
I love you,
Stacy

#10 "Mine"

Mine...
Recently I dealt with another one of my failings. I fell short of friendship when a precious friend needed me most and it was evident that it was me, my selfishness, and financial failings that caused them such great pain. For 3-days, I was submerged in failure and guilt like I don’t remember ever feeling. I mean I was completely guilty, I was no better than a thief, and I was undone.  Seeing yet another failure in myself and how completely unlike Christ I am, was the perfect opportunity for the enemy to come in and water the seeds of failure that have been sewn into my mind. Early one morning because I couldn’t sleep I got up and was laying on the couch weeping, beating my hand against my forehead trying to drive out the guilt and shame. Praying for forgiveness but not receiving it. Full of shame, and the feelings that I would never overcome the areas of my life where I always fall short. Then amid my darkest moment, I saw the Father look at me and say “Mine”.  That’s the moment it all changed. 
 
During this time, God reminded me of what He said He was going to do in my life in 2024. In the middle of a Christmas service, He whispered to me that He was going to make things easy for me in the coming year. Always struggling financially it seemed to me that He was going to throw open the windows of heaven and shower down on me financial blessings. How could what was happening right now be “easy”? You see, God knew that I had areas in my life that were not right, things that I needed to repent of and turn from so that He could bless me and use me. The problem is that it was so broken that it felt beyond my ability to repent because I knew I would return to my old selfish ways to simply survive. So He made it easy to bring forth true repentance, He made it easy for me to turn away from my sin and failure, He made it easy for me to give all, every bit of it, to Him, and set me free.  He didn’t say it wouldn’t be painful, He said it would be easy. 
 
The fact that He looked and me and said “Mine”, goes so much deeper than that moment. In the middle of all the pain, He stilled the storm and peace reigned. That one word not only secured my relationship and His love for me to my heart, but it also let all of hell know that this one was His. He claimed ownership of something that I felt was worthless and He called it precious, and when He did the worth of who I am was restored. I’m so precious that He gave His life for me, no greater price could be paid, and no greater love could be shown. I am His, all of me belongs to Him. 
 
If someone was to look at what happened and how I had perfectly broken the relationship with my friend you’d say it could never be repaired. Yet God took two people striving to love Him, and through full repentance on my part and forgiveness on his, He restored us and made our friendship even better.  What Satan had desired to do was destroy the friendship, between my friend and myself. What God did was take something that was broken beyond repair, reveal it for what it was, restore it, and make it more beautiful than I could have ever dreamed. He moved it from a place that was cursed to a place where it is blessed and in the process He protected our hearts while making it easy for me to repent of a wrong in my life. Something I wanted to do but didn’t know how. 
 
Father,
 
Thank You for looking at me and saying “Mine”. I’m so thankful that what the enemy calls worthless You call precious. Thank You for keeping my relationships intact when I’ve done everything to destroy them. Thank You for protecting our hearts during trying times and keeping the enemy from destroying us. Thank You for Your great love. Thank You for Your Mercy and thank You for Your peace. Thank You for going before me this day and making it easy to fall more in love and into a deeper relationship with You. Thank You for Your Protection, Favor, Influence, and Blessing on my family and myself. Thank You for blessing my hands and heart to bless others. I love You and I want to love You more. 
 
In Jesus name, amen. 

#9 The List

Reading through the book of Romans has been eye-opening and confusing at times. For someone who has led most of my life trying to earn God’s favor and presence, at least until the day that I truly realized that He loved me, unconditionally loved me that is, I didn’t understand that there was no need to try to earn what was freely given.  So I lived my life with a list of what was right and what was wrong, based mostly on what others said was right and wrong. I understand that I have to be careful here because sin is sin and it separates us from God. However, I’ve learned to live with grace for the first time in my life, knowing that in relationship with Him and being led by Him, I’m being drawn closer and closer to Him every day. The problem is that the enemy wants me to live with a list of do’s and don’ts, that’s where grace ends and condemnation begins.