Merging the Fires of Revival and Reformation

On July 15, 1,700 lightning strikes occurred in our region sparking fires that will most likely burn into the fall with no immediate end in sight. Two huge wildfires have now merged to create a conflagration of great concern. Our valley has experienced only a handful of clear skies, literally just a few hours each, over the last month. 

As I read the news account about these two merging wildfires, the Lord began to share with me about a coming merger of revival and reformation. Someone once said, “Revival is for the Church. Reformation is for the culture.” I have parroted that phrase myself without thinking it through. While it is correct on one level, it needs to be examined on a deeper and more critical level. 

Revival and reformation are not two separate things. A revived Church will become a reforming presence in culture. Until these two join forces, there may not be a fire of significant size to bring the kind of change required for cultural transformation. The revivalists need to move out of church buildings, conference halls, and stadiums because the culture that is waiting to experience transformation does not live within these structures. Those pursuing a reformation need the heart and passion of a burning revivalist, or they will not have the spiritual energy required to bring change to the controlling summits of the 7 mountains of culture. 

On July 15 when the 1,700 lightning strikes took place, some strikes found a fuel source and became a wildfire. Others struck bare ground where there was no fuel and petered out before they got started. So it is in our spiritual life. The Spirit can “strike” a life, but if that life does not offer God the tender of submission to a greater Kingdom agenda, no fire of revival or reformation will ignite. 

This is how a revival leading to a reformation takes place. Individuals burning for God come to realize they are not burning alone. Once ignited they seek to join with other burning ones to become a Spirit-empowered move of God, similar to the two large fires that merged in our area. Before the fires merged into something more substantial, they remained isolated without the potential of a major, region-wide conflagration.  

We are at a point in time when we will begin to see the merging of two fires sparked by the Spirit - revival, and reformation. This will be an indicator of a new season for the Church. When these two groups are burning toward each other, in the region where this burning merger takes place, something explosive will transpire.

The fire of God is cleansing His people from the underbrush of lesser things that occupy our time, energy and resources so that we will be ready to accomplish more than we ever imagined. Once this fire of revival leading to reformation begins to burn, the wind of the Spirit will move the fire into the streets of our cities and into the boardrooms of corporations and media empires. This fire will be so powerful it will jump the fire lines created by restrictive and fearful thinking and begin to burn in love within the cultural institutions that have remained untouched by the fire of God’s presence.