[11-2-05, the 22nd
Wednesday]
Ever
thought of something after the mike or camera was off, that you
wished you'd said?
Last
Wednesday, CBN's
senior correspondent for Washington came to cover the Noon
Hour. Alex and I told Him what God was doing there and elsewhere in
Boston (see attached recap), but
just now I got a picture that says it all.
It's for anyone who (like
me) is learning patience.
The Noon
hour at Tremont Temple is only one piece of
God's Revival puzzle. It
is a jigsaw puzzle, and all the pieces are upside
down. There's no way to
refer to the picture on the box the pieces came in -- if there
was a box, which there isn't.
Then how
do we do the puzzle? By letting the Holy Spirit show us how our
piece might fit with certain others. It must be done
gently, with consummate patience. The moment you force two
pieces together, even once, you ruin the
puzzle.
When all
the pieces are joined, God will turn the puzzle over, and we will
see the magnificent Revival vista we are a part of --
and how beautifully our piece fits with all the
others!
TT
XXII
A
Milestone
e passed a milestone Wednesday. CBN’s
Senior Washington Correspondent, Paul Strand, was in town, gathering
material for a story he is developing on “Spiritual Revival in
New England.” He came to the Boston
Noon Hour, and interviewed Alex and me.
We told him that while the Revival has
yet to break out on a major scale, sparks, inklings, and candles
were everywhere apparent. Other prayer groups were meeting weekly to
pray for revival, and a number of churches were on fire for the
Lord, belying the widely-held assumption that New England was the graveyard of true
spirituality, the region
evangelists were careful to avoid.
We told him what God was doing at
Tremont Temple each Wednesday Noon.
How He was teaching us a new way of praying – letting Him give us
the prayer concerns and then letting Him pray through us, as each
week His presence was a little stronger than the week
before.
We told him of our vision, that one
day He would gather the candles here, and the radiance from the
combined candlepower would be astonishing. When it happens, it may
shock those who regard Boston as
America’s
Athens. With 53 college campuses in
the metro area, awarding 18% of the country’s annual degrees, it is
perhaps the least likely place for an Awakening to begin.
But two centuries ago the
2nd Great Awakening began in a similarly unlikely place –
on a campus in New
Haven which had been founded to train up
Puritan ministers but had succumbed to the intellectual seduction of
the French Enlightenment. . . .
In the meantime, He is teaching us
patience and perseverance, as we wait and watch on the
walls.
In the Revival that is coming, I
am going to teach my workers how to respect one another, how to help
one another sacrificially, and how to hear my Spirit through one another. If
anyone is tempted to use my Revival to elevate himself or herself, I
will indeed humble them. But if they will keep their hearts soft and
open to me and each other, then I will elevate them. For I would use
them – not just this
one or that one, but all whom I have called to serve me in my
Revival – as a corporate example of what it means to love one
another.
Today WEZE and WROL begin to air invitations to the Noon
Hour, but don’t wait until you happen to hear one. Open your heart
to the possibility, and if the Holy Spirit invites you, ask Him if
he would have you bring a friend.
