Revive Us Again Part 1 - The Architecture Of Rebellion by Apostle Joshua Selman: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Five Channels Through Which God Flows in a Service

Every part of a prophetic service is important. There are at least five channels through which God flows in any service to bless his people:

1. The prayer channel — when voices are lifted in prayer, he reveals his glory.
2. The praise and worship channel — when voices are lifted in songs and heartfelt worship, he reveals his glory.
3. The channel of testimonies — the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
4. The ministry of the word — as the word of God comes forth, it carries within it the power and grace for performance. John 1:3 — without him was not anything made. If it must be made, it will have to be by the word. The entrance of his word gives light and understanding to the simple. The light shines in the darkness, John 1:5, and the darkness comprehended it not.
5. The prophetic — the Holy Ghost rides through the wings of the prophetic to attend to the needs of God's people.

Wrapped, undivided attention must be paid to every part of the service — most especially the ministry of the word.

What Is Revival?

The word revive comes from the Hebrew word chayah (C-H-A-Y-A-H) and the Greek word anazo. Both mean to quicken, to make alive, to return to a state of wholeness. Generally speaking, revival is a restorative process of bringing something back to life — bringing something back to consciousness or awakening from a state of dormancy. That something could be a person, an idea, or an institution. The very process of bringing that which was dead, unconscious, or dormant back to life is the idea of revival.

The foundational scriptures for this series:

• Jeremiah 24:7 — God promises to give his people a heart to know him, that they shall be his people and he their God, for they shall return to him with their whole hearts.
• Lamentations 5:21 (NIV) — Restore us to yourself, Lord, that we may return. Renew our days as of old.

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• Malachi 3:7 — Even from the days of your fathers, you are gone away from my ordinances and have not kept them. Return unto me and I will return to you, says the Lord.
• Luke 15:24 — For this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.

This teaching series is a charge and a cry to see individuals, families, institutions, and nations restored back to God and to the value systems of the kingdom.

Four Foundation Ideas for Understanding Revival

1. Two Kingdoms Operate upon the Earth

   Colossians 1:12-13 — from a spiritual standpoint, there are two kingdoms that operate upon the surface of the earth. Not three, not four, not ten — two kingdoms. Each has a very clear agenda that drives its operations, and they represent the two principal influences that have shaped men, cultures, and civilizations, whether for good or for bad.

   If at any point in history there has been a decline in moral values at a territorial level, or a restorative advancement — either direction — the decline or advancement in any territory is an ongoing process of executing the agenda of one of these two kingdoms.

   Kingdom one: the kingdom of light, also called the kingdom of God's dear son, where Jesus reigns as king and lord. Kingdom two: the kingdom of darkness, the domain of the adversary. God in his kingdom has an agenda for individuals, for families, for regions, for territories, and for nations.

2. The Kingdom of Light Has a Deliberate Agenda

   God's two-fold agenda for the kingdom of light:

   • To establish the lordship of Christ, alongside his life and value systems, in the hearts and the minds of men — producing fruits of righteousness, peace, justice, advancement, and dominion. Note: it is the hearts and the minds. One can be genuinely saved, heart converted, and yet if the mind has not submitted to the governing influence of the king, that person can still be a tool for Satan to use.
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   • To establish the culture and value systems of heaven across every strata of human activity — across every institution that shapes society.

   Every revival in history has been, at its core, the kingdom of light reasserting its agenda over a territory that had been losing ground.

3. The Architecture of Rebellion — How Decline Happens

   What leads to the decline of God's purposes across a territory and across a life? Rebellion is not random — it is a structured process. It has an architecture, a design. Understanding the structure of how decline happens is the first step toward addressing it.

   Satan has a four-fold agenda. Everything called darkness in scripture, everything called evil, is motivated by this four-fold agenda:

   1. To stop men from having a real encounter with Jesus Christ and accessing the transformative life that comes from him through the gospel.

      He is called the god of this world, and his first assignment is to blind the minds of people so that they do not have an encounter with the living Christ through the gospel. Satan fights the gospel — he fights everything that leads to an encounter with Jesus. He does not mind prosperity, advancement, education, or success if the price for those things is that a person does not know God. Satan will prosper anyone a thousand times if that prosperity leads to their not knowing and encountering Jesus. He does not mind a person experiencing any other good in life, provided the price for it is that they do not know Jesus.

      There is a generation right now that Satan wants to have access to everything except God — technology minus God, wealth minus God, the spotlight minus God. He is not threatened by finances, health, or advancement. None of these things concern him, provided they do not lead a person to the knowledge of God. Satan begirls a generation by causing them to excel in every area except their knowledge of God and their reception of the gospel. When regions and families and individuals seem to ignore God, it looks like Satan prospers them — so that it becomes a bait to others.

      Matthew 16:26 — what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? It is possible to fraternize with Satan and gain the whole world, but it is at the expense of the soul.

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   2. To incite perpetual rebellion against the lordship, the government, and the value systems of Christ.

      This is a coordinated attack — a launching of perpetual rebellion against the lordship of Christ, against the government of Christ, and against the value systems of Christ. Satan seeks to replace the value systems of love, righteousness, peace, kindness, and diligence with a culture of selfishness, greed, wickedness, rebellion, and anarchy. Where he finds love, he seeks to sell hate. Where he finds responsibility, he introduces chaos. Wherever Satan reigns, there must be anarchy.

      In society today, those who are loving and kind are seen as weak. The world celebrates rebels. The more lawless an individual is, the more respect they seem to be accorded. This is a campaign of lawlessness — and it has gone beyond individuals to influence nations. Nations prey on one another for this singular reason.

   3. The institutionalization of global hostility against those who love Jesus and the programs that advance God's agenda.

      This is not something that started in this generation. Romans 8:36 — for thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Satan's agenda involves the strategic programming of civilizations and social systems. He engineers worldviews and cultural structures that are inherently hostile to God, systematically inciting society to persecute those who profess love and loyalty to Jesus.

      The example of Daniel in Daniel 6 is instructive. Daniel was preferred above all the presidents and princes because an excellent spirit was in him. His colleagues sought to find an occasion against him, but could find none — so they went after the law of his God. They engineered a royal statute making it illegal to pray to anyone except the king for thirty days. It was a calculated agenda to institutionalize hostility against everything pro-Christ, every program pro-kingdom.

      This hostility is more pronounced in certain regions than others, but it is an intentional agenda from hell. Being a nice person is not enough to survive in this world — that is why the whole armor of God must be put on. The battle is not a family fight, not a poverty issue, not a children's issue. It is a clash of kingdoms. The attack is not about a person personally — it is about the kingdom they represent. Everything that has a commitment to the kingdom becomes Satan's enemy. Every ministry, job, marriage, and family that wants to advance Jesus will face this fight.

   4. To stop men — especially believers — from accessing light: the illumination and intelligence that empowers them to walk in honor, dignity, victory, and dominion as God intended.

      Satan is averse to a believer receiving light. He will fight and do everything within his power to widen the distance between a person and the light that transforms — to widen the distance between a person and lightbearers, those who carry the light that can help. He deploys complacency, pride, and dishonor, among others, as tools to stop access to illumination.

      Ephesians 4:18 — having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their hearts. Colossians 3:16 — let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Colossians 1:9-10 — Paul prayed that believers be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual understanding, that they might walk worthy of the Lord, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

      If Satan cannot get a person to remain unsaved, his next project is to keep them in darkness — to ensure that the level of spiritual illumination is so low that they become a victim of the vicissitudes of life. The Bible says an heir, for as long as he is a child, differs nothing from a slave. Even though born royalty, if bankrupt of understanding, he will still be limited. Many believers are genuinely born again, they love Jesus Christ, but lack the requisite spiritual knowledge and illumination it takes to walk in dominion.

      This is why Jesus Christ gave gifts unto men — to equip the church, to mature it, to perfect the saints, line upon line, precept upon precept. Jeremiah 3:15 — I will give you pastors according to my heart, and they will feed you with knowledge and with understanding. The spiritual voices over a territory are responsible for determining the level of health, growth, vibrancy, and progress of the body of Christ within that territory. As the shepherd, so goes the sheep; as the man of God, so goes the congregation, and so goes society. Every time a territory is in decadence, God does not go to government or businessmen — he comes to his people. 2 Chronicles 7:14 — if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven, I will forgive their sins and I will heal the land.

      Victory and dominion in the kingdom are predicated upon the extent of spiritual illumination accessed. Isaiah 60:1-3 — arise, shine, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people, but upon you the glory of the Lord shall arise and Gentiles shall come to your light. Dominion is not just dependent on the will of God or the love of God — it is dependent on access to light.

      The presence of light does not factor in how long darkness has been. Consider a room that has been dark for ten years, another for two years, another for one week. If the light source is connected and switched on, all the rooms illuminate simultaneously — regardless of how long darkness has been. Once it is light, it shines. It does not matter that darkness has been in a family for fifty years. The day light comes, the day a lightbearer comes, that moment darkness comes to an end.

      Favor is light-dependent. Restoration is light-dependent. Victory is light-dependent. Influence is light-dependent. Spiritual power is light-dependent. The assignment is to search for light — unapologetically.

4. Revival Is Always Available — Return Is the Condition

   God never initiates abandonment — man does. God's posture is always open: return unto me and I will return to you. The prodigal son's father saw him while he was yet a great way off and ran to meet him. This is the heart of God toward the backslidden territory, the cold church, the departing individual, the declining nation.

   Revival is not a phenomenon that God arbitrarily grants. It is a response. When there is a return — a turning back — God responds with restoration. The condition for revival is always return. Not performance, not perfection — return.