Come on Church, let’s prepare for harvest. Revival is coming

Back in the middle of 2020, I found myself poorly with Covid and struggling with intense back pain. 

I remember crying out to the Lord, and in the middle of that moment, I heard: “It’s birth pain, Anne.” 

Now, that took me by surprise! I was 41 years old at the time, and definitely did not want to be pregnant again!  Believing that the word and Spirit work in harmony, I turned to my Bible. Matthew 24:7-8 caught my attention immediately: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth-pains.”

As I prayed, I felt the Lord saying that we would experience more noticeable, intense challenges both globally, nationally, locally and personally. Just as birth pains lead to new babies being born, my back pains came with the promise that we would begin to see a move of the Almighty across the globe as countless souls came to new life in Christ. 

I heard in my spirit: What we have now cannot contain what’s coming. I kept thinking about Noah and how he had to build the ark in faith.

I believe that Bible Society’s Quiet Revival report, and the encouraging testimonies that have since emerged, are just the beginning. It is wonderful to witness more young people burning with the love of Christ and flooding to him. In my own house, our daughter came back from a national Christian event earlier this year completely transformed. She is giving everything she has to serving him. 

There’s also a challenge for those of us no longer in our teens. If the ‘older Church’ are not also red-hot with hunger for Jesus, the move will pass us by. I don’t know about you, but I want to be ‘vessel ready’ for the glory!

The Holy Spirit wants to lead us down a new, unfamiliar path. The water is still shallow compared to what I believe is coming. 

Joshua 3:3-4 has been imprinted on my mind: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the Levitical priests carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. Then you will know which way to go, since you’ve never been this way before.” If we are going to be ready for harvest, we need to be willing to move unexpectedly, making different decisions to those we might have planned. 

Some may need to change career paths, live by faith for a season, retreat to advance, abandon daily plans to seek the Lord on their knees or hit the streets to share the gospel.

The Lord is testing us to see if we will obey him and sacrifice our own dreams and desires for the sake of seeing his kingdom come. 

In the depth of my back pain, I had a deep sense that we would need to learn to breathe through the intensity of birth pains and keep our eyes on Jesus. I was reminded of giving birth to our daughter, Amelie, and crying out: “Help me, Jesus!” I think the midwives thought it was an expletive, but I was genuinely asking him to help me – and he did. Minutes later, I was holding the most beautiful baby in my arms. 

This is a call to trust that the Lord is working in us through the pain. He wants us to partner with him to see his purposes fulfilled. He is looking for a spiritual army who will contend in prayer, love and trust; who will stand up and step into the fullness of the destiny we were created for.