Resisting the Slumbering Spirit - By Jim Tharp 2008

And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: 'The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your works; you have the name of being alive, and you are dead. Awake, and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God. Remember then what you received and heard; keep that, and repent. If you will not awake, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come upon you. Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. He who conquers shall be clad thus in white garments, and I will not blot his name out of the book of life; I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.' (Rev. 3:l-6).

Many churches, as well as individual Christians, are afflicted with the Sardis Syndrome today. They have a reputation of being alive, but their inner life and strength do not match their claims to know the Lord. Their talk is full of Scriptures, but their walk is weak and wobbly.

The church in Sardis is called to repentance. It is called to an awakening. Awake (v. 2) is a command. God is calling the Sardis church to revival. A minority is walking in the Spirit of holiness - they have not soiled their garments - they have not compromised with the world, nor have they succumbed to the gravity of the flesh. They have resisted the temptation to join the majority to succumb to spiritual drowsiness, which leads to slumber. Spiritual slumber is a deep sleep reached gradually over a period of time by failing to respond to the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Christians can reach a point in their process of resistance to the Spirit's stirrings within them until they lose the sense of hearing. That is why the Lord Jesus in His messages to the seven churches (Rev. 2:1 - 3:22) closes each message with this warning: He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

All of us can recall early mornings when the alarm clock called us to awaken from our slumber, get out of bed and face the day. But most of us can also recall times when we resisted the call.

Prayer + Purity = Power - by Jim Tharp, 2003

Confess to one another therefore your faults – your slips, your false steps, your offenses, your sins; and pray (also) for one another, that you may be healed and restored – to a spiritual tone of mind and heart. The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available – dynamic in its working. (Heb. 5:16, Amplified NT)

The Holy Spirit was so faithful to deal patiently with me in the early 1980s to venture out into a ministry that majored in prayer instead of theology, preaching, administration and scholarship. I recall several sobering thoughts during those years that He used to get me to finally take the plunge in 1986: A number of times I had the sense of standing before Christ at the Judgment Seat and hearing Him say, If only you had believed Me when I said, “Whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you” (John 16:23); If only you had followed My instruction to the apostles and “tarried in prayer until you were clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:5, 8, 14, 2:1-4); If only you had “devoted yourself to prayer” (Col. 4:2); If only you had believed My Word that My Kingdom is not built by human ability and effort alone but by Spirit-anointed Prayer (Zech. 4:6), your ministry would have been in great power and your eternal rewards would have been far greater!

Those “if onlys” still ring in my soul and call me back to the Upper Room for fresh fillings of the Holy Spirit so that I might minister in power instead of mediocrity. May none of us learn too late at the Judgment Seat of Christ what might have been if we had only devoted ourselves to Spirit-anointed prayer!

I want to share an age-long formula for spiritual power and effectiveness in living and ministering for Christ. It worked for Jesus as He, though divine, operated in His humanity while on earth. It worked for the apostles, the reformers, and it has worked for the revivalists and reformers in more recent centuries. The formula is: Prayer + Purity = Power, and it still works today! Please understand that the Holy Spirit is both intrinsically and intricately related to each of these factors in the equation.

The Spirit of Prayer

Before Jesus launched His public ministry, He was anointed by the Holy Spirit following His baptism (Luke 3:21-22). With this anointing, He went to the wilderness for a six-week prayer retreat and a period of temptation by Satan.

 

Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region. And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all (Luke 4:14-15). In the power of the Spirit, Jesus continued to give prayer first place in His busy life. Sometimes He rose early and went out to pray in the morning darkness. At other times, He took some of His apostles and went to the mountain for a few days of prayer. On one occasion, in the midst of a healing revival, He disappeared, and His disciples found Him alone in prayer.

In His training of the Twelve, Jesus made sure they understood the role of the Holy Spirit in their ministry of prayer. They could not have a ministry unless they were filled with the Spirit, and they could not be filled with the Spirit unless they had a life of prayer. One of the greatest evidences that they were filled with the Spirit would be their manner of prayer and the fruit of their praying. In fact, nothing would happen apart from the Spirit, and the Spirit would work only in those lives that were devoted to prayer. It is clear from the Scriptures and from church history that God does not pour out His Spirit on a prayerless people. He cannot trust the fullness of His Spirit to a prayerless life.

Majoring in Prayer for Revival - by Jim Tharp, 2009

And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high. (Luke 24:49)

John Wesley, George Whitefield, David Brainerd, Francis Asbury, Charles Spurgeon, William Booth, Charles Finney, Bud Robinson, D. L. Moody and Mordecai Ham – all these messengers were different in many ways. Some were Wesleyan Arminian, some were Calvinistic. Some were scholarly, some were unlearned. Some were organized, funded and promoted; some were unorganized, penniless and opposed. Some were charismatic, some were cloudy in their personality. These dear men of God were different in many other ways, but they all had many things in common. The one common thing I want to emphasize today is that each man in this list was a man of prayer!

And, because they were men of prayer, they were men of the Holy Spirit. And because they were men of the Holy Spirit, they were men of holiness. And because they were men of holiness, they were men of power. And because they were men of power, they were men who saw revival!

This is not to say that Spirit-filled men and women do nothing but pray. I know pastors and revivalists who work hard, study the Word faithfully, visit saints and sinners, counsel tirelessly, attend conferences, spend time with their families and are accountable to their denominational superiors. But there is one unmistakable commitment that stands out in their life and ministry: they are committed to a life of ministry in prayer! They are often alone with God, staying in the secret place until their minds are captivated, their spirits inflamed and their hearts are overflowing. Most of this kind feel all this is a prerequisite to their study of Scriptures and development of sermons. Such messengers emerge to become channels of the living water that God uses to wash congregations large and small. A single sentence coming from the lips of such a fire-baptized messenger of the Gospel transforms more minds and hearts than a thousand sermons delivered by a cold-hearted orator, no matter how sound his theology or how timely his subject. 

The enemy of revival in our times is managing to mislead some of the most spiritually-gifted and brilliantly prepared evangelical messengers to exhaust their time and energies on labors that don’t count for the Kingdom of God and waste their time on reading and thinking on things that neither purify the mind nor enrich the soul. The great tragedy here is that, despite all their knowledge, they don’t even have a clue that they are being distracted.

Why Does Revival Tarry? - by Jim Tharp, 2003

The passionate praying of those who are right with God has powerful effects. (James 5:16, Free Translation)

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. (Jesus to His disciples in Acts 1:8)

 

Bear up the hands that hang down, by faith and prayer; support the tottering knees. Have you any days of fasting and prayer? Storm the throne of grace and persevere therein, and mercy will come down.(John Wesley)

Whole days and weeks have I spent prostrate on the ground in silent or vocal prayer. (George Whitefield)

A religion of mere emotion and sensationalism is the most terrible of all curses that can come upon any people. The absence of reality is sad enough, but the aggravation of pretense is a deadly sin. (Samuel Chadwick)

It is well to get rid of the idea that faith is a matter of spiritual heroism only for a few select spirits. There are heroes of faith, but faith is not only for heroes. It is a matter of spiritual maturity. (P. T. Forsythe)

When God intends great mercy for His people, the first thing He does is set them a-praying. (Matthew Henry)

Beware of merely reasoning about God’s Word – just obey it! (Oswald Chambers)

The Church has halted somewhere between Calvary and Pentecost. (J. I. Brice)

How shall I feel at the judgment, if multitudes of missed opportunities pass before me in full review, and all my excuses prove to be disguises of my cowardice and pride? (W. E. Sangster)

Revival is the inrush of the Spirit into the body that threatens to become a corpse. (D. M. Panton)

No erudition, no purity of diction, no width of mental outlook, no flowers of eloquence, no grace of person can atone for lack of fire. Prayer ascends by fire. Flame gives prayer access as well as wings, acceptance as well as energy. There is no incense without fire; no prayer without flame. (E. M. Bounds)

No man is greater than his prayer life. (Leonard Ravenhill)

****  

In response to the most common question coming to me by letters, e-mails, telephone and person-to-person in these days, “Why don’t we see revival here in America?” I have decided to refer us to a powerful book by Leonard Ravenhill, Why Revival Tarries, published in 1959, and again in 1960 by Bethany Fellowship, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Over a generation ago, Mr. Ravenhill blamed the compromise of evangelists, the lack of urgency in prayer and pride as the main reasons why revival tarries. The greater part of his work is directed toward the lack of urgency in prayer. I shall in this message present what I consider to be the more critical of his arguments on this subject, and then make an observation of my own concerning the present generation.

Ravenhill wrote: “The Cinderella of the church today is the prayer meeting. This handmaid of the Lord is unloved and unwooed because she is not dripping with pearls of intellectualism, nor glamorous with the silks of philosophy; neither is she enchanting with the tiara of psychology. She wears the homespuns of sincerity and humility and so is not afraid to kneel!”

Pressing for anointed preaching, he said, “One does not need to be spiritual to preach, that is, to make and deliver sermons of homiletical perfection and exegetical exactitude. By a combination of memory, knowledge, ambition, personality, plus well-lined bookshelves, self-confidence and a sense of having arrived – brother, the pulpit is yours almost anywhere these days. Preaching of the type mentioned affects men; prayer affects God. Preaching affects time; prayer affects eternity. … The tragedy of this late hour is that we have too many dead men in the pulpits giving out too many dead sermons to too many dead people.

A Passion For God's Glory - by Jim Tharp, 2004

Then Moses said to him, "If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?"

And the Lord said to Moses, "I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name."

Then Moses said, "Now show me your glory." (Exodus 33:15-18, NIV)


God usually hides Himself from the half-hearted, the self-satisfied and the double minded. But He delights in revealing Himself to any who seek Him in single-hearted desperation. He is a God of grace, and He will meet anyone with forgiveness and transformation of heart and adoption into His redeemed family when they come to Him with faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then He meets His children in sanctifying grace when they come to Him confessing the sin in their hearts and trusting in Christ's purifying power as it is administered by the Holy Spirit who is already indwelling them.

Receive The Holy Spirit - by Jim Tharp, 2005

Then Jesus said to them again, "Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you." And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit ?" (John 20:21-22)

While faith in the atoning blood of Jesus Christ makes salvation a fact settled in heaven, it hasn't dawned on many believers that it is the inner working of the Holy Spirit that confirms it as spiritual reality. In studying the book of Romans we understand that believing the Gospel brings about a judicial change in the sinner, but our God of salvation seeks to make us conscious of this by giving us His Spirit.

Jesus prepared His disciples

Jesus spent most of His time with His disciples preparing them for their reception of the Holy Spirit. He knew that if they failed in this they could never advance His Kingdom to the ends of the earth. After His resurrection, Jesus appeared to the Eleven and "breathed on them," saying, "Receive the Holy Spirit." He exhaled (He "breathed on them"); He told them to inhale ("receive the Holy Spirit").

Really, as God the Father and God the Son breathe on us, we are to inhale (breathe in, receive, partake of) the Holy Spirit as the breath of God. The spiritual exercise the Risen Christ taught the disciples in the Upper Room was prophetic and preparatory to Pentecost. There the rushing mighty winds represented the breath and life of God and "they were all filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:4).

We see the Early Church being renewed in the fullness of the Holy Spirit throughout the book of Acts, and we hear them emphasizing the Holy Spirit as the secret of their power and success. Friends, this is not a trifling observation. As A. W. Tozer taught us, "A doctrine has practical value only as far as it is prominent in our thoughts and makes a difference in our lives."

 

The Believer's Ultimate Weapon - by Jim Tharp, 2005

The world is unprincipled. It's dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn't fight fair. But we don't live or fight our battles that way - never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren't for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity. (II Cor. 10:3-6, The Message, Eugene H. Peterson).

Most Christians find it difficult in this humanistic, materialistic age to adjust their world view to include a hierarchy of evil spirits operating against those who are a part of the kingdom of God. I believe Timothy M. Warner is correct in his observation that we evangelicals so often become functional deists: we assume that we hold a Christian world view because we believe in a personal God. "But we also assume," Warner goes on, " that He is now on His throne up in Heaven and that the world is being run by scientific laws which have no functional spiritual components." This is the error of Deism.

The Bible makes it clear that there are three orders of beings operating in our present world: first, there is God, the Creator-Redeemer, the Eternal One, the Holy One, the Almighty One; the All-sufficient One; and then there are angels. God created these His secret agents for the purpose of ministry throughout the cosmos - guiding, protecting, delivering, informing and guarding His children and servants. And He gave angels special assignments "for those who will inherit salvation" (Heb. 1:14); and finally, there are human beings who are created for the purpose of glorifying their Creator by taking authority and responsibility for the order and well-being of planet earth and for spreading His good Word to the nations.

If the death of Jesus Christ sealed Satan's doom, why does the devil seem to be still in control of the nations today? Why can Satan torment, deceive and divide believers? How is it that He is able to keep the saints in ignorance of their most powerful weapon?

 
The Fierce Conflict

Fallen human beings of Adam's race are now beset by hosts of evil spirits headed by a fallen angel, Satan, who before his fall from the celestial world was known as "Lucifer." This Evil One lost his holiness and his exalted position, but in his wicked conspiracy against God, he involved a third of the angels, and they were all swiftly cast out of heaven. When Adam disobeyed God and yielded to Satan's deception, the human race fell under the dominion of Satan.

But God, who foreknew the treachery of Satan and the fall of Adam, had in His wisdom and grace planned a way by which mankind could be saved. God sent His only begotten Son in the form of a man. Jesus Christ became God incarnate. The God-man came to seek and to save that which was lost. His appearance signaled a crucial battle between the Son of God and the Evil One. The destiny of the world and of the human race depended on the outcome of this conflict. Paul E. Billheimer wrote, "In the long conflict from Bethlehem to Calvary, the most terrific battle ever waged, the actual and only rightful Heir to the throne of dominion and the false pretender to that throne were locked in mortal combat. Through thirty-three years that warfare continued with unabated intensity. The fallen 'son of the morning,' the highest of all pre-adamic created beings, marshaled all of his subtlety and power to break down the allegiance of this God-man to His heavenly Father."

The "prince of darkness" hounded Jesus clear up to his death, "even the death of the cross," without scoring a single point. Not one single thought was allowed in His mind that was out of harmony with the Father. When Jesus finally bowed His head and died, it meant that He had through His atoning death cancelled all claims that Satan held upon the earth and the entire human race. The apostle Paul put it this way, "Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it" (Col. 3:15). Eugene Peterson in contemporary language explains what happened in Jesus' victorious death on the cross, "He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets."

 
Enforcing the Victory

If Jesus' death at Calvary was the decisive blow to Satan, why did the apostle Paul refer to Satan as "the god of this world" who blinds the minds of the masses, lest they become believers? If Calvary was God's stroke of victory against evil, why are there so many wars and so much suffering in the world? If the death of Jesus Christ sealed Satan's doom, why does the devil seem to be still in control of the nations today? Why can Satan torment, deceive and divide believers? How is it that He is able to keep the saints in ignorance of their most powerful weapon?

The answer to these questions is very important, and it is this: because Calvary's victory has only been partially enforced! Jesus was so absolute in His authority that demons obeyed Him. Note carefully His plan to delegate His authority to the Church and continue to see Calvary's victory enforced across the centuries: "All authority - all power of rule - in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go then and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you all the days, -- perpetually, uniformly and on every occasion - to the very close and consummation of the age," (Matt. 28:18-20, The Amplified New Testament). As we read the book of Acts, we see how powerfully the Early Church was enabled to enforce the victory won at Calvary by our Lord.

"All authority - all power of rule - in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go then"

The apostles and believers complied with the conditions of their authority: they returned to Jerusalem after Jesus' ascension and began praying, just as He commanded; they tarried in prayer for ten days until the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them; and they began the proclamation of the Gospel in the city of Jerusalem in great power before moving on to Judea, Samaria and to "the ends of the earth." The apostles and deacons and believers in the Early Church lived in the power of the Holy Spirit - they prayed in the Spirit; they worshiped in the Spirit; they preached in the Spirit; they suffered in the Spirit; they healed in the Spirit; they cast out devils in the Spirit; they rejoiced and glorified God in the Spirit. The early Christians did nothing apart from prayer. Consequently, they were empowered by the Holy Spirit to enforce Christ's victory at Calvary and demonstrate the same authority their Lord had demonstrated during His ministry on earth: the dead were raised, the lame walked, the blind saw, the deaf heard, the lepers were cleansed, and the Gospel was preached in power.

Dear fellow believers, what will it take to get us back to the purpose and power of the Lord for His Church at this late hour? Can we not see from the history of the Church the glory of God on His people when a remnant returned to the Upper Room and tarried for fresh fillings of the Holy Spirit? Under the anointing of the Holy Spirit: they went forth and took authority to preach the Gospel, and thousands were convicted of sin and converted to Jesus Christ; to command evil spirits, and the spirits obeyed; to lay hands on the sick, and the sick recovered; to denounce carnal behavior among believers, and see the compromised believers become sanctified holy; to challenge false doctrines and leaders, and see God vindicate His Word and send revival.

 
Armed And Dangerous

Where is the believer who will place his/her traditions, theology, family, significant others, pride, education, reputation, position, dreams and goals on the altar of consecration to God? Where is the believer who will confess any covert or overt sin? Where is the believer who will cease relying on past spiritual experiences and begin practicing daily "crucifixion with Christ?" Where is the believer who will be willing to experiment for a year in self-denial and total abandonment to the glorious will of God and the leadership of the Holy Spirit? Where is the believer who will believe the words of Jesus to Spirit-filled believers when He promised, "Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you" (John 16:23)? Where is the believer who will dare to ask God to fill him/her with the Holy Spirit, who will take up the weapon of intercessory prayer and tear down the strongholds in his/her life, who will put on the whole armor of God and take authority and wrestle against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age and against the hosts of wicked spirits operating in the unseen dimension?

On such believers God will pour out His Spirit and there will be an anointing (a divinely inspired authority, a holy equipping, a sanctified boldness) to tear down Satanic strongholds, to see dead churches come to life, to deliver the backslidden from delusions and carnal addictions. May God multiply the numbers of such spiritually armed and dangerous men and women who will push back the darkness and lead us in revival in the twenty-first century.

Recommended reading: 

Destined to Overcome
by Paul E. Billheimer

Having just reread this book, Rev. Tharp encourages all those interested in spiritual warfare also study it. He believes that you will gain depth of knowledge, insight and benefit from the reading. Paul E. Billheimer was a Bible college president and a television and radio preacher in the Wesleyan holiness tradition. In discussing the technique of spiritual warfare in this book, the author shares the secrets of spiritual authority discovered from his own life and ministry.

Billheimer attended Houghton College and Taylor University, and graduated from Marion College in 1923. He and his wife were married sixty-three years and raised three children. They began a tent ministry in Anderson, Indiana, in 1936 that grew to include a Bible Institute, a Christian High School, a Christian Day School, and, in 1957, a Christian television station. Billheimer authored such books as Destined for the Throne, Don't Waste Your Sorrows, Love Covers, Destined to Overcome, Destined for the Cross, and The Mystery of God's Providence. He and his wife spent their latter years working with the Trinity Broadcasting Network. Billheimer died in 1984.

Information gathered from author's books and website: http://www.e316.com/authors/profile-Billheimer,_Paul_E..asp

Obedience and the Holy Spirit - by Jim Tharp, 2007

And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him (Acts 5:32).

The twelve apostles had been filled with the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, along with the other 108 believers who were in the Upper Room. They had listened by the hour as Jesus had finished his teachings on the Holy Spirit, promising that He and the Father would send the Holy Spirit to them. They had heard enough from Him to realize the importance of the role of the Holy Spirit in their lives and ministries. Jesus had made it clear that if they missed the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, they could never qualify as His Kingdom agents on earth. Even before they had received the Spirit in His fullness they understood that they must learn to maintain a relationship with Him even as they had with their Lord. He was Someone to host. He was to be treated as the Divine Guest. No doubt they felt privileged to become His temple, to sense His Presence, to hear His voice, to follow His direction. The apostles soon realized that just as He was the Spirit of the Father, even so He truly was the very Spirit of Jesus Christ. He was no different in nature and in relationship with them than Jesus had been. He was not only with them, but He was in them.

Jesus' final business with the crowd that had gathered on the Mount of Olives on the morning of His ascension to the Father was to issue a command and give a promise. The command was, "Go back into the city of Jerusalem and start a prayer meeting." The promise was, "I and the Father will send the Holy Spirit." It is believed that about 500 believers heard the command and the promise. And yet only 120 obeyed the command. And only 120 experienced the fulfillment of Jesus' promise: "They were all filled with the Holy Spirit," said Luke (Acts 2:4).

We might wonder what happened to the 380 who did not join the prayer meeting. Did they not consider the Master's command and promise to be urgent? What did they consider more important than obeying the Lord? Was it family, personal plans or just unbelief that hindered their moving out with the 120 toward the city? Even today, in most of our churches and fellowships, we see about the same ratio of the disobedient to the obedient -- four to one. I believe 120 out of 500 represent 24%. Most pastors I know would be quite encouraged to have one out of four of their members passionately seeking the sanctifying fullness of the Holy Spirit, on fire for Christ and joining in prayer for a sweeping revival through the church and out into their city. But let me encourage us: We need to be reminded that if there is an obedient, Spirit-hungry minority, the disobedient, indifferent majority cannot prevent revival! God worked mightily through the 120 who were filled with the Spirit.

By the time Christ's apostles were imprisoned, threatened and persecuted by the Jewish authorities for boldly proclaiming Jesus Christ as God's appointed Savior of the world, they had learned enough about the Holy Spirit to know that He must be obeyed. They realized that if they were to continue to be filled with the Spirit and minister in power, they would need to be as sensitive to His voice as they had been to their Lord's. Therefore when ordered by the Sanhedrin to cease their teaching in Jesus' Name and filling Jerusalem with their Christian doctrines, their reply was, "We ought to obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).

Keeping the Trust - by Jim Tharp, 2007

And of this Gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day (II Timothy 1:11-12).

In this issue I am celebrating my sixtieth year of preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, by looking back over my journey and giving praise to God for His faithfulness.

I was converted to Jesus Christ on a hot July night in 1946, in Nady, Arkansas, in a revival meeting in the southern part of Arkansas County, which is a part of the Delta. My mother, Estelle Tharp, had been greatly influenced by a Bible scholar, Martha Honeycutt, who was a New Testament professor in Union Bible Institute in Westfield, Indiana. Through Miss Honeycutt, my mother studied the great revivals of church history and knew that a mighty outpouring of the Spirit on the wicked community of Arkansas County was our only hope, especially those of us who lived in the lower part of the county.

My mother and Miss Honeycutt formed a prayer pact. Miss Honeycutt returned to Indiana, and she and my mother met every morning for seven years at the Throne of Grace, interceding for revival in Arkansas County, though they were 700 miles apart.

The two began praying in 1939, but it was in 1946 that God hit Arkansas County like a tornado. Everyone on Momma's prayer list got saved - all of our relatives, including my dad. When I saw my dad get saved, it was then that I gave my heart to Christ. My sisters and brothers got saved. All our neighbors got saved, and many came from distant places, drawn there by the Holy Spirit, to find Christ. Our

End-time Delusions - by Jim Tharp, 2007

Jesus said to them, "Watch out that you are not deceived" (Luke 21:8). ...Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation (wasteful and indulgent living), drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth. Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man" (vv. 34-36).

"Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God ...and now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow by the splendor of his coming. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness" (II Thes. 2:3-4; 6-12).

In Matthew 24 and in Luke 21 Jesus warns His followers that in the last days they must be prepared for a universal sweep of deception driven by hosts of evil spirits designed to snare both sinners and saints, even "to the very elect." "For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth," He said (Luke 21:35).

The apostle Paul wrote his second epistle to the Thessalonians from Corinth only a few months after he wrote the first. He wrote the second time to correct their misunderstanding of his first letter. Paul had learned that many of the Thessalonian believers had taken his teachings on the imminence of the Second Coming of Christ so seriously that some had quit their jobs, grown antisocial and gone into hibernation to await the coming of Christ. Paul wrote his second letter to tell them to come out of hiding, rejoin the body of Christ in worship and loving fellowship, go back to work and prepare more responsibly for the Second Coming of Christ.

But Paul also wrote his second letter to the Thessalonians to brace them for the darkness and deception that would sweep all nations and cultures in the last days preceding the revelation of the AntiChrist.

"Wake Up, O Sleeper" - by Jim Tharp, 2008

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light, for the fruit of the light consists of all goodness, righteousness and truth; and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: 'WAKE UP, O SLEEPER, RISE FROM THE DEAD, AND CHRIST WILL SHINE ON YOU.'" (Eph. 5:8-14)

Whether v. 14 is a quote from an ancient baptismal hymn or a line from an Easter celebration, its command to the "sleeper" to "rise from the dead so that Christ may shine on him" places the order solidly within the context of revival. The general call in the passage above is to holiness. Christians are to come out of darkness and walk in light. The light of Christ will shine on them so that the worldly who walk in darkness, as well as weakened believers who have slipped back into the shades of the world, may be exposed and wake up and repent and become a part of the community of light.

Waking Christians from their slumber is a task beyond human ability. 

Destroying Strongholds - By Jim Tharp, 2002

And give no foothold to the devil. (Eph. 4:27, NASB)

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ … (II Cor. 10:3-5)

Why are thousands of Christian congregations in North America locked in spiritual stalemate with boring services and barren altars? It is not due to the lack of sound doctrine, sincere preaching, adequate facilities and friendly worshipers. We have to look beyond the visible for the answers.

Many Christian leaders are so bound to tradition (cultural, denominational, congregational) that they are blind to the nature of the tragedies they face in their ministries. With all their knowledge and training, they remain ignorant of Christ's provision to turn their tragedies into triumphs. The average pastor prays to become a better leader, wants to deliver God's Word to the people, hopes for renewal in the church body and seeks to be open to divine direction for a more effective ministry.

Believe me, it is this great majority that Satan has set out to deceive. He calls their attention to some wild preacher who has a strange fascination with evil spirits, who sees a demon behind every bush or pew or pulpit, and who seeks to identify the unclean spirit attached to every bad cold or sinus infection. With this distraction, skepticism of the supernatural is deepened and it is easier to conclude that the actual work of evil spirits was limited to the times of Jesus and His apostles. Satan will do almost anything to keep pastors, teachers and evangelists from discovering the need for true spiritual warfare. One of his most effective strategies is to simply keep them preoccupied with administration, counseling, meetings, visitation, and putting out fires of opposition so that every week is pretty much a prayerless one. These otherwise intelligent leaders would never dream that they themselves have become casualties in a spiritual war.

Satan recognized that the coming of Jesus Christ into the world represented a challenge to him and his kingdom. He knew that with Christ's entrance on planet earth his domain was being invaded and he knew that the stakes were high. Therefore, Satan attacked Jesus in every way. When he could not buy Jesus, he decided to kill Him. But the enemy never knew until it was too late that his plot to kill our Lord played right into the preordained purpose of the Sovereign God to give His One and Only Son as a ransom for sinners and to destroy the works of the devil. Satan did not know that the voluntary, self-sacrificing death of Jesus Christ on the cross decisively and eternally defeated him and his hierarchy of evil.

Our Risen Christ now calls on His Spirit-filled church to enforce the mighty victory over Satan and evil that He won at Calvary. Until the Lord Jesus returns to actually and finally destroy Satan, we who are filled with the Holy Spirit, we who are clad in His armor, we who are obedient to His commands, are called to resist the evil one, to tear down his strongholds, to order his retreat, to unmask his intentions and to release his captives. Otherwise, it is the nature of Satan to impose, intrude, usurp until confronted by true representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ who know they have the authority to invoke His strong name and see victory replace defeat.

 

A "stronghold" is any condition in the believer or in the congregation or in the ministry that gives Satan an advantage in seeking to defeat the Kingdom of God. It might be an act of disobedience, a mindset contrary to the leading of the Holy Spirit or a state of compromise.

Baptism with the Holy Spirit and Fire - by Jim Tharp, 2008

I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire. (Luke 3:11-12).

John the Baptist had become the most popular preacher in Israel by the time he was to introduce Jesus to the people. He had become the most powerful, because he was filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth. Nor had he grieved, quenched or disobeyed the Holy Spirit, so he was at his zenith in spiritual power and public influence when it was time for him to present Jesus Christ as "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."

John humbly presents Jesus by contrasting their respective baptisms. "I have baptized with water," he said, "but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." I don't believe John was denying the importance of his "baptism, a sign of repentance," but was seeking to show the eternal urgency of believers shifting their faith to Jesus Christ and His "baptism with the Holy Spirit and with fire!"

I would like for us to consider three effects of the Christian believer's "baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire:" (1) Purification; (2) Illumination; and (3) Radiation.

“Called Unto Holiness” - by Jim Tharp, 2009

Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Eph. 4:22-24).

The apostle Paul is writing to Christian believers who have been born again, and in whom the Holy Spirit abides. They have been justified by faith and adopted into the family of God. They have already been counted as righteous in Jesus Christ, who died for their sins. They now have a destiny which they must pursue. They are called unto holiness, not because they are not yet accepted by God, but because they are.

The miracle of regeneration changes our standing with God – we pass from death unto life; we are transplanted from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light; we are transformed from creatures of despair into children of hope with a glorious inheritance.

As lost souls, we responded to the Holy Spirit’s call to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. As believers, we must now respond to the Holy Spirit’s call to God’s ordained purpose for each of His redeemed children: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son (Rom. 8:29). This change from our old sinful corrupt nature of Adam into the new nature of Christ is the work of the Holy Spirit, with our consent – with our willingness to die to our selfish desires, our total surrender to the will of God. This change is called sanctification. This sanctifying experience is both a refining crisis and a renewing continuation.

Let us note three conditions on the part of the believer in order to experience the sanctifying crisis as well as the purifying process: ask, obey, believe.

New Testament Praying - by Jim Tharp, 2002

And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My Name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full… In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray for you; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God. I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father. John 16:23-24, 26-28

Jesus’ final discourse on prayer took place within the context of the Paraclete Passages (John 14:15-21; 14:26-27; 15:26-27; 16:7-15). These promises concerning the coming of the Holy Spirit had to do with many things in the lives of Christ’s followers, not the least of which would mean a new economy of prayer. I want us to consider at least four components of New Covenant praying as emphasized by Jesus in His final message on prayer.

Approaching the Father

"In that day," said Jesus, "you will no longer ask Me anything." The phrase "in that day" appears twice in this context, referring to the time when the Holy Spirit will come and influence the praying of believers. When Jesus said, "You will no longer ask Me anything," He was reminding them that He would no longer be with them physically and visibly. But with the Holy Spirit indwelling and illumining and guiding them, they would have no need to ask Him anything. So it would be to their advantage that He depart in the flesh in order to return to them in the Spirit. With the Holy Spirit abiding in their hearts, the Father and the Son would be approachable at all times and in all circumstances. "The Father Himself loves you," Jesus assured them, "because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God." 

No apologies would be necessary in approaching the Father. As His redeemed children, purchased by the precious blood of His Son, we are not intruding or interrupting Him when we come before Him in prayer. "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Heb. 4:14-16). The inspired writer here argues for an approach to the Father that is one of confidence because of our standing in Christ. We are not approaching the Father as a stranger but as a blood-bought child who is in favor because of Jesus and what He did for us. Christians, think of it! We are invited to share in that holy intercourse between the Father and the Son and to participate in the intercession of the Son before the Father. Our relationship with the Holy Spirit can be such that we are assured an understanding of how to pray in unity and in sympathy with our interceding Lord. In so doing the will of God is prayed to pass here on earth even as it is in Heaven.

In the Name of Jesus

"I tell you the truth," Jesus said, "My Father will give you whatever you ask in My name" (v. 23). 

All true believers are given the name of Jesus. What a powerful name! In commissioning His Church to go into the world to carry His message and work His works, Jesus wanted His followers to realize that He was not leaving them powerless; they would invoke His name and the Spirit would release His power in and by and through them. Jesus intends us today to operate in the power of His name, just as any company executive would delegate authority to go out and conduct business for his enterprise. The members of the Jewish Sanhedrin and the people of Jerusalem soon learned that the same power by which Jesus had conducted His ministry was present with His disciples for continuing His work. It was "in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth" that Peter and John ordered the crippled beggar at the temple gate to rise up and walk (Acts 3:6). May a Spirit-cleansed, Spirit-filled Church today return to the same precious understanding and reverent use of the name of Jesus. When it does, we will learn that "the kingdom of God is not in word but in power" (I Cor. 4:20).

A New Thing - By Jim Tharp, 2002

Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. (Isaiah 43:18-19)

The God of Israel had a long history as a God of power. The God of the Exodus from Egyptian bondage was determined to be the God of the Exodus from Babylonian bondage to His people Israel. But the human factor had to be reckoned with. The people of Israel must prepare for their deliverance from captivity. A part of their preparation was to let go of the old in order to have faith for the new.

So today, the God of Pentecostal revival is determined to be the God of Last-days revival. But the human factor is still a part of the equation, so that even our Sovereign God cannot give revival until His people have met His conditions. While His great loving heart yearns for the salvation of the lost billions of earth, that same loving heart must be grieving deeply over the deadness and disobedience and bondage of His Church. But let us not mistake His purpose – He will build His Church; He will produce a Bride for His Son; He will yet prepare His people for the revival that will cover the earth with His glory as the water covers the seas and reap an evangelistic harvest unparalleled in the history of His Church.

How will He do this? By drawing His people back to His ordained age-long plan of intercessory prayer. For as His people pray, they will be delivered from the bondage of the world and the flesh and an anointing will be released upon them for the spiritual harvest that is more than ripe. Oh, let us allow the Holy Spirit to align our hearts with God’s purpose at this very hour to do a new thing and break us out of our carnality, our unbelief, our paralysis, our spiritual pride, our division, our irrelevance, our indifference!

Forgetting The Old

Our churches across America and Canada are filled with members fattened on biblical truth but starved for life and power in the Spirit. So many can cite the time and place of being born again but they

Aglow with the Spirit - by Jim Tharp, 2008

Let your love be sincere - a real thing; hate what is evil (loathe all ungodliness, turn in horror from all wickedness), but hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection - as members of one family - giving precedence and showing honor to one another. Never lag in zeal and in earnest endeavor; be aglow and burning with the Spirit, serving the Lord. Rejoice and exult in hope; be steadfast and patient in suffering and tribulation; be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of God's people - sharing in the necessities of the saints - pursuing the practice of hospitality.

Bless those who persecute you - who are cruel in their attitude toward you; bless and do not curse them. Share others' joy, rejoicing with those who rejoice; and share others' grief, weeping with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty (snobbish, high-minded, exclusive), but readily adjust yourself to people and things, and give yourselves to humble tasks. Never overestimate yourself or be wise in your own conceits. Repay no one evil for evil, but take thought for what is honest and proper and noble - aiming to be above reproach - in the sight of everyone. If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

(Romans 12:9-18, The Amplified New Testament)

I believe the most continual emblem for the Holy Spirit throughout both Old and New Testaments has been that of fire. Moses' initial personal experience with God began with his interest in the burning bush. Throughout the wilderness pilgrimage the children of Israel were led by a pillar of fire. Jesus told His disciples, "I have come to bring fire on the earth" (Luke 12:49). Jesus burned with the fire of the Holy Spirit in His praying, preaching, teaching and working of miracles. After His death and resurrection, and just before His ascension, He cited John's prophecy that Jesus would "baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" (Matt. 3:11), urging His apostles and believers to return to the city of Jerusalem to pray and "wait for the promise of the Father" (Acts 1:4-5). As Luke would record it, Jesus said to them, "but stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high" (Luke 24:48-49).

The Pentecostal outpouring marked a profound historical moment - the beginning of the Age of the Spirit, the birthday of the Church, the establishment of the New Covenant. Authors W. T. Purkiser and William Greathouse agree that Pentecost "proclaimed the Church as the Body of Christ and the perpetuation of His incarnation in the world" (Exploring Christian Holiness, Vol. I, pp. 116-117).

We must not ignore the historic signs that accompanied the initial outpouring of the Holy Spirit: wind, fire and tongues. The violent blowing of the wind represented the breath of the Holy Spirit as the very life of God poured into the 120 believers. The Church was not stillborn! The tongues of fire that first filled the room and then separated and came to rest on each of them signified the purifying power, the sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit in personal relationship with each believer. The miracle of these tongues was both in the speaking of all the languages of the Mediterranean world by men and women who had not learned those languages and in the hearing of the thousands of pilgrims who were hearing the praises of God in their own mother tongues. The Pentecostal languages are not to be confused with the gift of tongues mentioned in I Corinthians 14. Pentecostal tongues carried their own interpretation by the Spirit; the "un-known tongues" of I Corinthians must be interpreted to save worshiping believers from confusion and distraction.

Dr. Robert E. Coleman notes, "The Pentecostal effusion of the Spirit marked the beginning of this new era of ministry. It was the culminating step of the descent of the divine into the human. Jesus as an external Presence now became the enthroned Sovereign in the allegiance of His people. His Word became like fire within them, and with hearts burning with the love of God, they went on their way with gladness and singleness of desire, praising their Lord."

But I must remind us that we have been warned by the apostle Paul, "Do not put out the Spirit's fire" (I Thes. 5:19). The Spirit within us can be grieved, quenched, disobeyed and ignored until He is forced by our free agency to slip into an inoperable mode, awaiting our repentance and hunger for His stirring Presence.

But the smoldering flames can be rekindled. Suffering alone in Rome's Mamertine prison, the apostle Paul had more to think about than his own personal needs and approaching execution. He longed to see the face of his spiritual son Timothy, who was in charge of the church at Ephesus. The Spirit stirred in Paul a deep concern for this one upon whom the apostle had lavished his prayers and envisioned as his successor in the coming years. Paul discerned that the fire was burning low in the younger man's heart. So Paul puts it straight to Timothy in a letter, "I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-control" (II Tim. 1:5-7). If it could happen to Timothy, it can happen to you and to me. Just as Paul directed Timothy, so we too are called to brush off the ashes of our traditions and routines and acknowledge coldness of heart. In brokenness and humility we must ask the Lord to pull together the dying embers and fan them into red-hot flames. It is surely His desire to make his servants "flames of fire" (Heb. 1:7).

Resisting the Slumbering Spirit - by Jim Tharp, 2008

And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: 'The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your works; you have the name of being alive, and you are dead. Awake, and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God. Remember then what you received and heard; keep that, and repent. If you will not awake, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come upon you. Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. He who conquers shall be clad thus in white garments, and I will not blot his name out of the book of life; I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.' (Rev. 3:l-6).

Many churches, as well as individual Christians, are afflicted with the Sardis Syndrome today. They have a reputation of being alive, but their inner life and strength do not match their claims to know the Lord. Their talk is full of Scriptures, but their walk is weak and wobbly.

The church in Sardis is called to repentance. It is called to an awakening. Awake (v. 2) is a command. God is calling the Sardis church to revival. A minority is walking in the Spirit of holiness - they have not soiled their garments - they have not compromised with the world, nor have they succumbed to the gravity of the flesh. They have resisted the temptation to join the majority to succumb to spiritual drowsiness, which leads to slumber. 

A Bipolar Spirituality - by Jim Tharp, 2010

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. (Rom. 8:5-6).

Most good dictionaries will define bipolar as “a condition of one having or being marked by two diametrically opposed natures or views.” In our Scripture today, we have two forces bidding for the affections of the Christian believer. It is urgent that we understand what the apostle Paul meant by the things of the flesh and life in the Spirit.

It is my understanding that by Paul’s use of the flesh he means our entire human personality under the control of our fallen nature including our mind and spirit as well as our body. I take this from John Wesley, who did not restrict his definition of the flesh to merely bodily or fleshly appetites, but to the corruption of human nature as it spreads through all the powers of the soul as well as to the members of the body.

While the apostle is faithful to warn us against a mindset on the things of the flesh, his real purpose in this classic passage on New Testament spirituality is to show us God’s plan of spiritual power for a new life in Jesus Christ. He called it Life according to the Spirit in contrast to life according to the flesh.

After yielding my heart and life to Jesus Christ in early July, 1946, I had struggled enough with the urges of my fallen nature so that with my mother’s counsel on Paul’s meaning of Life in the Spirit in Romans 8, four months later I went alone into the forest near our home and settled in my heart to know the New Testament experience for the believer promised both by John the Baptist and our Lord Jesus Christ: the baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire (Matt. 3:11: Acts 1:5,8).

The Pinnacle of Prayer - by Jim Tharp, 2010

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us... (Eph. 3:20 TLB).

It would be hard to find a New Testament passage that would exceed the glorious promise found here. However, verse 20 should not be considered apart from its context (1:14-21), in which the apostle’s purpose is to address the believer’s knowledge of both the love of God and the power of God involved in the experience of prayer as we ascend to the very summit of prayer captured in verse 20.

Actually, our incentives to prayer and our convictions for prayer are grounded in our realization of both the love of God and the power of God. God’s love determines His willingness to hear and answer prayer; His power determines His ability to hear and answer prayer. If God were simply a God of love, but not a God of power, He would be willing but not able; if He were a God of power, but not a God of love, He would be able but not willing. But glory be to His Name! We have a willing God of unlimited ability, and this truth should become the greatest assurance and highest incentive to those of us who pray!

Paul prays for his readers to be rooted and grounded in love and have power to comprehend with all the saints the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, so that they might be filled with all the fulness of God. The apostle treats the love of God as a cube, having breadth, length, depth and height. In the Bible, the cube is presented as a symbol of perfect form. Every side of a cube is a perfect square, and is seen as such from any and every angle The “Holy of holies,” in both the Tabernacle and the Temple, representing the dwelling place of God -- was a perfect cube. By divine specification, Moses and Solomon were to make the “Holy of holies” ten cubits long, ten cubits broad and ten cubits high. We find in the book of Revelation that the New Jerusalem, of which the “Holy of holies” was the type, let down out of heaven and measured equally in length, breadth and height -- still the perfection of symmetry.

 As Paul leads us to consider the love of God, he first calls attention to its breadth.

It is broad enough to take us all in! He does not love Jews only, but His love is extended to the Gentiles including every nation, tongue and tribe. It is extended to the whole world.

The love of God is also long. He says, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love.” This means that back in the eons of eternity before the earth was formed and before we were born, our Gracious, Sovereign God planned our salvation by sending His Son Jesus to planet earth to suffer and die in full payment for all the sins of all of us. And in love He sends the Holy Spirit to convict and cleanse us from sin and to guide and empower us for the Christian life. His love for us never had a beginning and it will never have an ending.