John & Carol's passion for revival, especially for Canada, is certainly not a new thing. In fact for John it goes back to a powerful encounter he had with the Holy Spirit about six months after receiving Jesus Christ as His personal Lord and Savior. I'm going to let him tell the story.
I gave my heart to Christ in February 1975. I was 26 and had been raised in a non Christian home. I knew very little about Christianity other than it had been something I felt I didn't need and didn't really want in my life. God is so amazing. Prior to my initial salvation experience a team of horses couldn't have dragged me into church. Two weeks prior to responding to the Evangelist's invitation to repent
of my sins and receive Jesus Christ, I had run this preacher out of my business work place for trying to share his faith with me. Needless to say when I came into Christianity I knew virtually nothing about it or church life.
Six months after being powerfully "born again" I had an incredible experience with the Holy Spirit during an evening alter service at a summer Bible Camp. That experience left me with two notable deposits in my heart, deposits that have continued to influence our Christian service. One of those is the passion to see the lost come to Christ and the other is for revival. What I find so amazing is: how could someone have a passion and inner drive for something they knew nothing about. The passion for revival has always had a dominate influence for me. In the early years I read every book I could find on revival and the various revivalists.
In the sovereignty of God, and definitely not of our own planning Carol and I had what we have come to call a "timeout" from professional pulpit ministry for a few years. This was a time of deep soul searching and re-evaluating. Over years (and really unknown to me) the passion I had for revival had strangely become a god I served. This along with other things needed adjusting. I was required to lay down ministry, to lay down revival. Would I, could I love and serve the Lord if I were to never preach again? Could I live a Christian life honoring God if I thought I'd never see a revival in my life time? Those were the things that were being ironed out. Life is more about, what God can do for us, not what we can do for Him.
It was in February of 2004 that I believe the Lord spoke a Word into my heart, a Word that I found a bit troublesome and almost fearful. It seemed that the Holy Spirit was encouraging me to "pickup" what I had originally believed about God's will and passion for revival among His people in Canada. The next few years would see me do just that. Slowly and very cautiously I began revisiting this former passion and step by step allowing God to re-ignite and fan the flame.
In my heart I had made an agreement with myself regarding revival. The only way I would pick this up again would be if I was able to see
it clearly in the Word of God. It could not be based on some vision or dream I or someone else had received. It could not be based on any form of emotionalism. It had to founded on the "more sure" Word of God.
I am fully convinced from the Word of God that revival is on the heart
of God for His people in our generation. Discovering God's passion for His people and then seeing how far away from it we are right now motivates us to share God's "prophetic vision" for today. When I think of all Jesus went through for us, the incredible love He demonstrated when He shed His live's blood for us, we are motivated to revival "vision casting", sharing with others God's spiritual potential for them, their families and the Church in this generation. That's our passion, to share with others what God's sees for them.
