The Missing Move of God

While recently in Australia, I was taken into an unusual vision. I caught a glimpse of Dutch Sheets weeping over the American flag, as he did when Holy Spirit marked him years ago with a mandate for awakening in the United States. Then, beside Dutch, I saw an Australian man embracing and weeping over the Australian flag. Next, as if to unite both prayers, I saw the Appeal to Heaven flag waving behind them both: two nations, one banner, one cry. Regardless of the nation we call home, God's commission is that we must run toward our nation in prayer and engagement, not away from it.

This vision was a doorway into something the Holy Spirit has since been pressing upon me—a word about "The Missing Move of God," and how it connects to the story of the Hebrew prophet Jonah.

Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me." But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. (Jonah 1:1-3)

Jonah was called to a dark and wicked place in order to be a catalyst for landscape-changing awakening. His response? He fled to another location. Is it possible that decades ago, the Church was entrusted with a cultural moment we were called to speak into—and we fled from it?

The Charismatic Renewal and the Jesus Revolution

In the 1960's and 70's, parts of the world experienced two explosive moves of God: the Charismatic Renewal and the Jesus People Movement. The Charismatic Renewal began in part with Episcopalian priest Dennis Bennett's historic baptism in the Holy Spirit. His denomination responded unfavorably and sent him to a struggling congregation in the Pacific Northwest, hoping his spiritual zeal would quietly fade. The opposite happened. His community in Washington State became a hub of Holy Spirit outpouring that inaugurated what Church history recognizes as the Charismatic Movement—a season where every major Christian denomination was impacted by the Holy Spirit baptism and supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit.

But the Charismatic Renewal was not meant to be an end; it was a womb. The mothers and fathers who were filled with the Spirit in the early 1960's were taught to travail in prayer for their sons and daughters—the unfortunate victims of the counter-cultural upheaval of that era. Drugs, the sexual revolution, Woodstock, and cultural anarchy defined the climate. America was like Nineveh of old. And yet, God heard the desperate prayers of parents and answered by birthing the Jesus People Movement—a sprawling historic revival where young adults turned to Christ by the tens of thousands.

A Staircase with a Missing Step

When you survey this spiritual history of the twentieth century, a pattern emerges that looks less like random events and more like a divine sequence. The Charismatic Renewal renewed Believers and produced the Jesus People Movement; this movement brought a revival-sized harvest. But there was a missing final step. Reformation was meant to be the third: a generation of Spirit-filled, Scripture-grounded Believers carrying the Kingdom of God into every sphere of culture.

The vacuum left by that missing third step produced consequences we are still facing today. Revival without reformation is like a fire that blazes brilliantly and then burns itself out, without igniting anything around it.

The discipling of young people who came to Christ during the Jesus Revolution focused on the inward aspects of personal maturity and Christian community—rather than outward movement also, toward the spheres of society where culture was being shaped. Individuals were discipled, but not nations, as Matthew 28:18-20 instructs us. To be disciples of Jesus, a generation was encouraged to disengage from the world and its sinfulness, corruption, and impending end-times destruction. Darkness moved into the vacuum this created, as it always does. Every sphere of cultural influence that the people of God vacate does not remain neutral. It gets occupied.

But our God is rich in mercy!

In the account of Jonah, he fled, resisted his assignment, and famously ended up in the belly of a great fish. But He cried out to the Lord and was redeployed to Nineveh (after being vomited out by the fish, of course). Jonah 3:1 became one of the most quietly stunning verses in all of Scripture—and an encouraging prophetic signpost to us right now: "The word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time" (Jonah 3:1).

Grace Hidden in a Transition

Not a new word or a revised assignment. Not a lesser calling now, since Jonah had proven his unreliability. The same word. The same territory and people group. The same command: arise, go, preach to the people you tried to run away from. God did not write Jonah off. He came back with the original assignment–fully intact, fully alive, fully expectant.

We Are Living in a Jonah 3:1 Moment

During the Jesus People Movement, thousands were gloriously born again, and that is to be wildly celebrated. But the assignment to disciple culture—to occupy every sphere of society with the presence and values of the Kingdom—went largely unclaimed. We saw Mark 16 unfold, where the Gospel of salvation was preached and received enthusiastically by multitudes; however, we did not witness new converts deployed into culture to do the work of Matthew 28: disciple nations.

But God has not abandoned the assignment. Though we ran from our cultural Nineveh back in the 60's and 70's, Yahweh is a God of second chances.

Another Jesus People moment is happening right now. University campuses are stirring. Young people are encountering the Holy Spirit in ways that cannot be manufactured. Major influencers are asking bold questions about the Christian faith, demonstrating clear spiritual hunger. The question being whispered in the Spirit over this generation is not whether they will experience revival; that is already happening. The question is whether or not revival will become reformation.

Calling Forth the Awakeners

This is why the vision in Australia shook me. Two Believers wept over their Nineveh assignments, their nations hanging in the balance. And yet, their tears were not hopeless; they represented a fiery love for their nations, a love that thrust them into intercession and divine assignments.

The great Christian thinker, G.K. Chesterton, wrote about appropriately loving and engaging the world: "The world is not a lodging house, which we are to leave because it is miserable. It is the fortress of our family, with the flag flying on the turret, and the more miserable it is, the less we should leave it."(1) If the world seems miserable, that is a call to you and me: Jonah, arise! Awakeners, come forth, and be voices of righteousness and Kingdom standards in a broken world.

Revivalists evangelize the lost and call the Church to wake up. Awakeners, however, are commissioned to call the world to account as righteous standard-bearers, sprinkled like salt in every sphere of culture. Jonah has been in the fish for a season—but he is coming out. A new breed of Believer is emerging, the awakeners, called to boldly teach and display the Lordship of King Jesus. As theologian N.T. Wright describes in his book God's Homecoming, such Believers "are called to stand humbly in the divine council, in order then to stand boldly in human councils."(2) Appealing to Heaven, then engaging the earth.

The Word Has Come a Second Time

When Jonah finally arose, went, and preached, the result was one of the greatest city-wide revivals in Scripture. An entire population repented and was transformed. That is what happens when the people of God hear the call to go, to run towards the world instead of trying to escape it. (Screengrab image: via Larry Sparks Ministries)

You do not need a platform to be an awakener. You simply need to show up where the Lord has called you. Your Nineveh may be a classroom or a courtroom, a film studio or a Senate chamber, a living room or a legislative hall. But whatever your Nineveh, the word of the Lord has come to you: Go!

The Third Move will not be missed this time. Renewal has occurred. Revival is here. Reformation is coming.

Arise, Church. The Word of the Lord has come a second time. And this time, we are going to Nineveh.

Pray with me:

Father, like Jonah, we are sometimes tempted to run from our Nineveh assignments. They can feel intimidating. But Lord, You are not intimidated.

Your commission has come a second time—and we say "Yes." We appeal to Heaven in prayer and will engage earth by showing up in the places of our divine assignment. We declare that the mountains of education, media, government, business, arts, family, and the Church are our mission fields. Raise up and deploy Your "sent ones" into every sphere of culture! We will boldly respond: Here I am, send me.

Our decree:

We decree that the word of the Lord has come to us a second time, and our answer is yes—we arise, we go, and we will not turn back! Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here

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As mentioned in the Introduction, you can access the free E-book: The Word of the Lord Came a Second Time by going to LarrySparksMinistries.com/SecondTime

You can find out more about Larry at LarrySparksMinistries.com. 

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