Initiating And Sustaining The Movement Of God by Dr. Paul Enenche: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Initiating the Movement of God

I want to talk about initiating and sustaining the movement of God, the movement of the Holy Spirit.

There were times when we saw God's movement initiated. In Acts 2:1-3, suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.

He is in a hurry to walk on the earth. But God's movement is always preceded by human movement. So they had to move before God began to move with them. Until they moved, God didn't move.

If you remember when the Red Sea parted, the Bible says Moses lifted up the rod, and God sent a wind that separated the Red Sea. Exodus 14:21. The wind didn't come until Moses lifted up the staff. That's how God moves. Man has to do something from the earth before God does something in heaven.

So the question is, what is required of me before God moves? What kind of people does revival occur for?

Who Revival Happens For

1. People who are dissatisfied with the absence of God

   So as long as you are content without God, God is not going to act on your behalf. Revival happens for people who are dissatisfied. Jesus resurrected. The apostles could not be content with the absence of God until Jesus Christ ascended. People who have noticed the absence of God in all their efforts and are dissatisfied with the absence of God are ready for revival.

   There were two kings in Israel who showed they wanted the presence of God. The ark of the covenant remained in the Philistine kingdom throughout Saul's reign. And Saul didn't bother to bring the ark back. David said, "I cannot survive without God's presence. I cannot govern without the presence of God. I cannot be king without the presence of God." We needed God's presence to return, and that's when the revival happened in the land of Israel.

2. People who are desperate for the presence of God

   They want God's presence at all costs. They want God's presence more than anything else in their lives. They want God's presence first. "Oh God, you are my God, I will seek you earnestly. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you. Like a dry and arid land where there is no water. I'm looking for you early. I'm desperate for you." Revival happens for that kind of people.

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3. People who are tired of doing their own thing

   Tired of striving without God. It was like that with the apostles. They refused to function without God. Like Peter who fished all night, tried to catch fish, but without success, because the Master was absent. A beautiful sermon, but God is not there. Beautiful organizations, everything is wonderful, but God is absent. Revival happens when there are people who say, "Lord, I need you with my effort."

4. People who take God's promise seriously

   God's promise of revival. In Luke 24:49 they are instructed to wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father. And they took that promise seriously. God had promised that the latter rain would come upon the earth. God had promised that at the end of times He would open the heavens for revival. God is looking for those who will take that promise seriously.

5. People who are desperate in the place of prayer

   Those who decide not to rest until they see God's movement. In Acts 1:14, they were all together in one accord continuing in prayer. They continued praying until the heavens opened. John Wesley said he first sends his men of prayer. If we are going to see a revival, and for that revival to be sustained, we have to start with prayer, and it will be sustained by prayer.

6. People who are sensitive to God's timing

   Many times God wants to do something, but people are not receptive. The apostles were in the upper room when God's promise came. God's power found them ready for what God wanted to do. When the day of Pentecost was about to come, God was waiting for the apostles to be in the upper room. He was waiting for those prayers to come from the upper room. They knew that God was going to do something. They knew they had to prepare for that.

   Many times when God wants to do something in our lives, instead of being in the upper room waiting for God's movement, we are in the dining room eating and drinking somewhere else and we are wasting our time. And God says, "I want to move." But these people are not prepared. They are playing around, making jokes instead of praying and fasting. We have to be sensitive to God's Spirit, sensitive to God's movement, be in communion with Him to know what we have to do.

7. People who move in love

   Revival comes not to those who walk in hardness, bitterness, and resentment. The Bible says they were all gathered together, they were all one. They didn't say, "I am Peter, you are John." John didn't say, "I am better than James." There was no competition, no jealousy.

   That is our challenge. People want to see God's movement, but there is much bitterness. Some pastors can't even greet each other. God did not call us to compete against each other. He did not call us to be harsh with one another. God called us to strengthen one another. We have to remove envy from our hearts, remove jealousy, and genuinely begin to want the best for our brothers.

   What you attack you cannot attract. People who hate the people God is using, people who are bitter, people who are trying to compete with the people they should be learning from, often do not see God's movement.

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Dr. Paul Enenche
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8. People who allow God to take the glory

   Those who will not fight for God's glory. Those who are not going to compete with God for glory. In the Acts of the Apostles, they gave all the glory to God.

   When the man of God becomes more visible than the God of man, revival begins to decline. Because there comes a point where the presence of the person is celebrated more than the presence of God. Then God kind of starts to get tired of it: "Since that's the way of men, so just do it your way" — and the revival begins to decline.

What God Does Will Endure Forever

Ecclesiastes 3:14 says, "I know that everything God does will endure forever." Everything that God does and when He moves, it has to be perpetual. Because many times it seems that God's movement begins, but then it declines. But it has to be a river that flows from generation to generation. One generation will praise your works to another generation.

There was a revival in Indonesia. A man named Meltari wrote a book called Mighty Wind, which talked about the revival in Indonesia. Food was multiplied as it happened in the times of the Bible. People could even walk on water. Wonderful things happened, but that revival came and then disappeared. That's an example that keeps happening from time to time.

What God is doing in our lives can remain in our lives and continue to future generations.

What Causes Revival to Die Down

1. When the original fire of prayer decreases

   Leviticus 6:13 — "The fire on the altar must be kept burning continually; it must not go out." Everything you did to enter the movement of God, you have to continue doing it to remain in it. Your prayer, your fasting, your consecration, your submission that caused God to move in revival in your life — you have to sustain it, you have to maintain it. And if you can increase it, increase it, so that you can keep the fire burning.

   Everyone wants to see the results. When they see the miracles, when they see the wonders, when they see the crowds, they no longer need to pray as much. Before, hours of prayer, now they are minutes. That hunger is gone, and they start surviving on yesterday's fuel. Yesterday's food gave you energy for yesterday, and you need energy for today. Like what happened to Samson. The Spirit of God left him, and he didn't realize it.

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   If you're going to sustain God's movement, you can't take spiritual vacations. You don't have a vacation from prayer. You don't have a vacation from fasting, you don't have a vacation from worship, you don't have a vacation from consecration, you don't have a vacation from studying the Word. As long as you live on this earth, no spiritual vacations. You can take vacations physically, but not vacations spiritually. He says, 1 Thessalonians 5:17, "Pray without ceasing."

   Most of the time, when God wants us to start moving, that's where we stop. When the plane is about to take off, it moves faster and then lifts off, but it doesn't relax because it's in the air. It keeps moving, keeps burning until it reaches its destination. It can't shut down the engine. He has to keep throwing fire, he has to keep moving until he meets his destiny.

2. When sin is allowed to flourish

   When sin begins to be used as an excuse, when sin is not confronted head-on, sin will drive away the presence of God. Isaiah 59:1-2 says, "Surely the Lord's arm is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor his ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But if your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear..."

   When people become so powerful that they cannot be rebuked for their wickedness, when there is no lawfulness in the house, when transgression takes hold, the movement of God cannot be sustained.

3. When men begin to take ownership of the revival

   When the man of God becomes more visible than the God of man. When it begins to seem like it's the walk of man, not the walk of God. Then God starts to get tired of it and says, "Keep doing your way" — while He stays on the sidelines, and the revival begins to decline.

4. When the glory shifts from God to man

   When the glory that should go to God begins to come to man. When God is not properly glorified for what He is doing, God begins to withdraw. Isaiah 42:8 — "I am the Lord, that is my name, and I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to any carved image."

   If God uses you, people will begin to praise you, celebrate you. But it depends on you to redirect the glory, to direct it to the owner of the glory, and to let everyone know that the glory belongs to God. "I am nothing. I accomplished nothing. I can do nothing without Him."

   There was a man named John Alexander Dowie whom God used so powerfully that he performed hundreds of thousands of healings recorded in a single day. He ministered in a whole city called Chicago. He was so powerful that people began to worship him and tell him things. They said Elijah had risen from the dead and was with them. He then declared himself as Elijah returned. They went by train from Chicago to New York, 100,000 people. And that was literally his last public meeting. God withdrew from him. Affliction came. It seemed like all the afflictions he took away from people came back to him.

   Revival dies when man becomes so pompous, so important, that everyone surrounds him and kind of worships him. The worship that should go to God comes to man.

5. When the focus shifts from the presence of God to the product of God

   When we stop seeking God's face and start seeking God's hands. When people gather not for God's presence, but for God's things. When healing becomes more important than the healer. When the miracle is celebrated more than the one who performs miracles.

   God doesn't want to focus on His things and not be interested in Him. He doesn't want you to focus on the things He can give you and not be concerned about His presence. Because it's very possible that people will gather not because they love God, but because they want healing, they want money, they want a breakthrough, they want something, but they don't want God.

   Jesus told the people who were following him, "You follow me for the loaves and fishes. You follow me because I multiply food. That's what you're looking for. You don't want me."

   God doesn't want to be used; He wants to be worshipped. There are many who can use God, but there are few who truly worship God. In my life and in my ministry, everything can go away, but not you, Lord. Lord, may your presence be with me.

   Follow God. He will follow you, miracles will follow you, the breakthrough will follow you. But if you follow things, if you follow miracles, if you follow healing, God is going to step aside. And when God withdraws, good things also withdraw. Without God there are no good things.

6. When people get stuck on just one movement of God

   When they build their tents only around one movement of God and do not open themselves to new things from God, because God has greater things to do than the things you have already seen.

   Peter saw the glory of God on the Mount of Transfiguration. He saw Elijah, he saw Moses, and he heard the voice from heaven saying, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." And Peter said, "Let's build a shelter here, one for you, one for Elijah, one for Moses, and we'll stay here. This is the biggest thing we've ever seen. Nothing could be better than this." Meanwhile, Calvary was ahead, but Pentecost had not yet happened, but Peter was prepared to stay there on the Mount of Transfiguration. That was enough for him.

   Revival is like the movement of the cloud of God. Many times the cloud of God is moving to the next level and people say, "But I'm fine here. No, do not disturb me, Lord. I'm comfortable here." Don't stay here. Get up and move more.

7. When men operate outside God's voice

   When the instruments of revival, the things that God uses, come from the presence of God, from the voice of God, and then the man of God has his own plan, already has everything diagrammed, and doesn't want to hear anything new from God, doesn't want to receive any instruction or any direction from God — God ceases to be in charge of things. Now the man of God is the one running the show, and the voice of God is no longer there. And that's what happened to Samson. He realized that God was no longer with him, very late.