A Revivalist is Someone Who Knows
by S. (Shae) A. Cooke

The world is hungry today, hungry for someone who knows. Someone who knows what? Someone who knows what God can do. Someone who can say, "He did it for me..."
            Show me someone who "knows," and I'll show you a man or a woman with a burning message. How do we respond to cries of unbelief? With a message that says, "I know what God can do! Look at me, look what God can do. If He did it for me, He can do it for you. Watch!"

            An "I know" message will rend the heavens for God's glory to come down.
            An "I know" message will break through every principality of unbelief.
            An "I know" message will break every rock and upturn every stone.
            An "I know" message will spark revival.
           
Because...

            The hand behind it went to work.
            The hand behind it is mighty.

A man or woman who will spark revival is one who knows the hand of the Lord. One of whom people will say, "The hand of the Lord was certainly upon this one...it can only be God!" Such a man or woman is a conduit of revival because he or she has awareness of God and of what He can do. Such a person will confidently plead His promises into the lives of others, and see that Hand tear through the heavens to heal, to save, to deliver, to set the captives free!
            An "I know" message is a message of Emmanuel, "God with us." It brings about an awareness of God. This awareness of God also causes a great emptying and a passion for greater and greater intimacy with the Lord, and for His presence. This intimacy adds another dimension to the "I know" message:

"Because of who He is, He did what He did."
            "Flawless love did it."
            "Vast, pure love did it."

            When God prepared Jonathan Edwards for the great revival of 1739, God made this revivalist very aware of His love, presence, and glory. In his own words, Edwards said,

"I rode out into the wood and in a retired place dismounted. There I had a view of the glory of the Son of God; a view that continued for about an hour, which kept me for the greater part in tears. I felt an urgency of the soul to be emptied, to lie at His feet; to be filled with Christ and Christ alone."

            Revival needs a man or a woman with an awareness of God, of His love, glory, and a desire for His presence. God was real to Edwards. He walked in a heavenly consciousness that created within him amazing confidence in the power of God for what lay ahead.
            Another such person today is Todd Bentley, a man aware of what God can do and a walking testimony of what God has done and can do for others. Where tidy words, sermons, or preaching fail or have failed to reach the lost, Heaven's hand upon this man, whom God raised up from the pit to the palace, from the ordinary to the extraordinary, has reached a multitude of closed ears.
            "I know what God can do!" is the message Todd speaks. Theory is not always enough to win the lost but a demonstration of theory, is! Brought out of a life of addiction and recklessness, Todd demonstrates the same power of the same God whose hands came upon him in power!

            The hand behind it went to work.
            The hand behind it is mighty.

            People may look at Todd Bentley (or any other evangelist or minister) and see imperfections or untidiness. However, I urge you to see instead the perfect mighty hand of God upon his life that has brought Todd to that confident and sure place of trusting in God's power and faithfulness to fulfill His promises.
            Oswald Chambers said that Pentecost didn't teach the disciples anything, but rather made them the incarnation of what they preached. Todd is one such man of many rising ministry leaders today who embody the Gospel of Christ. Through months of intimacy with God shortly after his conversion and the study of His Word, Todd has seen the glory and fire of God through times of pouring out his heart at the feet of Jesus and laying his head against His breast. This young street-smart turned evangelist and lover of God is a walking testimony of what God can do for even the hardest or untidiest of hearts. Where words fail to touch, the anointing can.
            I tell you the truth. The hand that will pour out heaven's anointing for revival will be the hand that knows. As the torch of revival fire passes hand to hand from the epicenter of this current revival in Lakeland and across the lands, into hard regions, principalities, and territories, the hands that serve as a conduit for revival will be those whose hands have touched and clasped the hand of the Man who stilled the water and calmed the sea. The fire of God will shoot through the hands of a person who knows the healing passionate warmth of the hand of the Man from Galilee and with conviction says, "I know what God can do." The Holy Spirit will flow through those words with multiple manifestations of God's character and power in and through His people.
            When we pile up the "I knows" as wood and kindling, God will set it on fire for revival to reveal God's word packed with power to transform and to "revive all!" That's what revival is! It's God's heart to revive all!
            In a vision, God commanded Ezekiel (37) to prophesy unto the bones that they might live. God wanted Ezekiel to know. Did Ezekiel have the ability to bring those dry bones to life? Did man's mere words bring them to life? No, only God's power can work such a miracle but God was pleased to show forth His power by having His prophet speak unto the bones. Through his words, God mightily worked to bring the bones to life.
            As the Word says, "The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live" (John 5:25). God is using mouthpieces that know for such a time as this.
            God wants every one of His saints to know His hand upon so that when He brings you out by the Spirit of Lord and sets you in the middle of valleys full of dry bones, just as He's placed Todd and others, you will know that those bones live. By the breath of the Spirit of God, those bones will come to life, as a vast army of "I know" testimonies to place upon the fire. Then, we'll have a great blazing bonfire of "I knows" that will be seen across the land revealing the glory of the Lord. The "I knows" have it. The "I know" people have what it takes to glorify God in revival. The "I knows" will blaze a trail of revival that will scar and brand people for Jesus! These ones know Whom they have believed and are persuaded that He is able!
            It's hard to tell right now, how many "I knows" will come out of the Florida Outpouring in Lakeland, but Todd, and many other revivalists and evangelists of the past and present, are proof that it takes only one power-infused, Spirit-filled "I know," to break through hard places in the natural and the supernatural to spark a "revive all!"  
            God may call you to revive a valley of dry bones and if He does, I urge you to draw from that pile of "I knows" for the Spirit of God to breathe upon! Then, get out the marshmallows and settle in for a long season of bonfires. Make ready for harvest!