I had seen this child before. I knew her from somewhere. Upon waking up I remembered I saw this child in a dream as I prepared for trip to participate in a revival. In the dream I was working on a home I had owned in the 80’s. A friend named Rose (His last name. Rose of Sharon?) was working alongside me. He had ordered a load of materials. As this monstrous truck unloaded, blocking traffic on the hill. There amongst the trees lay a child. Someone went to pick her up. But in the moment they walked away all the materials had been applied to the building. The house was built. They came over and gave me this child. I held her and she began to smile, to laugh. Her smile changed the weather! I could feel it, see it change. My friend looked at the house and said “great job”. I remember the burned down house that had been there weeks before. The work and labor to clean it up and get it ready to restore. (In reality the actual man who bought the house when I lived there had a last name that meant to cease, to stop, to halt!) But as I looked at the house, it was done! Finished! Complete!

The next scene took me to a place high on a mountain. I looked out over a beautiful scene.

Then I was taken to home and as I walked in there was the child. But not just one child. Hundreds of them. Folks turned to me. They handed me the child. She crinkled up her face and smiled. The room began to light up. What had seemed dark was now well lit. All the children were smiling and then they laughing. The laughter of children. The sound of promise. The heart of the Father.

I pondered the dreams. (Oh, there were so many more, it was hard to keep track.)I heard the “child of revival. Watch over her. Raise her up in the way she is bent.” Hmmm… A child of revival…

God clearly gave us the gift of His Son. Yet in this season, I sense He is entrusting us to a child I will call “revival”.  A child that so many sought, so many unaware of. Sometimes supply and provision come slowly. Others may not understand the process of the build. The purpose of the building. (It may even hold others back for a season.) And out of seemingly no where, as we wade through our day to day existence… A promise appears. As we wander through an apparent wilderness of things. A child appears. The house is completed and now there is the opportunity to experience the mountain yet the fulfillment of those experiences is to be found in the presence of a multitude.

Last night our group investigated “hearing for your community”. I asked people what they were getting. What verses? What they might be hearing. What is the DNA of the community as you pray? The thread that God is revealing. One young lady said she felt it was “relationships”. Relationships that build and connect.

Relationships. So many believe and know that this is part of that which is to come. And in so many respects it is the change that many missed through out other moves. Yet, true revival brings the heart of the Father. It reveals relationships. (I remember one 2 week meeting I did where a woman was so consumed by the presence of God that she slept in the tent. Folks brought her food and drink. Sustained her. She fell in love with God. For the second time.) People fell in love with people. But love without manifestation of goodness to others is not love. As I mentioned the other day it has to be brought into the home. And from there in to the community.

I will never forget a “housekeeping” rule that came during a meeting I was in. Folks were “roughing up waitstaff” and under-tipping at a local restaurant. I sat there and thought “really. You have to tell people?” Far be it for me to be the rule guy, but how you will change the community will be by changing the community!

I am sure we are moving into “IT”. Entrusted with a child called revival. Will we nurture it? Love it? Embrace it? Will we smile and look into the eyes of promise? Will we allow it to light the room?

Those are all questions we have asked but often never waited for the answers.

Even this morning I think upon the great men and women of revival who poured into my life. Carriers of His goodness who sowed into me. The gift of all that, I desire to release. I am sure I am not the only who feels or thinks like that. I think of those who went before me. Of those still plowing the fields. (Lately I have been feeling a theme of reconnection.) Of those passed on.

Hear for yourself. Hear for your family. Hear for your community and region. And bring it forth.

God has appointed workmen and their calling forth in this season to build with passion and desire. To see it through. It is a new day. A new season. May your families and communities receive the goodness of the Lord. For it is not by might nor by power but by His Spirit.