Gooder and Gooder

 The spiritual war leading up to these camp meetings was intense. The spiritual battles did not lessen once we started meeting. They increased in me. To the point of tremendous stress. I started noticing these bumps on my body that looked like bites of some kind. I first noticed one on my side. The next day I noticed two new ones on my legs. The following day two more appeared behind both knees. The following day another appeared on my leg. I thought we had a spider or bed bugs and pulled the covers back to inspect. Each day new bumps appeared. They did not hurt as much as they itched insanely. 

Then the Monday night happened when I crashed the second day of the meetings. When my faith sunk. When the weight of ten months of yearning, ten months of praying, preparing and trusting God for more. During that time, I read nothing but my Bible and books on revival or praying. On the second night of the meetings, when the attendance was poor, I cratered. It spilled out all that I held inside in that meeting. Many thought I was quitting the ministry. That thought never crossed my mind. The thought to quit the meetings dominated me. 

It was definitely a spiritual assault. The people of God rallied around me in intercession. Brenda told me she left for work on Tuesday with me in the dumps. She came home that afternoon and said I had done a complete 180 turn around. I did not do that. God did that. 

God reminded me that I did not have the carry the pressure of the revival. It is true that He put that burden in me ten months ago. I have carried that burden like a woman carries a child in the womb. She travails in labor to give birth to her precious baby. Likewise, I have travailed in prayer to give birth to revival. God brings revival. Instead of straining, pushing, and striving to attain it, God allowed me to surrender. To trust Him. To wait on Him. To focus on each day and not the whole. 

When I surrendered, something happened. My bumps went away. That was seven days ago. I have not had another since. Coincidence? Or were those bumps stress manifesting in my body? Whatever the answer, they are gone and have not returned. Praise God. 

The tender work of God among us keeps getting gooder and gooder. I do not want to mispresent anything for those who are not able to attend in person. The attendance has been small every service with the exceptions of Sunday mornings. Instead of focusing on all those who do not attend, my focus turned to those who do attend. To pray for God to bring each of us into a fresh encounter with Him. To watch Him spark the fire of revival in hearts and then trust for Him to let is spread. It is spreading. The small band showing up are fanning the flame to get it going and trusting God for revival fire to ignite.  Slowly. Smoldering waiting for the wind of God to blow the embers into flame. Once the flame ignites, watch out. God will spread His move like a prairie fire. It will only get gooder and gooder.