God’s Longsuffering With Us

History tells us that in revival people often receive a vision and have deep, personal experiences with God that become formative for their lives. Those in the next generation are blessed by what their parents have experienced, but they don’t necessarily partake of the same enthusiastic, pioneering spirit that inspired their parents. The third generation is often worldly, and by the fourth generation the whole thing has more or less fallen apart.

The revival we experienced in the 1990’s awakened many young people who belonged to the third, fourth and fifth gen­erations in the church, so that they too, experienced the fire and enthusiasm of the pioneers. They drank of a powerful Spirit of faith and were baptized with the Holy Spirit: they entered into a covenant of discipleship with God. They have experienced things that will be a great blessing for us far into the future. It seems as though God, in His longsuffering, wants to give us even more time to build the church and to travel and preach the gospel to people of all nations. But a new dispensation is soon coming where we will no longer be able to work in the same way we do today.

Throughout this time, my task has been to give people God’s Word so that they can grow through grace. We can’t hide the fact that some people became extremely puffed up during that time and were of the opinion that they had come much further in God than they actually had. Things have gone very well for those who were open to exhortation, but arro­gance and conceit will never bring about progress in the king­dom of God. So it was quite a challenge to help all these spiri­tually newborn children come to a sound and good develop­ment in God. In situations like this, we have to tread carefully so that no one is destroyed. To the honor and praise of God, I can say that we received grace to make this succeed to a very great degree. “Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.” 2 Chron. 20:20.

The revival was so powerful that in some places the church was on the verge of splitting. Some people were so radical and extreme that they considered almost everyone else insuf­ficiently zealous. Even glorious friends were deemed as “opposers” of the revival, because they were sober-minded. So what was supposed to free them from the law was instead about to take them captive again under the law. Many shep­herds didn’t know how to guide the sheep properly during that time. They simply did not have enough wisdom. Others were probably afraid of losing confidence or becoming un­popular, so they did virtually nothing to stop the unhealthy and strange manifestations that were occurring. It is possible some shepherds had never experienced a powerful revival in their own life. If they had had more experience with God, they would have been more equipped to help those who were born again at that time. To be a shepherd in times of revival means that you must be a part of the revival yourself. Some people wanted to be regarded as shepherds without ever having been zealous for God. Obviously, such people cannot get grace to help others; on the contrary, they stir up irritation and opposi­tion.

As time went on, things came into order in most places. It was difficult for some of the friends with weak nerves to put up with all the “noise” that came with the revival. During those years we held conferences in Israel for five years in a row. There was peace and quiet in the midst of a good, close atmosphere. For many weak souls, it was like medicine. I am glad that the gospel was preached in Hebrew at those confer­ences, so now there are Spirit-filled messages in the language of the Jews, if any of them have a longing for this salvation.

Later in this book, I write a great deal about our work as shepherds in the church. It is my hope that this will be a help for future shepherds, so that they can complete the glorious task God has given us. We do not preach revival. We preach the Word of God, and the Word of God causes revival in our hearts. Every shepherd must take this deeply to heart if he and the church are to have a healthy life and development.

“I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.” John 17:14-15.