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Bible, Billy Graham, Christian theology, Christianity, faith, God, God's word, gospel, Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit inspired, Jesus, Jesus Movement, preach Jesus, revival, spiritual renewal
Discovering Jesus Blueprint for Renewal
By
David Kitz & Dr. Ed Hird
Foreword by Lee Grady
I became a serious Christian at the tail end of the Jesus movement. I was too young to remember the hippie beads, tie-dyed shirts and “Jesus Is Groovy” slogans, but the songs were still popular when I was in college (including musicians such as Andrae Crouch, Love Song and Second Chapter of Acts), as were the movies—especially The Cross and the Switchblade.
The Jesus movement was like a spiritual tsunami that washed over hundreds of thousands of young people in the late 1960s and early ‘70s and brought them into a personal relationship with Christ. Some of these kids had been drug addicts and social misfits; most were just average Joes and Janes who discovered that Jesus is a lot more exciting than traditional churches had led them to believe.
Lately I find myself waxing nostalgic for those days—not because I want to return to the awkward fashions and hairstyles of 1972, but because I miss the spiritual simplicity of that era. The Jesus movement was primarily focused on—surprise!—Jesus. Theology was not complicated; pastors weren’t trying to be hip or sophisticated or tech-savvy, and we hadn’t yet created a Christian subculture with its own celebrities and political power bases.
Today, we just don’t preach enough about Jesus. In today’s ultra cool megachurch era, we’ve become experts on everything but basic Christian theology 101. In my recent travels I’ve been horrified to learn that many believers have given up the discipline of reading their Bibles even semi-regularly, and very few believers have ever led anyone to faith in Christ. One by one we are trading in our solid moral values for a squishy, spineless, whatever-is-right-for-you faith. People today prefer a steady diet of culturally relevant, fast-paced, techno-theology that is a poor substitute for biblical discipleship.
Even many Spirit-filled believers have developed the attitude that a simple focus on Christ isn’t enough. We’d rather go to a “prophetic encounter” to hear who will win the next election, or experience some exotic spiritual manifestation (gold dust, gems falling out of the ceiling). Or we prefer to ask Rev. Flash-in-the-Pan to pray for us for the sixteenth time so we can receive yet another “special anointing” that we will probably never use.
In the midst of all this chaos, where is Jesus? Am I the only one out there who is weary of this distraction? Thankfully not. I am so pleased to read this book by Ed Hird and David Kitz because they share my concerns. The Elisha Code and the Coming Revival is a refreshing challenge to return to Jesus—and to expect spiritual revival when we clean up our message.
Call me old-fashioned, but I’ve decided to get back to the basics of the faith. That’s why I am reading What Jesus Is All About?, a classic book written 70 years ago by Henrietta Mears, a Bible teacher who helped mentor both Billy Graham and Bill Bright in the 1940s.
Mears explains in her book how each of the four gospels give us a unique, four-dimensional portrait of the Savior. According to Mears:
- Matthew was written to Jews to tell of a Promised Messiah who is also a King—and it uses the word “kingdom” 55 times.
- Mark was written to Gentiles to tell of a Powerful Savior—and it reports more miracles than any other gospel.
- Luke was written by a Gentile to tell of a Perfect Savior—and it has the most references to Jesus’ humanity.
- John was written by “the disciple whom Jesus loved” to tell of a Personal Savior—and it has the most references to Jesus’ divine nature.
The Holy Spirit who inspired the Bible knew we needed more than a one, two, or three-dimensional look at Jesus. The Spirit gave us a four-dimensional view so that we could gaze at Him from all sides and become captivated by His magnificence—His supreme kingship, His compassionate mercy, His supernatural power, His perfect justice, His amazing humility and His love for sinners like you and me.
There’s so much more to Jesus than we realize. And there is so much more to say about Him than we are telling our generation. Instead of giving people a gospel diluted with left-wing or right-wing politics, or a message mixed with cultural “relevance,” we need to give them the real Jesus.
In this insightful book, full of keen insights from the lives of the prophets Elijah and Elisha, the authors challenge us to examine our message, repent of our unfaithfulness and embrace the raw courage to preach Jesus again. As you read this book, please allow God’s powerful Word to cut deep.
Lee Grady
Former Editor, Charisma
Author, Follow Me and The Holy Spirit Is Not for Sale
Director, The Mordecai Project
This is the first weekly excerpt from the award-winning book
The Elisha Code & the Coming Revival
A soul-gripping read.
Is a return-to-Jesus revival possible in our time?
This book points the way forward.
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was based on Elisha’s first public miracle, the healing of the spring at Jericho. I was struck by the parallel nature of this miracle when compared with Jesus’ first miracle of turning water into wine. This triggered a quest to discover if Elisha’s other miracles resembled the miracles of Jesus. To my amazement they do. Further research uncovered the parallel nature of the ministry of Elijah and John the Baptist, and later, the ministry of Elisha and Jesus. But what are the practical implications of this biblical discovery for believers today?
I love the Psalms 