R.T. Kendall is 91 and has been in ministry for seven decades. He still believes the greatest outpouring of the Holy Spirit in history hasn’t happened yet, Charisma reports. He said so on “Conversations with John and Lisa Bevere.”
Kendall went back to a word he gave at a 1992 Word and Spirit conference in London that offended a lot of people: “The charismatic movement is Ishmael. But Isaac is coming.” He wasn’t knocking the charismatic movement. He calls it a genuine work of God. His point was that it isn’t the fulfillment of the promise yet. “This will be 100 times greater than anything we’ve seen,” he said. He described seeing revival sweep around the world, from New Delhi and Tokyo to London and New York, with one message: Jesus is coming soon.
John Bevere told a story from the early ’90s, when he says the Holy Spirit told him, “What you’ll see in your lifetime will make the book of Acts look like child’s play.”
Kendall paired the hope with a warning: “The fear of God has perished from the earth.” He pointed to prayer falling off, to deception, and to pulpits that won’t preach judgment. That’s the subject of his new book, Holy Fear.
My take
I’m a charismatic, and I think I’m allowed to say Kendall was right. What we’ve seen has been real, but it hasn’t been everything. I’d also take his warning as seriously as his promise. Revival doesn’t come on the back of hype. It comes when people get serious about prayer and about the holiness of God. So let’s do both: keep expecting Isaac, and get our hearts ready to receive him.
“In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people” (Acts 2:17).
God Bless, and Happy hacking!
