Ephesians 5:14
Wake up, everyone who is sleeping!
Rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you!
Rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you!
The 5:14 Conversations
Part 2:
Wake Up to the “Niagara Falls Jesus”!
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This series of occasional discussions with David Bryant
explores the revolutionary impact on Jesus followers
of the anticipated 2024 American CHRIST Awakening.
Other parts of this series are available here:
Part 1 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5
explores the revolutionary impact on Jesus followers
of the anticipated 2024 American CHRIST Awakening.
Other parts of this series are available here:
Part 1 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5
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NOTE: This series is based on recorded conversations with Dr. Steve Greene, late Publisher and Executive VP of Charisma Media.
CHRIST NOW: Let’s pick up where we left off last time, David. We were trying to get a better grasp on what happens to us in a genuine, God-initiated American CHRIST Awakening.
You say this miracle is the greatest need of the hour for Christians across America. You call the change it can bring us “revolutionary.” Give us a little more clarity on how you see the radical nature of this kind of widespread Christward revival.
David Bryant: Absolutely. I often call it a reintroduction to Jesus, but from another perspective, it is really a reconversion to Jesus. Either way, “revolution” is a good term because either way, God’s people end up “revolving”—the Holy Spirit turns us around toward a deeper encounter with and stronger relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ. You begin to head in a whole new direction—toward Kingdom purposes and Kingdom ways—following Jesus in light of the full extent of his supremacy in all things.
Just for a minute, try to imagine our nation filled with believers who have consciously decided and boldly declared they will follow Jesus from now on with no turning back and no holding back. That would be pretty radical! That would be revolutionary. That would bring the impact of the gospel to bear upon the life of our nation in a way probably never experienced before!
CN: But are the churches in America truly ready to welcome such a profound transformation? Are we willing, in the words of Psalm 24, to open wide the gates—the gates of our hearts and of our congregations—inviting the King of Glory to enter in, to come upon us to conquer us with his power and for his Kingdom?
DB: The fact is, I believe there is a remnant—a significantly large remnant—that is not only ready for this but has been searching for and waiting for this kind of awakening in the Body of Christ for a long time.
I’ve seen evidence of this in our country and other parts of the world. I’ve seen it in every stream of the Church, not just with one branch of Christianity. A multitude of hungry Christians are out there right now.
They are longing for the kind of vision I explore in my books, such as Christ Is NOW! It’s the vision provided at ChristNow.com in a thousand unique and substantive ways, which is evident to everyone who signs up for a free subscription to our Christ Now Resources Catalog and begins to explore the treasure trove it is.
Above all, I’ve witnessed firsthand many times when these hungry Jesus followers have found what they were looking for and have had their walk with the Savior profoundly revived and renovated. With my own eyes, I’ve seen many Christians who were seeking more of Christ become “reconverted” to Christ as the Spirit worked in them—as if they were meeting him again for the first time—and then start thriving in Jesus the way they were always meant to thrive!
CN: A seasoned college professor started the first day of his courses with this challenge: “Let’s think about what will happen when you walk out of this room for the last time in 14 weeks—a full semester. How are you going to change? What’s going to happen?”
Using that approach, let’s discuss what you see as the most significant change that occurs for someone or some group that shares in the experience of a Christ Awakening.
DB: As we begin to encounter more of what the spectacular supremacy of God’s Son involves, based in Scripture—what his everlasting Kingship tells us about HIM and what it tells us about OURSELVES as his followers—the more the Holy Spirit leads us into deeper intimacy with God’s Son in light of his supremacy. So, the most consequential change might be stated by someone like this: “I feel like, as if for the first time, I am wholly alive to Jesus, fully surrendered to him, and newly in love with him as my all in all.”
Once that kind of engagement with Jesus begins to unfold for any believer, from that point forward, there are absolutely no limits to where the Holy Spirit can take them, causing every dimension of their daily walk to increasingly reveal the glory of God. Nothing of who I am or what I do can be left untouched. As Paul put it about himself, “For me to live is—Christ!”
CN: What you’ve described takes us back to your well-known analogy of the majesty of Jesus based on Niagara Falls. Please speak to that just a bit.
DB: Well, I assume many of us have traveled to Niagara Falls. It’s quite an awesome experience. There’s nothing like it anywhere else on this planet. Then, if you jump on the Maid of the Mist boat ride, which takes you right up to the bottom of the Falls, there’s a point where all the passengers get saturated with the mist coming off the Falls. They would be totally soaked if not for the raincoats they are given to wear! In addition, everyone is overwhelmed by the deep, thunderous roar of crashing water. It’s so loud you can’t hear anything else or think of anything else but the Falls.
I’ve been to Niagara Falls three or four times, and it always gets me thinking about John’s experience in Revelation chapter 1. He was alone on the island of Patmos, a martyr for his faith, isolated in a Roman gulag. It was then and there that Jesus appeared to him in a profound manifestation that John had never seen before.
Don’t forget John lived with Jesus for three years; he knew him and wrote a whole gospel about him. Yet John said that day on Patmos: “When I saw him, his face was like the sun shining in his fullness, his voice was…”—and this is what I think is cool—“his voice was like the thunder of a great waterfall.” In other words, this Jesus drowned out everything else for John—this Jesus standing before him in all his majesty!
John reports, “I fell at his feet like a dead man.” In other words, this fresh, unprecedented vision of the supremacy of his Savior took his breath away. The apostle thought he knew Jesus, but now he was being introduced to Jesus in his ascended glory—and it was Jesus as John had never encountered him before.
His whole life was changed from that moment forward. For example, God began to give John profound insights into the true condition of the churches, the future of the world, and the ultimate victory of the Lamb of God for him to share with his generation and ours.
Not to be too dramatic here, but I foresee a time when—as a way of life—millions of Jesus followers in this land will live out every minute of their days aware of being in the presence of the King of Glory. By the Spirit, they will be so aware that God is living in them, working through them, and transforming them, that it will seem as if, like John, they are spending their lives on their faces at his feet while in their hearts, they are worshipping, surrendering, listening, and responding in whatever ways their Master leads them, moment by moment.
CN: It’s like Joni Eareckson Tada puts it in her latest book, The Practice of the Presence of Jesus. Daily, we should seek King Jesus for ALL he is and come into his presence.
DB: Yes, it is. I would add to her challenge to always remember that we’re in the presence of the Jesus who is risen and reigning, righteous and revolutionary, divine and dynamic, gracious and great. That’s the person in whose presence I am called to live and move and have my being.
CN: David, you’ve given us much to think about, to hope in, and to pray for. May such a “Niagara Falls” awakening come upon our generation—and soon! I’m looking forward to picking up our conversation here next time. Thank you!
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TO FOLLOW UP, watch this 8-minute creative video as David Bryant shares with you more on what a fuller grasp of the ascension of Jesus offers believers today. View it here.
About the Author
Over the past 50 years, David Bryant has been defined by many as a “messenger of hope” and a “Christ proclaimer” to the Church throughout the world. Formerly a minister-at-large with the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, president of Concerts of Prayer International (COPI), and chairman of America’s National Prayer Committee, David now provides leadership to ChristNow.com and Proclaim Hope!, whose mission is to foster and serve Christ Awakening movements. Download his widely read ebooks at ChristNow.com. Enjoy hundreds of podcast episodes. Watch his weekly vlogs at David Bryant REPORTS. Meet with David through Zoom or in-person events through David Bryant LIVE!
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