God reserves the right to change our life’s pathway without any advanced notice. Moses had blown it decades earlier when he sought to do God’s will in his own power. Like the rest of us, when he tried to do Spirit-work in the power of the flesh, things went sideways for Moses. Forty years later, long after Moses had likely given up on his call, God summoned Moses to turn aside from his normal, mundane life to see something spectacular. As a bush burned in the desert, God began to speak to Moses again and tell him that it was now time to step into the fulness of his calling. For Moses and the people to whom God sent him, nothing would ever be the same. It is never too late to say YES to God’s plan.

Now it is time to understand what Scripture reveals as the marks of authentic revival. What does it look like? What should we expect to happen in revival? Did you know that we can potentially bring revival to a halt? In Part 1 of this message, we defined what the revival actually is and what precedes it. Now is the time to disclose what occurs in true revival and how Christians partner with God to steward and sustain it.

God’s mysterious providence has been worming slowly on behalf of Ruth and Naomi. He has moved on His own to cross Ruth’s path with the man who would eventually become her husband. God had done it all sovereignly and quietly. Now comes the moment where Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz all needed to do their part for God’s plan to unfold. This message reminds us that sometimes we can wait on God too long. Sometimes, He calls us to responsive action. Sometimes, if we fail to do our part, we might miss the plans of God for our futures. These three people responded beautifully. Wedding bells would soon be ringing.

Most Christians recognize that the Church at large stands in need of a revival from Holy Spirit. There is a lack of theological precision, spiritual power, and zealous passion among believers. The Church has turned lukewarm in most places. In some places there is potent, authentic revival taking place, but these hotspots of the Spirit are rare. In Part 1 of this message, we focus on what defines revival and what precedes revival. If we are going to pray to God to send it to us, and if we are going to steward it when it arrives, we need to understand exactly what revival is. The second part of this message will unpack the fruit of revival and how Christians partner with God to host revival.

There are appointed times when God is offering His people something beyond the norm. Awakening, breakthrough, advance, and revival are found all throughout the Bible, and it is always God’s desire to lead His people into “the more.” Yet many Christians and churches are seemingly stuck in the bog of status-quo, average, mundane Christianity. Is there something that God is waiting for from us before awakening comes? Are these types of seasons simply the determination of a sovereign God who brings breakthrough when He appoints it? Does it rest squarely on us? This is the first of at least two messages we will consider on God’s offer of awakening to His people in this present season. Sometimes understanding the offer makes it easier to recognize when God places it before us.

In the story of Ruth, we get to meet one of the most noble men in all of the Bible. There are not a large amount of verses dedicated to Boaz, but everything written of him is good. He stands as one of the clearest types of Christ in all of the Old Testament. In this message, Boaz is seen again as kind, caring, generous, and committed to providing for and protecting the Gentile widow named Ruth. In doing so, Boaz acts in such a way that Naomi recognizes that this kinsman of her deceased husband seems to be operating not only in kindness and generosity, but also in a way that points to a potential wedding to young Ruth. The future bridegroom of a destitute Moabite begins to take center stage. As he does so, we cannot help but to think of our own Kinsman redeemer, Jesus Christ.

The life of faith is mysterious blend of human responsibility and divine providence. Scripture clearly states that believers proactively plan their steps…but that God divinely directs those pathways to fulfill His ultimate plans for us. This is where a providential intersection of Ruth’s decisions and God’s determination for her life occurs. In all of what happens in Ruth chapter two, we see believers at their best and God’s wisdom on full display. As we trust and obey in our own daily decisions, we also will encounter eventual favor under the sheltering wings of the Almighty.

One of the risks in living as a biblically informed and scripturally loyal Christian is that we become so familiar with what the Bible says about Jesus and His sufferings that we can end up being filled with the doctrine of the cross but empty of the emotion of the cross. We must not only theologically comprehend the journey of Jesus in His passion week, but we are meant to enter into a deeper revelation of what He understood, felt, and accomplished as He was made to be sin for us. The Gospels reveal that Jesus was left utterly alone as He accomplished all that was necessary to become the sacrifice and substitute for sin. Jesus was all alone so that we could be in the presence of the Father forever. This message explores the deeply human facet of what Jesus went through and pays close attention to the words He groaned in His isolation as the Lamb of God.

In our generation of people living as influencers, seeking followings, and desiring to be a bigger and better version of themselves, Jesus Christ offers a different way to greatness. The way Up in the Kingdom has always been Down. Even two of Jesus’ closest followers once opposed this principle, which motivated Jesus to speak plainly about this non-negotiable Kingdom key. In our present day, few Christians sign off on what Jesus plainly taught about servanthood, humility, and the upside-down pathway to glory and power. His views on influence and greatness are far different than ours.

It would have been amazing if at the moment of our justification from God we entered into a state of glorification with God. In glorification, the Christian will become fully whom God has destined the Christian to be. No pain. No sickness. No sorrow. And NO SIN. As Jesus-followers, we should long for the promised day of our perfecting. Until then, we will need to be prepared to make war - especially against temptation to sin. We are not slaves to our flesh. We are not pawns of the devil. The tempting world around us has zero authority over us. Why then do we still sin? The primary reason is because we live unprepared for the moment of temptation. This episode of Truth Shots equips us to be prepared when temptation comes, crush it when arrives, and to bounce back in those moments where we succumb to any temptation.